Trader Types and Personalities

  • Europe's Traders Want Shorter Hours for Health, Diversity - BloombergScalpers
    • High energy, short attention spans.
    • Usually former athletes, tennis and hockey players make the best traders.
    • Able to play both offense and defense simultaneously, and able to think a few steps ahead of the game.
  • Spreaders / Option Traders
    • Quick and flexible thinkers, able to look at numbers and figure risk and value instantaneously.
    • Not in the market to take risk, methodically search for mathematical anomalies and lock in profits immediately.
  • Position Traders
    • Energy level almost nonexistent.
    • Put on passive positions, ride the winners, cut losers.
    • As a position trader, your brains are working all the time, and you keep looking for an informational edge that might drive the market one way or the other.