What is the Best Personality Type for a Trader?

An email I recently received:

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your beautiful blog. I am one of your many blog followers and find it very insightful.

My question is this: from your experience, what is the best Personality type (Myers-Briggs – MBTI test) for the pursuit of trading ? Is there a type that have the biggest potential for success at trading? or value investing?

Thanks in advance

@mikebellafiore

There isn’t one best personality type. In One Good Trade and The PlayBook (the latter, by the way, is available for pre-order), I talk about the characteristics of pro traders. Here are some attributes that are helpful to becoming a successful trader:

1) The mindset to improve everyday

2) Calm

3) Perseverance

4) Self-critical

5) The ability to process information quickly

6) Passion for trading

7) Sharer

8) Unafraid to place controlled risk

9) Takes responsibility for their trading

10) Confident

SMB has developed successful traders who were anxious and overstimulated, super-calm and introspective, easily angered and trading on tilt, quiet and polite, outgoing and confident, outgoing and insecure, giving and caring, selfish and needy, loud and obnoxious, funny and quirky, etc. I will stop here as you get the point. Consistently profitable traders come in all personalities, backgrounds, and sizes. None of them didn’t at least possess a passion for trading and the mindset to improve each day.

I recommend taking a personality test. My score surprised me and taught me about myself.

I hope that helps.

You can be better tomorrow than you are today!

Mike Bellafiore

The PlayBook

One Good Trade