| Legendary Member |  Re: Personality Types: Which one are you?
nicko,
Here is the rest of Van Tharp newsletters on the subject.
He mentions some of the traits the top traders that he has
profiled in the past have: Quote:
The next few parts of this series on personality type and trading we will examine the four dimensions of personality developed by Carl Jung and how each of them might influence you as a trader. The four dimensions are:
1) Introversion/Extraversion
2) Sensation/Intuition
3) Thinking/Feeling
4) Judgment/Perception
First we will look at Introversion/Extraversion.
Introversion/Extraversion (I vs. E). Jung believed that human beings have a preferred attitude, being either introverted or extraverted. Although we think of these two terms as describing whether someone is socially oriented or not, that was not Jung's original focus. Instead, the extravert has a focus on the outer, physical world, while the introvert has a focus on the inner, psychological world. However, very few people are purely "introverted" or "extraverted." Instead, they apply an inward directed focus in some situations and an outward directed focus in others. (This will become more understandable later when I discuss cognitive styles and trading.)
An introverted trader, for example, would focus on his own subjective world primarily on concepts and ideas. His inner thoughts would predominate. This type of trader would tend to focus on how they produce their own results. That does not mean that they cannot be very social and likeable. It just means that their attention is directed toward the inner world. Only about 25% of the population is thought to have primarily an introverted focus, but 57.9% of our sample has such a focus. In contrast, 75% of the population is thought to have an extraverted focus, but extraverts only represent about 42.1% of our sample.
Extraverted individuals tend to focus on the outer, physical world--on actions, objects and persons. People, things, the environment, their career, the market and their achievement are their primary focus. The extraverted trader, for example, would search for solutions outside of himself to become more successful. Since 75% of all people have an extraverted focus, most traders--especially those with an extraverted focus-- tend to be concerned with what system they can develop to become more successful or with how they can change their system to become more successful.
Extraverted people tend to be energized by other people, by a party, by crowds in the big city, or by simply looking at a large sequoia tree. If their extraversion runs to an extreme they may risk losing their own sense of identity. For example, if an extraverted trader loses all his capital, and he has identified himself as a trader, then that loss could result in a total mental collapse.
The internal/external focus has little to do with trading success--at least in our sample. About 7% of the introverts had outstanding trading records as compared with 8% of the extraverts.
Introversion and extraversion both exist in each individual. Most people can move flexibly between both orientations. However, Jung proposed that when the individual is unaware, the non-dominant orientation would tend to emerge from the unconscious.
Sensation/Intuition (S vs. N). The two perceptual functions are sensation and intuition. The sensation orientation involves using the five senses-- seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling -- to convey a concrete reality. It is the function that receives information, from the inner, subjective world and/or the outer, physical world. Sensation is very connected to the present moment. While 75% of the population is thought to be sensation dominant, only 39% of our sample is sensation dominant.
In contrast, intuition is what Jung called "perception by the unconscious mind." The key characteristic of intuition is imagination. It involves "seeing the big picture" and "imagining what is possible." It involves moving out of the present and encompassing both the past and the future to determine what is possible. Although 25% of the population is thought to be intuition dominant, 61% of our sample is intuition dominant.
The intuition function seems to contribute more to success than any other Jungian function or quality. We had 31 traders in our sample with outstanding trading records. Among this group, 26 of them were intuition dominant, while only five of them were sensation dominant. Thus, awareness of the big picture may be very important to successful trading.
Thinking/Feeling (T vs. F). The two judgmental functions include thinking and feeling. Thinking involves logical thought processes entailing cause-and-effect reasoning. It facilitates cognition and judgment. In this particular style, people are concerned with facts, reality, experience, specifics, and the "here and now." Everything is concrete and sequential. When people make decisions by thinking, they tend to weigh all the pros and cons in a sequential way and then make a decision. However, when trading decisions involve pure "thinking," the trade is usually gone before the decision is made. Interestingly enough, people generally make decisions based upon thinking, but they act based on feelings.
Feeling involves making decisions by means of value judgments. It allows us to determine if a thing is important or not. It involves subjective, personal values. Does the person like or dislike it? What is the impact on a person? Is it strong enough to act upon?
If thinking is highly developed in an individual then feeling would be much less developed and vice versa. And you can probably guess that it takes a lot of "thinking" to develop a trading system, but it takes "feeling" to execute the system. Thus, you must be well-balanced in order to trade well. About 50% of the population tends to be thinking dominant while the other half tends to be feeling dominant. In our sample, 57% was thinking dominant, while 43% was feeling dominant.
Top traders in our sample were much more likely to be thinking dominant (by a 6 to 1 ratio) than feeling dominant. However, thinking dominant traders as a whole were more likely to be losing traders than were feeling dominat traders. My guess is that the top traders show a good balance between thinking and feeling, yet are thinking dominant. However, if someone is thinking dominant, with little reliance on feelings, then he is not likely to do well.
Judgment/Perception (J vs. P). The last dichotomy is very deceptive, in that the names used, judger and perceiver, do not adequately describe the two processes involved. This dichotomy refers to the amount of closure a person needs in handling their affairs. Judgers, the first category, want closure, wanting everything organized and in its place. In contrast, perceivers prefer fluidity by keeping their options open.
The Judger is apt to feel a sense of urgency until a decision is made. They establish deadlines and take them seriously. Judgers tend to believe that work comes before all else--rest or play. Thus, judgers will do all sorts of preparation, maintenance, and cleaning up afterward with respect to their work. About half the population tends to have a bent toward closure and thus be judgers. However, about 72% of our sample showed this type of dominance.
Perceivers tend to be "go with the flow" type people. They resist making a decision, always wanting, and waiting for, more information. Thus, when they finally do make a decision, there is always a sense of uneasiness and restlessness. Perceivers tend to be more playful and easy-going than their counterpart. They want their work to be enjoyable. However, they can also become so caught up in a work project that they totally forget about time and everything else. About half the population is this way. I would expect that people who have trouble making a decision would stay away from trading. And, indeed, only 28% of our sample were perceivers.
These four dichotomies can be used to describe 16 different personality types, as described by Isabel Myers and her mother, Katheryn Briggs. The so-called Myers-Briggs test divides people into 16 different types, ISTJ, ISTP, ESTP, ESTJ, ISFJ, ISFP, ESFP, ESFJ, INFJ, INFP, ENFP, ENFJ, INTJ, INTP, ENTP, and ENTJ. In some ways, I dislike this test because it does tend to put people into psychological boxes. So rather than going into each of the 16 types, next week, we will begin to look at eight cognitive styles and four temperaments. I will describe each type and give you my opinions about how it functions in the process of trading or trading system development.
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More to follow.. |
Feb 26, 2004, 5:37am
The post above is recommended by: lemarche 
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