Did you ever notice that most traders are highly intelligent?

DaveJB said:
Nahhh,
thankfully, as anyone who met me on the traders' day meetings dah sarf in past years will tell you, I'm a bit of a bronzed Adonis to look at, with a 2 foot long tongue.
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Dave, you're making yourself sound like a lounge lizard :LOL:
Richard
 
mrsoul said:
Did you ever notice that most traders are highly intelligent?
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Some people here are so egotistic and have such an unrealistic view of themselves. (not directed at you MrSoul.)

I am as common as muck, no real exams to speak of. I use a calculator for simple sums, a spell check for all my posts but I do alright trading.

A complete passion for it, lots of screen time and a realistic balanced view of yourself and of trading, is more important than the hindrances of intelligence.

A slight lack of intelligence is useful, it keeps you humble in the markets, besides anyone who is intelligent would not touch trading with a barge pole.

When I was younger I started (successful) businesses that I would not dream of starting now, because I now know the size of the odds against me. So the reason I was successful was down to my lack of intelligence and knowledge giving me extra confidence to get the job done.
 
Intelligence could help for successful trading but it's not the only thing needed. You shouldn't be Einstein in order to trade :) For me passion is more important for being successful trader
 
buggyfx said:
Intelligence could help for successful trading but it's not the only thing needed. You shouldn't be Einstein in order to trade :) For me passion is more important for being successful trader
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Bang on! Somebody else above mentioned Newton losing money - he lost it in South Sea bubble, investing in slave ships. He then stated that he could calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of man. Even he didn't seem to realise that the market cap of the South Sea Company was worth more than all of the money in circulation in europe at the time........
 
This is all boll0cks. You want to trade you need to learn likely outcomes of event "x". Then you apply what knowledge you have to profit from or protect yourself from said outcome(s). If you can't do that you can't trade. As with any profession the av intelligence of the population is going to be skewed towards the high side or we would likely be more interested in Xfactor.
 
Technically Fundamental said:
This is all boll0cks. You want to trade you need to learn likely outcomes of event "x". Then you apply what knowledge you have to profit from or protect yourself from said outcome(s). If you can't do that you can't trade. As with any profession the av intelligence of the population is going to be skewed towards the high side or we would likely be more interested in Xfactor.
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Whats xfactor, is it a website like fx factory?
 
mrsoul said:
Did you ever notice that most traders are highly intelligent?
I think that the intellectual challenge of trading is a big reason why many traders start playing this game; I know that was my reason for starting (and, of course, the money too).
You can tell from how well most of the traders write on this forum, and on other forums, that they have alot going on upstairs.
You really are competing against some of the best minds in the world.
I don't know if intelligence will guarantee success in this game but it certainly helps.
I am wondering if anyone else has made the same observation.
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Most people think that trading requires intelligence, this is reason enough for some to give the markets a wide birth. Others think that the markets are no different to horse racing or betting on a football match. Some intelligent people try thier hand and fail miserably. They, then go on to write books about how random the markets are and that if a genius like themselves can't 'do it' a person with only an O level in biology has zero chance.

Here's my opinion. The film, Wall Street, and the book by Edwin Lefevre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, have something in common. In Wall Street, you have the weak and the strong, Fox and Gecko, respectively. ROASO, is written by a guy who knew that the market has a job of exploiting flaws in a persons character. At the end of the film, Wall Street, Bud Fox realised he was just Bud Fox. Jesse Livermore, although a great trader anyway, realised he could have probably done better without the flaws in his character.

So, it's not about intelligence, that's for sure. Maybe it's about being ruthlessly absolute? Whatever! For most, simplicity, absoluteness and the markets is a hard combination to swallow, it just doesn't fit human nature. Throw in the factor of money, and it's a recipe for disaster.



Good Trading.
 
Let's put some numbers to this.
My IQ score is typically somewhere in the regon of 130-135. I've been trading part-time for 10.75 years and my compounded annual return is 21% with one losing year (-14% from memory). So, a modest correlaton between intelligence and returns.

On the other hand some really clever people, such as Niederhoffer and LTCM, have really screwed it up.

If anyone else could come up with some actual statistics we might get somewhere with this debate.
 
Trade2Win is renowned for not letting facts get in the way of opinions :)
Richard
 
Dave, you're making yourself sound like a lounge lizard
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Well, as we've met Richard, I suspect you spotted one or two teensy inconsistencies in my description... but apart from the 'bronzed' 'Adonis' and '2 foot' bits I didn't stray too far from reality.

A variety of factors count, enough intelligence not to be totally stupid is probably needed, but I suspect that's as intelligent as one need be. Personally I've found sheer bloody minded perseverance - the ability to stick to something long enough to see what I can learn from it, no matter how tedious it gets - to be as important (at least) as my IQ.
 
Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water on this one gents….

Just because we know intelligence isn’t necessarily a prerequisite of trading ability, that doesn’t necessarily mean the lack of necessarily means success in that endeavour either. Otherwise the majority on here would be successful traders.

No, lack of intelligence is not a prerequisite of trading success either.

It takes a rare combination which is apparently not so rare – here.
 
I'm no trader, but I'd imagine fluid thinking combined with an iron will would prevail over intelligence alone. But I also think not being able to do basic math and still being good would be a rare exception. So my feeling is it requires an element of intelligence and whole truckload of character and gumption. Gumption I say!
 
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