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The Mindless Investor Chapter 3: Be a Trader – Chapter Review

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December 12, 2012

      Published December 12, 2012 04:33 PM

      Table Of Contents

        Key points

        Highlights of Chapter 3 – The Mindless Investor This brief chapter in The Mindless Investor focuses on what “being a trader” means.  According to Tyler, becoming a competent trader means first understanding what kind of trading style best suits the reader. The key points covered by this chapter are that trading is not gambling, successful […]

        Highlights of Chapter 3 – The Mindless Investor

        This brief chapter in The Mindless Investor focuses on what “being a trader” means.  According to Tyler, becoming a competent trader means first understanding what kind of trading style best suits the reader. The key points covered by this chapter are that trading is not gambling, successful trading takes effort and, and most importantly who you are as a person doesn’t matter to the market; only what kind of trader you are does.

        Mindless Investor - Trading Is Not Gambling

        Key Point #1 Trading is not Gambling

        Even though traders and gamblers have speculation in common, traders are professionals who calculate risk and reward.  Thinking like a trader is key to success because the primary focus for traders isn’t what kind of company they are investing in, it is what kind of risk to reward relationship is defined by the opportunity.

        Mindless Investor - Trading Takes Effort and Motivation

        Key Point #2 Trading takes Effort and Motivation

        While some may equate trading with day-trading, Tyler offers a different perspective. Even though executing a trade takes mere moments, most of the money in trading is made in the waiting.  The market accommodates different types of traders, from short term to long term, from complex traders to very simple ones.  The important note is that to succeed, trading does take a significant amount of motivation and effort in order to avoid being on the wrong end of the market statistics for successful traders.

        Mindless Investor - Know What Kind Of Trader You Want To Be

        Key Point #3 What Kind of Trader You Are Matters More Than Who You Are

        Whether you are a hedge fund manager or a ‘regular Joe’, it makes no difference to  “the market.” The most important thing to focus on is knowing yourself – what kind of emotional makeup you have, what your time and capital constraints are and what life situation you are in.  These factors will help to decide what kind of commitments you can make to the market and what strategies you can use that best suit you.   The common thread for all traders, though, is focusing on buying/selling shares in order to make a profit. What distinguishes traders from investors is that “investors own assets; traders speculate on the price movement of those assets.”