A Valuable Lesson In Knowing Your Own Personality Type For Investing

A couple of years ago, I shared my Myers-Briggs personality test publicly, and I did this for a few reasons.

For one, I enjoy sharing life experiences and who I am with the investors I work with. I believe in being open and honest with people and that I, in turn, can learn something from everyone. Building a bond and trust with those who have similar passions and desires just feels good all around.

My goal is to help as many individuals as possible who believe in what I do and who want to reach financial independence with passive income sooner and with less effort and risk.

I grew up going to Zig Ziglar events. I was up on stage with him when I was only 12 years old, and Zig’s simple philosophy, which I believe in, is:

“You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

Zig Ziglar

Two, if you understand your own personality along with how people’s brains work and how they think and react, you have a huge edge when it comes to trading and investing. Almost everyone involved in the markets are making decisions based on fear of losing more money, or the fear that they are missing out on more gains. And because fear is the strongest emotion we have, these feelings can override our common sense and logic. This is what I will share with you in this article.

Last but not least, 81% of individuals have a personality type that makes them lose money as self-directed traders and investors. 81%!

Have you ever taken the Myers-Briggs personality test?

Well, I think you should. Knowing your personality type can give you a huge advantage with your trading and in your life. But before you do the test to figure out “thyself,” finish reading what I must share here as it ties directly into your investing success.

There are 16 personality types, and the ones with the highest distribution are:

ISFJ
ESFJ
ISTJ
ISFP
ESTJ
ISTP
ESTP
ESFP

A common thread among these top personality types is the “S,” which stands for Sensing vs. “N,” for Intuition.

What is the difference between Sensing and Intuition?

Sensing focuses on what you can detect with your five senses.

Intuition focuses on the impressions and patterns gathered from information. (data, technical analysis, chart patterns, statistics, logic, etc.)

Statistics show that 73.3% of individuals are “Sensing,” and if you know anything about the financial markets and how they move, it’s all based on people’s emotional reactions. News and opinions get into investors’ minds and trigger emotional trading and investing actions.

Why do people trade on emotions and get sucked into news and opinions? Because stories sell ideas and, if told well, can trigger the senses in our brain to see, feel, smell, and even taste the things being explained in a detailed story/news clip. The “sensing” personalities tend to follow stories that should be ignored, which I consider news to be useless noise.

Now, let’s take things another step further. The second most common personality trait is “Feeling” at 59.8%, which falls under the pair Thinking or Feeling category and plays a role in our success as investors.

What is the difference between Thinking and Feeling?

This pair of personality traits describes how you make decisions.

Thinking focuses on objective principles and impersonal facts.

Feeling focuses on personal concerns and the people involved.

If you have an “F” in your personality type, you must be aware that you will likely be more emotional as an investor, which can also lead to poor timing for your investment decisions.

Warning: If you have an “S” and “F” in your results, I believe it is vital that you embrace knowing who you are and take action to create a plan and rules to follow when trading and investing. It’s much easier for you to get sucked into news, opinions, stories, hype, and have constant FOMO because it is just how your brain works. It does not matter how many trading or investing books or courses you have taken in the past, your emotions will override everything you learned and you will continue to struggle to make strong consistent gains each year.

If you know your results already and have either or both traits, don’t panic!

Being a Sensing and/or Feeling person are wonderful traits, don’t get me wrong. So, before we go any further, I should be clear that none of this has to do with your IQ or experience. This personality test tells us how our brains are equipped to handle long-term thinking and/or seeing the big picture.

As we know, the majority of individuals lose money. A study showed with thousands of individual traders and investors in North America, Taiwan, and Brazil, that over a 300-day window, 97% of traders lost money. I believe emotions are the main culprit, but I also know most people do not have any type of position or risk management in place either.

Let me share a little about how you can benefit from my personality to make more money.

I am one of the rarest personality types, the INTJ. Also known as “The Scientist” or “The Architect.” I’m the opposite of a touchy-feely person as I like to follow rules and logic and not get sucked into making emotional decisions. What I do like are solid, factual, or statistically accurate decisions. With that said, my personality is highly romantic, but we won’t go there…

What I am trying to say here is that my skills, experience, personality type, and my ETF investing strategy could be a match made in heaven for your investment account.

Why? Because I ignore all the noise, stories, lies, and BS the market and news outlets dish out on a daily basis. I process data and find logical, high-quality trade and investment opportunities that put the odds in favor of reliably making money by trading stocks, bonds, commodities, and currencies.

In general, successful people are future-oriented and create goals and visions of where they will be someday. They think outside the box and dance to the beat of their own drum. These individuals are driven and follow their natural skills and passions, which for me, happen to be stock market analysis, ETF investing, and helping others.

I deal with a lot of emotional people in my line of work. The good, the bad, and the ugly, but I understand what most are feeling when it comes to their investment positions. Making or losing money is deeply personal and listening to news stories will spark emotions, whereby you are constantly worrying about losing money, and are frustrated when the market moves against your positions. But it comes with the territory, it’s just part of the game that, unfortunately, most people never truly master.

Based on helping individual traders and investors since 1997, I have a pretty good feel from talking with them or reading their emails if they are an “S,” “F,” or possibly both. People who tend to cancel their trade alert subscription with me (rare, but it happens) probably have one of those two characteristics.

Why do they cancel? Generally, they get too easily swept up in hype and news. They struggle to find and manage trades while controlling their emotions. And lastly, these folks are often caught up in what I believe is a perfect storm for failure – the need for immediate gratification, the vise-like grip of FOMO, and the less than helpful view of hindsight.

They don’t see the boring logic behind my research, they lack the patience to wait for lower-risk opportunities, and they make rash/emotional decisions instead of examining how those decisions will affect them in the long run. Things like trading around news/hype, always wanting to buy just one stock or sector, or holding on to losing trades because they can’t man-up, take a loss, and move on to better and brighter things.

For example, a classic Sensing/Feeling newsletter cancellation email reads something like:

“Hi Chris,

Thanks for all the education you have provided; it has been really useful. However, I need to cancel my subscription.

It’s not your trades. It’s just I ended up being the bag holder on a number of MY positions. Now my strategy is just to wait for a few years. It is not worth closing the trades at these prices, plus I believe in most of my positions ;)”

Another email, 

“Chris, I love your newsletter and have learned a lot. However, there are not enough trades, and I feel that we should be making lots of money from these big daily price swings in the market. I’m worried about what the Fed will do, and with the war and other scary news, I don’t know what to do, but I don’t have time to wait for your slower trade signals. So please cancel my subscription.”

It’s this sort of thinking and email that triggers my eyes to roll to the back of my head and grumble because it makes absolutely no sense to me. I’m an “Intuitive Thinker” who logically filters out noise, has strategies in place, and who only wants to bet on the markets when the odds are clearly in favor of making money, and I ignore the rest.

But, let me be clear about one thing, some of the best traders in my newsletter who have been with me for years are very Sensing and Feeling people.

What makes them different is that they know they need rules, systems, and guidance to navigate the market safely. They lean on me for that and are very appreciative of it. I won’t lie – it feels nice to be praised for my work by these individuals. They have a way of wearing their heart on their sleeve.

It does not matter which personality you are; we can all reach financial success together. As Oprah Winfrey said, “no one ever reaches success on their own. They always have help,” so I am here to help you.

Ok, It’s Test Time!

I will now hand the reins over to you. Take this quick test, figure out how your brain works, read your complete personality profile, and let it sink in. Be proud of who you are and what makes you unique.

Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an introspective questionnaire that asks individuals their preferences in how they communicate, interact with others, perceive the world, and make decisions.

The test assigns a value to each of four categories: Introversion or Extraversion, Sensing or Intuition, Thinking or Feeling, and Judging or Perceiving. One letter from each category is used to generate a four-letter result which is your personality type, such as “INTJ” or “ESFP.”

Free Personality Test: https://www.16personalities.com

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Chris Vermeulen
Chief Investment Officer
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

Disclaimer: This email and any information contained herein should not be considered investment advice. Technical Traders Ltd. and its staff are not registered investment advisors. Under no circumstances should any content from websites, articles, videos, seminars, books or emails from Technical Traders Ltd. or its affiliates be used or interpreted as a recommendation to buy or sell any security or commodity contract. Our advice is not tailored to the needs of any subscriber so talk with your investment advisor before making trading decisions. Invest at your own risk. I may or may not have positions in any security mentioned at any time and maybe buy sell or hold said security at any time.