Investor Profile

FROM INVESTING AND TECHNICAL ANALYSIS AUTHOR

Shawn T. Lucas

TABLE OF

CONTENTS Introduction

iii

The Investor Profile

v

The AGGRESSIVE Investor

2

Aggressive - Aggressive

4

Aggressive - Intuitive

12

Aggressive - Analytical

19

Aggressive - Methodical

28

The INTUITIVE Investor

36

Intuitive - Aggressive

38

Intuitive - Intuitive

44

Intuitive - Analytical

50

Intuitive - Methodical

56 -i-

The ANALYTICAL Investor

62

Analytical - Aggressive

64

Analytical - Intuitive

71

Analytical - Analytical

78

Analytical - Methodical

85

The METHODICAL Investor

92

Methodical - Aggressive

94

Methodical - Intuitive

101

Methodical - Analytical

108

Methodical - Methodical

114

Resources

120

About the Author

122

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INTRODUCTION In 2005, we started work on a project to identify the strength and motivation of successful investors.

We had heard all the typical adjectives: discipline, controlled emotions, decision maker, aggressive, risk taker, etc. Of course there was also the stereotypical lifestyle: the Ferrari, the penthouse, expensive suits, champaigne, etc. What we discovered was that all the adjectives and stereotypes are great for a Hollywood story, but far from the reality of success. What we discovered was the profile of a successful investor.

Ok, what we really discovered is that success is not packaged up nice and pretty - one size fits all – box. What we really discovered was that there were profiles (plural) of successful investors.

In our taxonomical world, we want classify and file everything. When it comes to investing we tend to classify investors as nothing less than James Bond meets Wall Street. We don’t picture a mother of three in the middle apartment in the low rent district of Los Angeles. We don’t picture a college student with a laptop computer squatting free internet from the campus wi-fi. We don’t see the retired policeman -iii-

managing a dwindling retirement account.

The problem with classification – and I am not so naïve to think that this book is perceived as a form of classification – is that if we don’t fit the classification we cannot succeed.

Basketball players are tall. Dancers are thin.

Professors are smart. Investors are rich. In a sense we discount all the individual strengths, characteristics and talents that go into being a successful basketball player, dancer, professor or investor.

Even if we do begin to recognize the strengths, talents and characteristics that are uniquely assembled for success, we discount our involvement if we do not meet the initial classification.

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THE INVESTOR PROFILE The Investor Profile was created to help investors learn to recognize their natural characteristics that are both helping and hindering their financial success. Everyone has a set of both recognized and unrecognized characteristics and qualities. Your confidence, commitment, self-esteem, reasoning, and emotional control are just some of the inner qualities you possess. Investing success requires the mastery of your internal character resources with the application of sound investment strategies.

The Investor Profile was developed to help you recognize and assess those qualities that help define your internal character resources. The assessment is designed to improve your mental and emotional fitness. Each question will focus on a specific psychological attribute critical for investment success. Your Investor Profile will help you:

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Increase your awareness of your internal characteristics

Identify your basic desires and motivation

Recognize how you respond in the often stressful market environment

Understand where you need to improve

Focus on areas that will improve your success

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This grid is a basic visual representation of the Investor Profile concept. You’ll notice that the x-axis represents the amount of risk a trader is willing to take and the y-axis corresponds to the emotional involvement of the trader. The low-risk low-emotion trader is referred to throughout this book as “Analytical” because they tend to analyze every possible variable before taking action, if ever.

In contrast, the high-risk high-emotion trader we will call “Intuitive” because they may rely on their emotional intuition to get into and out of trades.

A high-emotion low-risk trader we will refer to as “Aggressive” because they may be quicker to enter the trade, but may also exit as soon as a loss appears. And finally, the high-risk low-emotion trader is “Methodical” because they will be more likely to trade based on their system, not worrying too much about wins and losses along the way.

Each trader has a primary and secondary personality type associated with their personal Investor Profile. The remainder of this book is focused on dissecting the nuances of the sixteen resulting subcategories and, more importantly, explaining how to use your personality to your advantage when investing in the markets.

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+

Agressive

Intuitive Risk

-

Methodical Emotion

Analytical

-

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+

THE

AGGRESSIVE INVESTOR

The term “aggressive” may sound instinctively negative to some people; however, with regards to the Investor Profile, it simply means that the trader’s emotions may cause early or impulsive entries and exits. This is a personality type who may be so keen to trade lowrisk that unexpected market changes will cause unnecessary precautionary action.

As with every investor profile, it’s not a negative thing to be an aggressive investor. There are several qualities that the aggressive investor has that can be very helpful. For example, you will be less likely to be paralyzed by inaction.

AGGRESSIVE - AGGRESSIVE How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets.

As an investor, you are a very aggressive, independently driven individual. Your motivation to succeed comes from within you; you don’t require any outside motivation to dive into your investing and take on the goals you set for yourself. As a person that is highly driven, you are also impatient. You don’t like to wait any longer than you have to in order to see results from your efforts. When you take on a new strategy or project, you attack aggressively and plow through any obstacles that arise through the application of your brain power, logic, and tactics. You rely on factual information to make decisions and take action. This is effective in your investing because you confront your successes and your failures in exactly the same way. You don’t waste time entertaining possibilities or fantasizing about what could be; you simply take the current situation as it is and try to maximize your opportunities at the same time you limit and learn from your failures.

Your aggressive nature also makes you very competitive, which is part of the reason you attack your goals and problems you confront as hard as you do. You understand that too much competitive drive can quickly push you into obsessive -4-

territory, so you strive to push yourself as hard as you are able without crossing that line. As a highly independent person you want to run the show your way; this is another attribute that is highly desirable in investing because you are more than willing to accept the responsibility for your investing decisions and are very comfortable making difficult decisions when you have to. You also don’t feel a need to rely on others to help you make your decisions; you are comfortable relying on your own knowledge and abilities to make the correct decision in any situation.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and systems that are unique to your trading style.

The financial markets are an ideal outlet for your aggressive, competitive nature. The markets often change quickly and with little advance notice; you thrive in such an environment much more than in typical work settings which seem in your perception to move far more sedately. Your intense desire and drive to accomplish your goals keeps you constantly on the lookout for new opportunities and strategies you can use right away in your trading. Your ability to see things clearly and interpret information into specific action gives you confidence in your ability to consider all of the information available in making decisions that will produce the best results. As a strong, determined individualist, you are temperamentally well-suited to managing your own investments and making your own investment decisions.

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Your confidence in yourself and your abilities places any thoughts of quitting or failure at the furthest reaches of your psyche; you simply don’t consider the possibility of not accomplishing the goals you set for yourself. Your interest and enjoyment actually increases in the face of particularly difficult or complex problems, rather than giving you cause to be discouraged or frustrated. Your ability to apply intellect and logic to the markets helps you to adjust quickly in the fast pace of the financial markets; in fact when you feel you are your best as an investor, you make your moves with the skill of a fine chess player, thinking your actions through several steps in advance.

Behavior under Pressure We are constantly under the influence of the pressure to perform--whether subtle or overt. As traders, this pressure can come from outside influences, but often comes from ourselves.

This pressure, from time to time, can affect our normal behavior. The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. People respond to these pressures in different ways. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: Your desire to get the task at hand done and move on to the next one when the pressure is really on actually forces all of your motivations into the background. Under normal circumstances you prefer to focus completely on your tasks and utilize of your resources to complete them; in highpressure situations you become even more task and resultsoriented than normal. In such an environment your natural -6-

assertiveness also becomes sharper and more direct as you tell those around you what you need them to do to achieve your goals and involve them to accomplish larger tasks. When approaching any problem or situation, you want everything spelled out clearly and concisely; you don’t like to waste time trying to understand an idea or problem. In investing, this translates to clear set of well-defined rules and criteria that dictate and guide the decisions you make.

Your natural assertiveness and individualism manifest themselves in a straightforward, no-nonsense, black-andwhite attitude; in your view things are either done right or not done yet. Your black-and-white attitude also allows no room for any middle ground or for people who try to work or communicate with you in that manner. The confidence you have in your work and in the decisions you make generates respect and admiration from those around you. They also see your straightforwardness as honesty and integrity, which is another reason others look up to you. In the isolated, selfdirected world of investing, your straightforward, black-andwhite nature helps you see your strengths and weaknesses for what they are and filter through most of the peripheral, less-important noise in the market that can distract others.

The rapid, ever-changing nature of the financial markets brings out your competitive nature in full force; you enjoy healthy competition as well as being the one in control of your investments and the decisions you make. You take great satisfaction in working through the challenges the markets give you and seeing the results of your efforts in your growing investment accounts.

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Possible Need for Improvement While every investor has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges with others that match your investor profile. Here are a couple of areas that may improve your trading.

Your naturally forceful and assertive nature can work against you more than you may realize. Your straightforward and no-nonsense attitude leads you to communicate with others in plain and simple terms when they don’t measure up to your expectations. Although your intent is to merely provide constructive criticism, people around you often take it personally and become offended. They may perceive you as being cold, blunt and overly critical.

Your drive to get things done and move on to the next task often leads to impatience, which can dramatically affect your productivity. In trading, this can be a severe hindrance; impatient trading is emotional trading, which will lead you to make mistakes in your trades that you would typically avoid under normal circumstances. You are significantly more susceptible to the effect of impatience on your investments when the markets aren’t going your way.

Your love of difficult and complex challenges and problems leaves you bored and uninterested in completing more routine tasks very quickly. This is also a hindrance to profitable trading, since a successful trading system consists of a consistent, disciplined routine that must be followed on a daily basis. Remember that trading discipline and enforcement of your rules comes in large part from analysis -8-

and tasks that are routine and repetitive.

Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it often enough just to learn to recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Ask More, Tell Less - Your natural tendency is to tell people what to do. Try asking instead; just changing a few words that you say can make your requests much less intimidating.

Listen without Interrupting - When you think of something you want to say, you usually don’t wait to say it, even if someone else is talking at the time. Others can see this as rude, so make it a point to listen until they’ve finished speaking.

Allow Others to Express Opinions - This can especially be a problem when you are under stress. Think about the people around you and when they want to express themselves, give them an opening.

Reduce Your Impatience and Restlessness - Slow down and let others catch up with the pace you’ve set. Remember that just because they can’t keep up with you doesn’t mean they can’t help you reach your goal or solve the problem.

Increase the Time You Take to Respond - Some people won’t respect an answer that you fire at them seemingly off the top of your head. Slow down, consider the question that’s been -9-

put to you, and then give a thoughtful and complete answer.

Avoid Arrogance - Overly assertive behavior can be seen by some as arrogance. Avoid it completely by taking the time to consider the needs of others.

Speak More Softly and Slowly - One of the best things you can do to rein in your fast pace is to slow down, lower your voice, and carefully enunciate as you speak.

Adapt to the Time Needs of Others - You want things done immediately if not sooner, but others might want to take more time to accomplish the tasks they’ve been given. Give them what they need.

Allow Others to Assume Leadership - Your tendency to take charge in every situation can frustrate others. Step back from time to time and give someone else the opportunity to be in control.

Express More, Control Less - Share your feelings and invite those of others, and don’t try to control the situation every time.

Verbalize Your Feelings - Don’t be afraid to relate personal feelings that you have. Doing so will strengthen relationships and help establish trust.

Socialize More, Use Small Talk - Make your conversations more personal and enjoyable.

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Build Relationships - Some people won’t function effectively without some kind of personal interaction. Take the time to develop personal relationships.

Make Sincere Compliments - Don’t give any half-hearted attempts; some people can spot artificiality and will be turned off completely. Making sincere compliments will generate good feelings and can go a long way to establishing better relationships.

Make Friendly Gestures - Use your hands; open up and squeeze a shoulder, pat a wrist, or even hug if appropriate for the relationship and situation. These personal gestures serve as positive physical feedback.

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AGGRESSIVE - INTUITIVE How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets.

You are an aggressive, proactive person who works vigorously to accomplish the goals you set for yourself. You initiate action rather than playing catch-up by responding to events around you, and you don’t rest until you finished the job.

You are an independent self-starter who doesn’t let anything stand in the way of what you want to accomplish. You are confident in your ability to make instant, correct decisions.

All of these qualities put you in optimum position to succeed in the financial markets because you have a bold nature that gives you the determination to take risks and to implement bold plans.

You view yourself as a prime mover and you thrive on competition and power. You possess a persuasive personality that enables you to bring others around to your point of view; you can prod or persuade, compliment or belittle or exhort or condemn depending on the requirements of any given situation. You believe that your bold nature and ability to make things happen make you an ideal leader. Your competitive nature gives you an indomitable will; in your view, the worst thing you could ever do is to give up and the -12-

last thing you will do is to give in. You are temperamentally built to rise to the top of whatever field or endeavor you pursue. In a favorable, comfortable environment you feel friendly, while in tense antagonistic situations you can be as tough as the moment requires.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

Your strong internal drive for success brings out in you a forceful nature which you use to firmly, but not rudely, make your plans and ideas happen. You visualize the end result of what you want to do and you have the confidence to bring those visions into fruition, never doubting your ability to do so. In investing, this allows you to quickly move from conceptual understanding of what you want and need to do to direct application of that information in your investments.

Your forceful nature creates in you an irrepressible drive to make your goals into reality as soon as possible. This often makes you impatient when you have to wait for results. You tend to view delays and problems as frustrating obstacles to be dealt with as quickly as possible so you can move on the next task. The fast pace you set and your desire to finish your projects quickly and completely can affect your interactions with others since you expect them to keep up with your pace as well as your decision-making process. You are supremely confident in the decisions you make and move from one to -13-

the next with a sense of ease and comfort. Although you make decisions quickly, you also recognize that some restraints are only reasonable and necessary for the ultimately successful completion of projects and tasks. When you invest, this manifests itself in the fact that you like to move quickly and can adapt easily to the ebb and flow of the markets, but are careful to make sure you do so with as much information as you can find to support your decision before you actually do it.

Behavior under Pressure We are constantly under the influence of the pressure to perform--whether subtle or overt. As traders, this pressure can come from outside influences, but often comes from ourselves.

This pressure, from time to time, can affect our normal behavior. The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. People respond to these pressures in different ways. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: Under stress, your natural assertiveness becomes a little more aggressive, and your natural leadership abilities come to the forefront. This partly reflected in the fact that your charismatic side also picks up, helping you turn on the charm when necessary to get the job done. You always seize the initiative under pressure, preferring to act first rather than being acted upon. Your ability to persuade and inspire under normal circumstances will also give way to a tendency to prod, exhort and drive those around you to get results when you are under stress. You rarely back up and you never back -14-

down in these situations.

Your natural ability to wield your influence effectively in leadership roles helps you take risks, implement bold plans, solve problems effectively and achieve the goals you set.

Under pressure, this ability combines with your inner drive to succeed to aid you using whatever resources are available to you to solve the problem at hand. Your natural confidence in your abilities also makes you highly defensive when you decisions are questioned by somebody else; they had better have a good reason for doing so.

When you are under pressure or stress, you become even more task and results-oriented than usual. The impatience that comes with your inner drive to succeed becomes even more visible in these situations; your ability to act reasonably and to display restraint also diminishes significantly under stress. This puts you at a greater risk to make mistakes in your trading and investing that you be able to easily avoid under normal circumstances since you become much more likely to react emotionally to the situation you are confronted with.

Possible Need for Improvement While every investor profile has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges. Here are a couple of areas that may improve your trading.

Your overwhelming desire for quick results leads to you to assume responsibility for most, if not all, of the tasks required to get a job done. As a result, you may not have adequately -15-

developed your delegation skills. You may promise more than you can deliver, or have unrealistic expectations for the completion of a project. This is a communication issue as much as it is a control issue. You are very direct in your communications but at time may be too brief and fail to pass on enough information to communicate your ideas to others. The impatience that comes from your intense inner drive also tends to make you a half-hearted listener when others need to communicate with you.

In addition to your communication skills, some of your organizational skills could probably also see improvement.

Your ability to focus on the task at hand can get you so caught up in the finer, sometimes minute details of a task that you lose sight of the bigger picture and can forget to spend time on long-range planning as well as dealing with the issues at hand. Your impatience can frequently lead to impulsive decisions, meaning that you don’t always look at the problems you’re faced with from all angles. In investing, these deficiencies can lead to mistakenly assuming that bad trades equal a poor trading system, when in reality taking a step back and evaluating those trades in the context of a bigger picture might prove otherwise. Your impatience and desire to complete tasks as quickly as possible can work against you when the need arises to assess the overall market and your trading against it.

Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it often enough just to learn to -16-

recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Ask More, Tell Less - Your natural tendency is to tell people what to do. Try asking instead; just changing a few words that you say can make your requests much less intimidating.

Listen without Interrupting - When you think of something you want to say, you usually don’t wait to say it, even if someone else is talking at the time. Others can see this as rude, so make it a point to listen until they’ve finished speaking.

Allow Others to Express Opinions - This can be a problem when you are under stress. Think about the people around you and when they want to express themselves, give them an opening.

Reduce Your Impatience and Restlessness - Slow down and let others catch up with the pace you’ve set. Remember that just because they can’t keep up with you doesn’t mean they can’t help you reach your goal or solve the problem.

Increase the Time You Take to Respond - Some people won’t respect an answer that you fire at them seemingly off the top of your head. Slow down, consider the question that’s been put to you, and then give a thoughtful and complete answer.

Avoid Arrogance - Overly assertive behavior can be seen by some as arrogance. Avoid it completely by taking the time to consider the needs of others.

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Adapt to the Time Needs of Others - You want things done immediately if not sooner, but others might want to take more time to accomplish the tasks they’ve been given. Give them what they need.

Allow Others to Assume Leadership - Your tendency to take charge in every situation can frustrate others. Step back from time to time and give someone else the opportunity to be in control.

Build Relationships - Some people won’t accomplish their responsibilities effectively without personal interaction. Take the time to develop a personal relationship.

Make Sincere Compliments - Don’t give any half-hearted attempts; some people can spot artificiality and will be turned off completely. Making sincere compliments will generate good feelings and can go a long way to establishing better relationships.

Make Friendly Gestures - Use your hands; open up and squeeze a shoulder, pat a wrist, or even hug if appropriate for the relationship and situation. These personal gestures serve as positive physical feedback.

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AGGRESSIVE - ANALYTICAL How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets.

You possess a rigidly independent, results-oriented nature; you push hard to achieve your goals and are truly comfortable only when you are acting entirely on your own. You also have the ability to look at any situation, problem or opportunity from an objective, neutral perspective. These characteristics make you ideally suited to the financial markets and making your own investment decisions. Your results-oriented nature manifests itself in a solid work ethic and leads you to constantly seek ways to improve your performance and efficiency in anything you do; this also works to your benefit as an investor. You are able to analyze your investment results in an objective, rational manner and identify your strengths and weaknesses as well as the things you need to do to improve.

You attack problems with tenacity and keep at it with a single-minded determination until you have found the solution. When approaching any problem or situation, you look for quick results and solutions, but are careful not to do so recklessly. You carefully explore all options, possibilities and angles available to you in order to make -19-

sure you get the results you need. You will never sacrifice quality or thoroughness in favor of quick result, because your confidence in your ability to organize and analyze information effectively has worked so well for you in the past.

In investing, these characteristics give you an open mind to new information, trading techniques and strategies that you can use to your long-term benefit, while helping you master those techniques and strategies in such a way that you can manage your risk as much as possible.

From a personal standpoint, you are the type of person who doesn’t speak often, but when you do, people listen. You display patience and reserve with others, listening to them and considering information they give you carefully before you speak. When you do speak, you communicate your thoughts easily and effectively. These characteristics, coupled with your confidence in your own abilities, make you one of those rare people who can dominate and lead in a quiet way.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

You are a well-organized person; that characteristic applies to everything you do and is reflected in the environment you maintain around you. Keeping your things in their properly established order helps you project a controlled, reserved image to others. You prefer to organize and order things in your own way, and you find that the suggestions of others -20-

almost never fit the way you prefer to do it. You are careful to make sure to have enough information to drawn your own conclusions and make your own decisions. Your penchant for organization is an effective tool in your investing, since the proper organization of the information you must track and analyze on a daily basis is critical to your immediate and long-term success.

Your attention to organization and order helps you to finish the projects you start. You have a driving desire to complete tasks and projects quickly and correctly. You also view the desire to complete a task quickly to be of equal importance with your desire to get the job done right. This sometimes makes it difficult for you to strike a balance between the two desires, and you are often torn over which desire is more important in a given situation. As a trader, this difficulty can be seem during periods when the market is changing quickly and the strategies you have been using no longer work, which requires you to quickly analyze the market and determine what you have to do to adjust. Your desire to adjust quickly to the market has to be tempered by the need to make sure you make the right adjustment.

Your preference for the way you organize and do things means that you also prefer to take on new projects alone and to assume the sole responsibility for their completion. You believe that taking care of things yourself is the best way to achieve the best and most accurate result possible. You take particular satisfaction and enjoyment in the challenge of difficult problems, particularly when active fact investigation is required. Conversely, when problems become tedious, -21-

drawn out, or seemingly pointless, you lose interest.

Although you can work well in groups, you have a natural skepticism of others and tend to want only bottom-line information from those around you; supporting details mean very little and hold next to no interest for you.

Behavior under Pressure We are constantly under the influence of the pressure to perform--whether subtle or overt. As traders, this pressure can come from outside influences, but often comes from ourselves.

This pressure, from time to time, can affect our normal behavior. The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. People respond to these pressures in different ways. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: When the pressure is on, your rigid independence becomes more and more prevalent. You want to be in control and don’t like to be told what to do. Your driving motivations when stress increases become completely task-oriented; you focus on getting your tasks done as quickly and as well as you can. Your desire to get things done as quickly as possible keeps you moving at a very fast pace, but the speed of your work is checked by the equally strong desire to produce the highest quality results possible. When these motivations are balanced in a high-pressure environment, you produce your best results. As an investor, this balance gives you the ability to analyze and adjust to the market quickly and effectively, making razor-sharp judgments about the best, most profitable -22-

strategies and techniques to employ at the time.

You have extreme confidence in your ability to analyze information you are give and to organize your tasks according to that information in the most efficient way possible, which feeds your preference to work alone. Deep down, you simply believe that there aren’t any questions that you can’t find the answers to when you are allowed to organize things your way and can examine the information you need and analyze it the way that serves you best. You can then draw your own conclusions and make your own decisions. You ability to come up with solutions to the most difficult problems gives you a great sense of satisfaction and a high level of confidence that you are right almost all of the time.

Under normal circumstances, you prefer to interact with others only when the situation demands it. It is easier for you to as much as possible by yourself. In some ways, you view associates as tools for you to employ to get your job done.

You don’t feel this way in a cold, insensitive manner; you merely like to view things from a standpoint of the work that needs to get done. Under pressure, these tendencies become even more marked and prevalent. Under stress, you become skeptical of others and even distrustful of their abilities to a far greater degree than you would in normal circumstances.

Because of your skepticism, it is very difficult for you to share the responsibility for any of your work with anyone you don’t know well.

Your driving motivations to get the job done quickly and with the highest quality possible make it difficult for you to give -23-

your time at work to others unless you are between tasks.

Your confidence in the conclusions and decisions you make is so strong that you become stubborn in defending yourself when somebody questions them. You also feel such a strong sense of ownership of the ideas and opinions that you have developed that have a difficult time relinquishing them.

Possible Need for Improvement While every investor profile has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges. Here are a couple of area’s that may improve your trading.

Your natural suspicion of other’s intentions and skepticism of their abilities makes you somewhat guarded by nature. This is an attitude that can make you appear to be distrustful to others. This attitude manifests itself in your intense dislike for delegating tasks or portions of your work to others. It is difficult for you to trust that others will perform to the high standards you hold yourself to, so you don’t like handing over any part of the projects you take on to anybody else. Your particular method of going about your work and organizing things your way feeds the belief that no one else can complete your tasks or projects the way you would. Your ability to focus and concentrate completely on the task at hand keeps you from adequately displaying your ability to interact with people, which adds to the perception that you are guarded and distrustful to those around you. Remember that even the semi-solitary world of investing, interacting with others and learning from their experiences can help you be a better investor and open the doors to new ways to invest and make money you may not have thought of.

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Your confidence and sense of ownership can work against you as an investor since when the markets work against you, you may not be able to admit that the conclusions you made to lead you into a bad investment may have been wrong. You need to remember that others also have valuable thoughts and ideas and that there exists the possibility that they are right and you are wrong.

Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it often enough just to learn to recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Ask More, Tell Less - Your natural tendency is to tell people what to do. Try asking instead; just changing a few words that you say can make your requests much less intimidating.

Listen without Interrupting - When you think of something you want to say, you usually don’t wait to say it, even if someone else is talking at the time. Others can see this as rude, so make it a point to listen until they’ve finished speaking.

Allow Others to Express Opinions - This can especially be a problem when you are under stress. Think about the people around you and when they want to express themselves, give them an opening.

Avoid Arrogance - Overly assertive behavior can be seen by some as arrogance. Avoid it completely by taking the time to -25-

consider the needs of others.

Be Open Minded to Alternatives - Be sure to listen to the ideas of others from an objective standpoint; they will sometimes see things that you don’t.

Adapt to the Time Needs of Others - You want things done immediately if not sooner, but others might want to take more time to accomplish the tasks they’ve been given. Give them what they need.

Allow Others to Assume Leadership - Your tendency to take charge in every situation can frustrate others. Step back from time to time and give someone else the opportunity to be in control.

Control Less - Remember that you don’t have to be in control of the situation all the time. There’s no need to overextend yourself; relax your control from time to time.

Verbalize Your Feelings - Don’t be afraid to relate personal feelings that you have. Doing so will strengthen relationships and help establish trust.

Socialize More, Use Small Talk - Make your conversations more personal and enjoyable.

Build Relationships - Some people won’t function effectively without some kind of personal interaction. Take the time to work on your personal relationships.

Make Sincere Compliments - Don’t give any half-hearted -26-

attempts, some people can spot artificiality and will be turned off completely. Making sincere compliments will generate good feelings and can go a long way to establishing better relationships.

Make Friendly Gestures - Use your hands: open up and squeeze a shoulder, pat a wrist, or even hug if appropriate to relationship and setting. These personal gestures serve as positive physical feedback.

Be More of a People Person - Concentrate on the relationships you have with those around you and less on the mechanics of completing your tasks.

Be Flexible - Don’t be so rigid in your thinking that you won’t even consider another course of action or another idea. A little flexibility will smooth over many personal conflicts.

Relax Physically and Mentally - Take a deep breath from time to time and just think about something else for a minute. Get up and walk around, talk to people about the little things, and just detach yourself from your tasks every once in a while.

Relax Physically and Mentally - Take a deep breath from time to time and just think about something else for a minute. Get up and walk around, talk to people about the little things, and just detach yourself from your tasks every once in a while.

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AGGRESSIVE - METHODICAL How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets.

You possess a forceful nature and commanding presence that demands high standards of excellence of yourself and impresses those same standards on others. You are systematic, factual, accurate and concise in the way you communicate with others as well as in the way you take on projects and complete tasks. You are also very creative and produce ideas and options when you need them. You also possess the ability to organize and prioritize your ideas according to the needs and demands of the task at hand. Although you are highly organized and prefer to make decisions based on as much information as you can gather, you also possess the ability to act impulsively and make decisions based on gut feelings when you think it is appropriate. In investing, these characteristics will help you develop a structured, organized trading system while maintaining the ability to adapt to changes in the market as they come to maximize your investing success.

Despite your organizational abilities and keen intellect, your personal space tends to be somewhat cluttered. While others may view your space as messy, to you it is simply comfortable -28-

and doesn’t inhibit or affect your ability to create, organize, or get the job done. Your organizational and effective communication skills also help you to take multiple diverse tasks and orchestrate them successfully into large projects.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

You are in your element when taking on problems or projects that require deep thought, creativity, and the development of strategy. Your factual nature makes most comfortable working in areas that require technical expertise. One of your principal motivations is to find new problems and projects to challenge yourself with; conversely, you find yourself easily and quickly bored and disinterested in things that aren’t stimulating enough for you. Some people get bogged down in the details of a project, while others can only see the big picture but struggle with the finer details. You can see both the overall vision as well the details and tasks required to achieve that vision. You also take satisfaction from being to work alone and feel a sense of accomplishment as you complete tasks and project by yourself. Whenever possible, you like to take the time to gather as much information and explore as many options as possible in order to make the best decision. As an investor, these characteristics help you work diligently on the daily tasks you must perform to stay on top of the market and the opportunities it presents, while never losing sight of your overall financial goals.

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You are confident in your ability to solve problems and are well regarded for your ability to do so. In order to make the very best decision, you strive to have every possible option, alternative and piece of information necessary at your disposal. One of your strengths is your ability to identify as many options as possible while keeping your overall goal in perspective. However, identifying so many options to work with that deciding which course to take is sometimes difficult for you. As a result, you often jump from one option to the next without successfully justifying any of them. To others, it may appear that you have a short attention span, but this actually has more to do with your drive to find the best possible choice for each decision you face. This is one of your biggest challenges and sources of inner conflict. This conflict can manifest itself in investing when you are forced to decide between multiple trading strategies or investments.

It can also hinder your ability to adequately analyze losing investments in fine tuning your trading system.

Behavior under Pressure We are constantly under the influence of the pressure to perform--whether subtle or overt. As traders, this pressure can come from outside influences, but often comes from ourselves.

This pressure, from time to time, can affect our normal behavior. The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. People respond to these pressures in different ways. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: In a work setting you like working with people but prefer -30-

and are most comfortable with work that you do by yourself and tasks that aren’t people intensive. You like to do things in your own systematic way and to be solely responsible for your work and don’t like to be rushed to complete tasks and projects. You want to have enough time to explore all possible options and probe all areas of relevance; when you are pushed for time, you tend to make the choice that has the most potential but usually feel that your work is incomplete.

This can lead to a sense of frustration and dissatisfaction in your working conditions. As an investor, you can become frustrated in pressurized situations when you have to take action based on your gut feeling and without having gathered all of the options and information you need. This sense of frustration can work against you and lead to rash trading decisions.

When you are under pressure, you are sometimes caught between making the most practical, logical choice and basing your decision on your feelings and concern for others. In all you do, you strive to do well and you insist on a job well done, which serves you well at impressing your high standards on those around you. Your ability to oversee projects and arrive at a wide variety of alternative and ideas also work to your benefit in most cases, but under pressure the internal conflict you have between exploring various alternative and your desire to make the right choice become an even greater struggle for you. Since you enjoy the challenge of difficult problems, solving a problem under pressure sometimes adds more interest to the situation and more satisfaction from its resolution. One of the reasons the market is such an attraction for you is because of the complexity of problems -31-

and challenges it presents to you; the pressure of a rapidly changing market environment can create difficulties for you, but the satisfaction of overcoming those difficulties and successfully finding opportunity in those conditions keeps you engaged and excited about your investing.

Possible Need for Improvement While every investor profile has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges. Here are a couple of areas that may improve your trading.

Your creativity and drive creates an unpredictable nature that can be exciting at times and exasperating at others. Exciting, because the wellspring of creativity that flows through you comes out in you undertake. Exasperating, because people not like you sometimes become frustrated by your apparent inability to choose one of the huge number of ideas you come up with. You have a tendency to bounce from one new thing or idea to another in your effort to make the best decision possible. You drive for results and quality with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake, which results an erratic pace of your work rather than a steady, consistent pace.

Your interactions with others and the way you communicate also create challenges for you. You sometimes find it difficult or even impossible to communicate your ideas in a way others can understand. You have more interest in creative things that you do in people and as a result often appear to others as cool and aloof. When you communicate with others, you appear to be carefully aggressive; you allow you strong will to show through but keep a tight rein on it so as not to offend.

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To others this comes across as an effort to be tactful, but you tend to appear as if you are forcing yourself to be nice and are tense as a result. You often project an attitude of overseriousness and can be over-critical of yourself.

Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it is often enough just to learn to recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Ask More, Tell Less - Your natural tendency is to tell people what to do. Try asking instead; just changing a few words that you say can make your requests much less intimidating.

Allow Others to Express Opinions - This can especially be a problem when you are under stress. Think about the people around you and when they want to express themselves, give them an opening.

Avoid Arrogance - Overly assertive behavior can be seen by some as arrogance. Avoid it completely by taking the time to consider the needs of others. Be Open-Minded to Alternatives - Be sure to listen to the ideas of others from an objective standpoint; they will sometimes see things that you don’t.

Be Willing to Compromise - Don’t feel that your way is the only way; open up and find areas where you can give a little to make your ideas work better with the ideas of others.

Take Risks - Don’t be afraid to step out and do something you -33-

consider to be risky. Sometimes you can hold back too much and you miss chances that can really pay off.

Give Honest Opinions - Don’t be afraid to tell someone what you really think; be straightforward.

Make Specific Suggestions - Be sure to express in detail exactly what you are thinking, otherwise people might not understand what you’re trying to say.

Accept Pressure - Don’t insist on being given an indefinite amount of time to come up with every possible alternative; allow limits to be emplaced.

Listen More Actively - Be sure to pay honest attention to what others have to say. Giving them an open ear will do wonders for relationships with those who have the impression that you are proud and stubborn.

Be More of a People Person - Concentrate on the relationships you have with those around you and less on the mechanics of your tasks.

Be Flexible - Don’t be so rigid in your thinking that you won’t even consider another course of action or another idea. A little flexibility will smooth over many personal conflicts.

Relax Physically and Mentally - Take a deep breath from time to time and just think about something else for a minute. Get up and walk around, talk to people about the little things, and just detach yourself from your tasks every once in a while.

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THE

INTUITIVE INVESTOR

This investor is called intuitive because they rely on their intuition much more readily than an analytical person. An emotional reaction based on greed or fear will be more likely to cause the trader to take a high risk position. If this is your personal Investor Profile, you may find yourself taking trades because you have “a hunch� or you may enter positions quickly because you don’t want to have to take the time to do the math of risk ratios.

The unwrangled intuitive investor can certainly make a lot of money, but will often lose a lot of money as well if they do not learn to effectively manage their personality.

INTUITIVE - AGGRESSIVE How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets.

Having a positive outlook on life, you tend to keep an optimistic attitude on your ability to invest profitably. You are alert and constantly on the lookout for new developments and often identify nuisances of the markets other miss. Your aggressive nature combined with and intuition contributes to your independent nature and ability to master your own destiny. As a result you are self motivated and proactive in pursuit of your ambitious goals and objectives. You do not require a lot of outside encouragement, influence, or confirmation to make profitable investment decisions.

When analyzing a potential opportunity you place a hefty premium on what has worked in the past and are confident that it will work again. You place a lot of emphasis on success and performance and can get discouraged when trades do not go as you planned. You enjoy the challenge and the fulfillment that comes with achievement. You thrive on risk and understand that sometimes you must take risk to reach your objectives. In choosing between a mediocre investment that performs consistently or a riskier -38-

investment with a high payout, you will likely choose the higher payout. You prefer direct action in a calculated series of steps toward your investment goal. When analyzing the market, you trust your own analysis than others.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

When it comes to investing, you don’t want to have to depend on anyone else; you are very self-reliant. You are confident in your abilities and do not like to hold back in any way. You tend to be uninhibited by anything new or unfamiliar and can easily traverse the learning gap and tend to go full-out in everything you do.

To feel successful, you need daily activities that include being a self starter. You can possess a stubborn determination and may feel like you must have control over the markets. You tend to be self-indulgent and want what you want when you want it.

You prefer to deal with the big picture rather than the small details of the market. You prefer fast paced strategies over slow strategies Behavior under Pressure The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will -39-

directly influence the outcome of any given trade. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: Your natural intuition and desire for success is your driving motivation and will help you through difficult market conditions. Your focus on your goals and objectives, will keep you going when times get tough, despite your inclinations to get discouraged. Your willingness to take risks serves you well in your trading, priming you for success. Because your mind works at a fast pace, when you are on the top of your game decisions become second nature and you do not require a lot of analysis.

While your normal disposition is energetic and optimistic, in tense situations you can become argumentative, impulsive, and insistent on your decisions. This has the potential of causing serious harm to your account since successful investments often require adapting to the situation.

When you invest you are intense, focused, and engaged. You tend to trade in bursts, executing trades in a near frantic pace and then taking long breathers in between while you focus on other endeavors. You are capable of taking on a tremendous amount of work accomplishing a great deal in a short period of time, but your endurance is limited because of your need to be involved in many activities.

It is easy for you to grasp broad objectives and the primary goals of a situation, but when others try to describe things to you in great detail, you may find that to be tedious. This is because you are driven to know and relate to the overall -40-

problem; once you have that in view the details fall into place. Your mind tends to move at a rapid pace, often much faster than anyone around you. Because you keep the overall picture in mind, you are able to explore other lines of thought and jump from one point to the next in a way that can confuse some people.

Possible Need for Improvement While every investor profile has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges. Here are a couple of area’s that may improve your trading.

Your independent nature may make it difficult for you to change when the need for it arises. You may have gotten into the pattern of deciding on something and then committing yourself wholeheartedly to that course of action without seriously considering the viewpoints and input of others.

You may also prefer specific methods of doing things in certain ways and if changes are proposed, you might be closeminded about making them. Despite your natural intuition for investment opportunities, you can occasionally become inconsiderate of other important factors.

You might find it helpful to further develop your skills of observation to open your mind to other perspectives.

Another area that may need some attention is in curbing your tendency to be stubborn in your investments. This pattern of rigid thinking compromises your ability to effectively make the best choice, squelching good ideas that come from other -41-

sources.

Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it often enough just to learn to recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Observe more, trade less - Your natural tendency is to predict what the market will do. Try observing more to increase your natural understanding of the market.

Invest without interruptions – Trading requires complete attention to detail, and your natural tendencies to be distracted by other projects may cause undesirable results.

Seek the opinions of others - This can be a problem when you are under stress. Listen to other investors around you and give a about the people around you and give notice to their ideas.

Reduce your impatience and restlessness - Slow down, you don’t need to reach your goals today.

Spend more time analyzing – Investing requires a thorough analysis making sure you recognize every possible outcome and plan accordingly.

Slow down your pace - Stop and think things through in a more step-by-step approach. Most people won’t be able to follow your intuitive leaps from one idea to the next.

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Avoid arrogance - You have natural aptitude and ability as a leader and at times you can get carried away with your level of control. Allow your natural empathy for others to have more influence so that you can keep things in perspective. Control your emotions - Don’t allow your feelings to be the sole basis of important decisions. Rein in your tendency to be impulsive.

Spend more time on the facts than the feelings -Concentrate on the hard information before taking action; while going with your gut works most of the time, it has the potential to disappoint.

Display self-control - Try not to let the strength of your opinions overwhelm the situation.Â

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INTUITIVE - INTUITIVE How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets.

Investing is a love-hate relationship for you, because you are driven by the intuitive nature of the markets. You tend to see things others miss, you make investments other would not.

This style of trading can be extremely lucrative, however, your emotions can also lead to doubt and discouragement.

You achieve great satisfaction when you make the right investment. But you suffer terribly when you make the wrong investment.

As a person, you are people oriented, building and maintaining relationships is a top priority for you. Intuitive traders are likely to join investment clubs, or are effective in trading rooms where interaction with other is encouraged.

You tend to be friendly, warm and open with everyone you interact with. You are quick to offer helpful insight and people naturally look to you as an expert. However, investing can be a solitary endeavor which means you should make sure to develop plenty of extra-curricular activities that appease your need for human interaction and physical activity.

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Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

You are driven by an intense desire to be involved with the markets. It is difficult for you to simply respond to developing situations and you are always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Beware that you do not over-trade.  You have an appetite for success that enables you to perform extraordinarily well in anything you put your mind to. Your drive for success is an important skill in the markets because it allows you to persist when other people fail. Whenever the need for action arises, you don’t wait around to ask questions.

You just jump in and make things happen.

You dislike activities of a routine nature, so having a specific time you devote to investing does not make a lot of sense to you. You hate anything monotonous or repetitive, and will often look at multiple opportunities at once.

You seek tasks that promise adventure and you enjoy anything that will bring you recognition and prestige. When trading is going well for you, you will not be able to stop talking about it and you will also be inclined to take your profits and turn them into flashy, fun, expensive things that add zest to the leisure and recreation you so highly value. To you life is too short to deny yourself the joy!

You are driven by relationships and need a healthy dose -45-

of encouragement in your investing. A compliment or encouraging comment will go a long ways in providing the motivation to continue onto success.

Behavior under Pressure The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: You work hard to create a relaxing trading environment, however, when stress sets in, you have difficulty keeping things under control. Your emotions are easily swayed by the performance of your account and it can be a challenge to stay the course. You are likely to share your emotions with everyone around you as you like to bring others into your investing career. You work best under the pressures of investing by interacting and coordinating with others. You tend to invest at an erratic but intense pace. You tend to work in bursts, performing your tasks at a near frantic pace and then taking long breathers to talk to those around you. It is easy for you to grasp broad objectives and the primary goals of a situation, but when others try to describe things to you in great detail, you may become impatient and overwhelmed by the amount of data. This is because you are driven to know and relate to the overall problem; once you have that in view the details fall into place.

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Possible Need for Improvement While every investor profile has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges. Here are a couple of area’s that may improve your trading.

Because of the high level of excitement at which you function as you rush through life, you may fail to see many of the required details that is important while investing. You need to make a concerted effort to slow things down and spend time running through a checklist to keep you focused on the minutia.

You have no trouble understanding the overall scheme of things, but if someone tries to discuss with you an isolated detail, you may have trouble understanding its importance and relationship to the problem in question.

You have a need for constant stimulation, so be careful you don’t over-invest. Because of this, you find yourself easily distracted and tend to commit yourself to activities which may conflict with or overload your schedule.

In your approach to investments, you often find yourself playing catch-up at the last minute. While you are quite used to the pressure that goes along with such a situation, it doesn’t always work out. If you show some reserve in your investing, you will likely perform much better

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Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it often enough just to learn to recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Think More, Trade Less - Your natural tendency is to force an investment. Try spending more time analyzing instead; just changing your strategy a little bit could bring amazing results.

Reduce Your Impatience and Restlessness - Slow down and let the market catch up. Remember it takes time for profits to grow; impatience and restlessness work to minimize your profitability.

Increase the Time You Take to Analyze – It is against your nature to spend a lot of time analyzing investment opportunities.

A little extra effort here will work to improve your success rate. Your intuition serves you will, now try to support your natural instincts with a little bit of hard analytics.

Control Personal Feelings - Don’t allow your feelings to be the basis of important decisions. Rein in your tendency to be impulsive.

Restrain Emotional Responses - Moderate the amount of emotion that you express while investing.

Display Self-Control - Try not to let the strength of your opinions overwhelm the situation.

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Accept Responsibility For Your Actions - Your first inclination might be to pass blame when something goes wrong. Instead learn from your mistakes. Recognize them and spend time learning why it happened. Then your intuition will serve you better in the future.

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INTUITIVE - ANALYTICAL How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets.

You have a very unique ability to merge both analytics and intuition in a unique ability to capture both the essence and the facts of your investment opportunities. When analyzing a potential opportunity you place a premium on systems and that have worked in the past and are confident that you can make it work again. You are driven to excel because you enjoy the challenge and the fulfillment that comes with achievement.

You are very personable and other investors are often asking for your secrets to success. You enjoy trading in a group and you tend to be the natural leader. Even so, in situations when you are left alone, you are comfortable and don’t feel any pressing need for others to be around you. One area where your people skills really shine is when you are helping others.

You derive a great deal of satisfaction from giving useful help to anyone who needs it of you.

You have little difficulty learning new concepts and strategies and master them quickly. You don’t generally hesitate trying a new strategy and have a natural intuitive sense of the mechanics of the trade. You tend to look at every aspect of the trade in a quick and efficient manner and exercise just -50-

enough caution to avoid most impulsive mistakes.

You have a balanced approach to your investments looking for a good mix of the aggressive high yield opportunities with the more conservative steady yields.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

You strive for excellence and enjoy the recognition that comes with success and you are quite generous in sharing the fruit of your success with others. You seek to build alliances with others who are also successful and enjoy discussing ideas and strategy. You derive much fulfillment from helping others.

When trading, you are good at melding your needs to build and maintain a workable trading plan that incorporates the meticulous with the discretionary. A trading plan provides a certain level of comfort, but you often abandon the plan in pursuit of instinct. In some sense, the challenge of investing is enough to keep you going as you attempt to “figure� things out. Investing is rarely a chore, as you find new ideas and system to keep you motivated and interested.

Even though you like things organized with a meaningful purpose, you must identify with the objective. Your nature can be spontaneous, leading you to impulsive decisions. You often find that when you look back at decisions and analyze -51-

them, you regret the choice you made, even if the results were positive. This drive for perfection is both a benefit and a challenge.

You may also over-commit yourself, basing your commitments on feelings before considering the facts of the situation. You are conscientious about following through, and you do so with flair and excellence even when over-committed.

Behavior under Pressure The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: Your natural instinct drives many of your decisions and for the most part it has served you well. You excel in situations where quick action is required. However, this propensity to make quick ‘gut feel’ decisions can prove problematic when you don’t have all the facts.

Be careful when an investment goes against you. You fight two urges; one to abandon all hope and the other to over analyze the situation. Your emotions have a large impact on your decision making and emotions run high when you are in a losing position.

Your first inclination may be to attack a problem with no clear goal or method in mind of how to attack it. You don’t always give in to that inclination, in fact, you have the skills and sense necessary to organize effective strategies. You try and curb this initial impulsive behavior as much as possible -52-

in your trading environment.

You enjoy working around others because for you it relieves the stresses and pressures that come along with work. Under trying circumstances, you seek to resolve the situation by offering advice to others, giving suggestions, rendering physical help, or taking on tasks that go beyond your normal duties. You really are at your best when there are people around you that can give you positive feedback and who can provide opportunities for you to help and interact.

Possible Need for Improvement While every investor profile has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges. Here are a couple of area’s that may improve your trading.

Although positively perceived by others in most situations, there are aspects of your communication pattern that you may need to be mindful of in order to make improvements.

One of the most easily identified areas is in the way you make your decisions. Deciding impulsively feels right at the time of the decision, but can often remorse or regret at a later time.

This can create in you internal conflict, because at the time, you really feel that your decision-making is right; you may find out later that it wasn’t.

You want to be more venturesome and bold but when you are in situations where opportunities and challenges arise, you often find yourself unable to make a decision. You can’t seem to choose between things like deferring to someone -53-

or defying them and taking a chance, pausing to consider what to do or just persisting with your bold plan, or rebuffing someone who rubs you the wrong way or trying to befriend them.

Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it often enough just to learn to recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Be Willing to Reject Some of Your Ideas - Your natural tendency is to try to do everything. You need to realistically assess ideas and be willing to toss out the ones that will not be effective.

Concentrate on Results - Focus on your tasks. Allow your Analytical side more say in how you perform your responsibilities. Back off a little on your concentration on relationships.

Establish Realistic Expectations - Slow down in your trading and think more about the direction your trades are going. At the same time, you need to think realistically about what you should expect out of your trades.

Moderation - Try not to be overly forceful when trading; such an approach can be overwhelming to you and your loved ones.

Accept Pressure - Put yourself in an open frame of mind and -54-

recognize that pressure is not always a bad thing; it can be a motivating element that should help you focus more on essential tasks. Restrain Emotions - Don’t allow your emotions to dominate your trading behavior or to dictate how you respond to things and make decisions.

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INTUITIVE - METHODICAL How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets.

You are an enthusiastic investor with a vibrant passion for the financial markets. Modest, unassuming and humble you are the type of person who has an exceptional knack for the art of investing and also have a unique ability to focus on the details and systematic nature of the markets. You have a unique blend of intuition and stability. While many cater to the instincts of trading you trust your instincts but recognize the demand for unbiased methodology. As a result you are generally successful in almost everything you try.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

You like to stay alert because you want to understand and stay on top of everything that’s going on in the market around you. You have boundless energy inside you that drives you to try new ideas and concepts. You also enjoy the market; it gives you much satisfaction. In your daily investing, -56-

you often look for new ways of analyzing and recognizing opportunities and you are not afraid to try them out.

You have an inborn desire to be successful. It is this drive that motivates you when all else is going wrong. You are proud of your abilities and your accomplishments and you want to receive recognition from those around you. You are driven to keep a high profile; you like being in the public view in a favorable light. When trades go well, you are not bashful about sharing your successes.

Behavior under Pressure The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: You are personable and friendly to those with whom you interact. You maintain good relationships with everyone you can. Even under pressure you generate enthusiasm in everything you do and you inspire it in others. Your kindhearted, outgoing personality makes it natural for others to be drawn to you when the situation gets tense. Others find themselves to be sympathetic to your opinions because of your natural charisma, and are often motivated, excited and supportive of your goals and ambitions. You are good at persuading and motivating individuals and larger groups. When dealing with sensitive issues you are careful in the way you approach the situation and tactful when speaking about it. You have the ability to project your -57-

optimism onto others, even when circumstances are not favorable. When pressure is high you maintain a positive posture and you remain comfortable with your large and diverse body of associates, acquaintances, and friends.

Because of the connections you have with people, you are able to rally groups that have lost heart in dire situations, motivate people who have lost their passion, and persuade others to raise their level of performance. When needed, you make an extra effort to overcome resistance to your motivation so that everyone can be at their best.You want to be in the thick of things and at the center of attention, and want to have a persuasive voice in the decisions that are made. You like bringing in big results and you like the recognition that comes with great achievement. You are motivated to climb the ladder of success, gaining position and authority as your experience and exposure increases.

Under pressure, you focus on your tasks. You hammer out your work at a fast but professional pace and you try to keep others up to speed as well. When the need arises, you apply your considerable influence and personal appeal as you motivate others to perform at the standards required.

Possible Need for Improvement While every investor profile has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges. Here are a couple of area’s that may improve your trading.

At times you may apply your persuasive ability toward convincing others to be sympathetic to your own personal opinions or objectives. You may appear to others to be more -58-

casual than you are purposeful in the tasks you need to perform. They may also get the impression that you are more indirect than you are specific about the information you want to communicate to them. You also have a tendency to strive for immediate results. This can be effective in the short term but establishing good relationships and understandings that will endure over long periods of time can be much better. You are also capable of overestimating people’s abilities. You tend to assume that nearly everyone can perform up to your standards; that may not always be the case. Because of this assumption, you might expect more from others than they are going to be able to deliver. You have a tendency to “sugarcoat” or diminish interpersonal conflicts. This makes it difficult for you to handle people-problems because you can’t be fun while being insistent and direct. You are a diplomat, not a task-master.

Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it often enough just to learn to recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Talk Less - Your natural tendency is to spend a great deal of time in conversation with yourself as the primary speaker.

Let others speak more.

Offer Fewer Personal Opinions - Instead of immediately telling everyone about your feelings on a matter, take some time and listen to theirs first. If one isn’t offered, it is alright -59-

to leave the matter alone.

Increase Response Time - Don’t fire off an answer as soon as the question is asked. Think about your responses briefly and then give your answer.

Talk More Slowly and Softly - Turn down your volume level and back off on the speed of your delivery. You can often leave others behind in conversation so make an effort to pace yourself.

Allow Others to Lead - Your tendency may be to jump in and take charge in most situations. Make a habit of pausing and offering the reins of leadership to others who may have great ability and good ideas but might not have the assertiveness to quickly step up to the plate.

Control Personal Feelings - Don’t allow your feelings to be the sole basis of important decisions. Rein in your tendency to be impulsive.

Restrain Emotional Responses - Moderate the amount of emotion that you express to others. If you feel something strongly, don’t let it all out.

Display Self-Control - Try not to let the strength of your opinions overwhelm the situation.

Concentrate on Facts and Details - Be more data and fact oriented; putting effort into the details of your responsibilities will allow you to be more effective when things need to get -60-

done. Limit Relationship Factors - Devote time to your responsibilities as well as your relationships. While relationships are very important to you, your responsibilities and commitments should also be important. Don’t neglect them or you may hurt your credibility with others.

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THE

ANALYTICAL INVESTOR

Analytical investors’ most common problem is inaction. While a low-risk low-emotion personality may seem ideal for many investing situations, this personality type may overanalyze and never take action. If this is your primary Investor Profile, remember that all the education in the world will never make a difference if you never push that button.

Analytical Investors may find the prospects of trading Options Contracts more appealing in relation to other markets due to their ability to manage risk and set up complex but virtually worry-free positions.

ANALYTICAL - AGGRESSIVE How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets.

You are persistent, even tenacious in seeing a project or task through to completion. You like to follow leads and chase down clues, which empower you in the way you approach and solve problems. It creates a sense of ownership and responsibility within you for the problems and projects you take on as well as resolve in the actions you take. You possess a logical, deliberate manner in the courses of action you take as well as the ability to analyze problems and evaluate circumstances objectively and dispassionately. You like to take the time to think things through as much as possible and are quite capable and willing to express your opinions in a clear and consistent manner.

You are highly independent, which means that you prefer to work alone and desire to be in control. You have a resultsoriented nature that drives you to accomplish your goals but you do so with a high degree of patience. You don’t work with any great sense of urgency, because you know what you can do and how long it will take you to do it. Your effective performance in any endeavor is more the result of long, hard and persistent effort than of quick flashes of insight or -64-

inspiration. As an investor, your persistent and determined drive to succeed allows you to apply your trading system in the same way on each trade you make; your ability to analyze problems and circumstances objectively helps you see your failures and successes as they really are and make the modifications you must to continue to improve and refine your trading skills.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

Your natural sense of independence drives you in every aspect of the work you do. You don’t like to worry about people looking over your shoulder and prefer to do things that aren’t people-oriented. You move in your way and at your pace because you know what you can do and how quickly. For you, the unhurried and disciplined manner in which you go about your work is critical to maintaining control of yourself and your work, which is why you don’t like to rush to meet deadlines. Your steady, disciplined approach makes you very thorough and those around you know they can count on you to follow your work through to completion.

You also possess a very inquisitive nature. You question everything and you are automatically skeptical of any facts that haven’t been confirmed. Your inquisitiveness also pushes you to investigate suspicions you have about anything rather than jumping to any conclusions. When you are given new -65-

tasks or projects, you question anything that isn’t absolutely clear to you.

Your desire to be thorough and disciplined in your work carries very easily into your investments. Developing a very structured trading system will be intrinsic to your long-term investment success; your natural tendency towards discipline and careful analysis of all facts available to you is a talent most traders have to learn as they go. Your independent, controlling mindset also puts you in good position to manage your investments and make your own investment decisions.

Behavior under Pressure We are constantly under the influence of the pressure to perform--whether subtle or overt. As traders, this pressure can come from outside influences, but often comes from ourselves.

This pressure, from time to time, can affect our normal behavior. The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. People respond to these pressures in different ways. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: Under pressure, your natural independent, persistent, thorough and patient tendencies become even more pronounced. You know what results you can produce and when you can deliver them, and so you doggedly stay the course regardless of how much additional pressure you may be under. Your objective, efficient perspective remains firmly in place, helping you keep your feelings from affecting your work or how you go about it. You naturally prefer to -66-

do things by yourself; under pressure you tend to rely even less than normal on those around you. You maintain control of the situations you are in by patiently deliberating what you need to do in each situation followed by systematically implementing your plan.

Your natural sense of skepticism doesn’t waver under the stress of pressurized situations; you don’t take things at face value and are very good at discovering and defining the true facts of any questionable elements you are confronted with. Your task-oriented nature helps you get things done by concentrating on the job at hand until it is done before moving on to the next one. Your dogged, determined attitude gives you an enviable work ethic: you work hard and long at everything you do, making you very effective at anything you take on and giving you a dependable performance reputation in any circumstance.

Your independent nature and natural skepticism leads you to question the worth of suggestions and information from those around you; you don’t jump to conclusions because you don’t want to do anything in an impulsive, risky way. You gather pertinent information and take the time to explore areas about which you are unsure and you tend to limit your interactions with those around you because you don’t want to be distracted from getting things done. You usually resist time deadline pressures. You know that your best results come when you can operate by yourself in your unique way and at a speed you are comfortable with, so you often resent having others looking over your shoulder or checking on your work.

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Possible Need for Improvement While every investor profile has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges. Here are a couple of areas that may improve your trading.

You tend to automatically disbelieve what you see on the surface of nearly anything, and feel challenged by unsolved problems. Once you have made up your mind about the course of action you need to take, it is nearly impossible to get you to change your approach. You tend to concentrate mostly on your own interests, which is part of the reason you resist changes suggested by others. This makes you sometimes appear stubborn and obstinate. In investing, your independent nature works for you in many cases, but in this case in also works against you because you don’t open your mind to new information, strategies, or ways of doing things easily. You are very attentive to taking the time to define your trading system and rules, but have trouble adapting them to changing conditions or expanding them to fit new possibilities.

Your natural skepticism extends to your view of other people’s intentions. You also have no interest in pleasing others and at times can be blunt in the way you communicate; you don’t sympathize with how others feel so your bluntness is often taken by other as tactless. You also aren’t particularly skilled at persuading or motivating people to do what you want because you haven’t made the feelings of others a priority in your personal interactions.

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Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it often enough just to learn to recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Demand Less, Tell Less - Don’t be as absolute in the statements that you make or in the requests that you have of others.

Listen Without Pre-Judging - Don’t make up your mind before you hear the end of a statement; keep an open mind and decide objectively.

Avoid Overconfidence - If you insist too strongly on receiving recognition for your accomplishments this can appear to others to be overconfidence or even arrogance. It’s not wrong to want recognition for your achievements, but don’t take it too far.

Allow Others to Express Opinions - The people around you have valuable thoughts, too. Don’t insist on your opinion being the only right one.

Open Your Mind to Alternatives - You can’t always be right about everything. Make yourself more flexible when dealing with the ideas of others.

Adapt to the Time Needs of Others - Sometimes an honest need exists that will require a change in your schedule. Don’t be too rigid in your planning and use of time.

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Control Less - Don’t insist on doing things your way every time. Allow others to assert control even if they seem to trespass on your territory.

Share Your Feelings and Emotions - Though it may seem risky, the rewards of trust and closer personal understanding make sharing your feelings with others worthwhile.

Be Flexible - Try to view the situation from all possible sides; you may discover that your original thinking was biased in some way and therefore inappropriate.

Relax Physically and Mentally - Don’t allow yourself to become unnecessarily uptight. Understand that most situations aren’t as serious as they might first appear and go ahead and relax.

Socialize More, Use Small Talk - Don’t focus entirely on your tasks. Take a minute every once in a while and just talk with those around you.

Embrace and Express Feelings - Don’t be purely mechanical or task-focused. Allow your emotions a little more freedom and don’t hesitate to express them when the chance arises.

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ANALYTICAL - INTUITIVE How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets.

You are easygoing, even-tempered and calm and you project a relaxed, confident air about yourself. These are attributes that reflect well in the trading markets because it allows you to approach the market in an objective manner even when the current market environment is changing quickly. Your even-tempered manner makes it easy to be persistent in the face of opposition, even when the markets are going against you. It helps you keep working and perfecting your skill to achieve higher levels of success. You don’t allow stress to get to you and are very self-confident in your abilities.

Personally, you are friendly, kind and cordial, and you don’t intimidate others. People find it nearly impossible not to like you and often come to you with their problems because you genuinely like them and are willing to listen. Your warmth, sympathy, empathy, and understanding help in such situations to make suggestions in an indirect, inoffensive way. Although you are confident and carry yourself with poise, you also radiate a modesty that prevents you from appearing arrogant to others, and a gentleness that tempers your actions. The persistence that you apply to personal -71-

endeavors also applies to your relationships with others; when you want to be somebody’s friend, you work at it until you make it happen.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

Your calm, even-tempered nature extends into the way you prefer to go about your various activities, including your investments. As a result, you have developed a high degree of patience that helps you make your investments in a highly ordered manner. You are very good at focusing on the task at hand and can work comfortably by yourself.

Relationships are a significant priority for you; it is important to you to nurture and maintain them, and to remain loyal and steadfast to your friends. Although you are quite taskoriented, you are careful never to lose sight of the people around you. Although you can work well on your own, you like to work with people in a personable, unhurried environment. You don’t want to come off as arrogant to people, and your unassuming nature and preference for maintaining a low profile helps you to do that.

Another drive you have is to nurture others, which helps you to be good-natured and understanding. Teaching others in a helpful way and giving counsel and advice comes naturally to you. In the workplace, working effectively as a member of a -72-

team and promoting harmony and team spirit are important to you. You are quite capable of solving problems on your own, but you prefer to face and solve them with a group.

Behavior under Pressure We are constantly under the influence of the pressure to perform--whether subtle or overt. As traders, this pressure can come from outside influences, but often comes from ourselves.

This pressure, from time to time, can affect our normal behavior. The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. People respond to these pressures in different ways. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: In high pressure situations, your task-oriented nature becomes a great asset to you as you focus on completing the task at hand before moving on to the next one. You use the same controlled, even-tempered and patient temperament even under high stress because you feel that allowing your emotions to significantly affect your reactions can be unproductive. In trading, this helps you to focus on your trading rules and applying your trading system in a consistent manner, which helps you manage both losing and winning trades just as effectively in a rapidly changing market environment as under normal trading conditions.

You are a very task-focused person, but also have the ability to keep in mind the personal needs of the people around you in the work you do, and you maintain a pleasant attitude and nature even with your focus on getting the job done. Your -73-

even-tempered and level-headed nature puts others at ease, especially in pressure and stress is high. It engenders trust in your judgment and ability to solve problems from those you work with.

Possible Need for Improvement While every investor has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges with others that match your investor profile. Here are a couple of areas that may improve your trading.

You put such a high premium on maintaining friendships at all costs that it may sometimes cause you to lose credibility in certain situations. You avoid conflict and confrontation whenever you can and dislike having to make tough decisions. In confrontational situations you may appear to lack conviction when required to defend your ideas. You also expect the same high level of loyalty from others that you give and may hold grudges against people who criticize you or strongly challenge your ideas.

Your modest and unassuming nature can also work against you at times because you don’t want to be viewed as arrogant.

You are very uncomfortable in situations where you have to give direct orders or confront others about poor performance.

Your easygoing personality can also be a hindrance because you don’t feel the need to rush into things or maintain a fast pace once you start a project, and sometimes need friendly prodding to set and meet realistic deadlines.

In trading, your easygoing and even-tempered nature usually -74-

works for you; but your dislike of confrontational situations and desire to not make hasty decisions can create problems when a quick decision is required or when you have to hold yourself accountable for mistakes you make in your trades.

Depending on the situation, you may prefer to ignore the mistake altogether and act as if it never happened; this is dangerous to your long-term investment success because it hinders your ability to learn from your mistakes and adjust your trading system to prevent them in the future.

Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it often enough just to learn to recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Demand Less, Tell Less - Don’t always be so absolute in the statements that you make or in the requests that you have of others.

Restrain Impulsiveness - Allowing your emotions to strongly influence your actions can result in poor decisions that will be regretted.

Be Flexible About Matters of Opinion - Don’t just give lip service when considering the validity of others’ opinions; give it honest attention and look at it from an objective viewpoint. Remember that in trading there as many successful trading systems as there are traders; being open to the ideas of others can open doors to trading opportunities you probably wouldn’t have found on your own.

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Take Risks - Don’t be afraid to step out and do something you consider to be risky. Sometimes you can hold back too much and you miss chances that can really pay off. Measured, calculated risk in the markets can often lead to greater profits and get you closer to your financial goals.

Decide More Quickly - Don’t get bogged down with too many details; consider the best options and make your choice. Be careful not to get caught in the trap of “analysis paralysis”; once you have enough information to make a reasonable trading decision, act on it.

Be More Direct - Don’t dance around the issue; cut to the heart of things and say what needs to be said.

Be Willing to Reject Others’ Ideas – It is important to be open to new ideas and trading strategies as people share them with you; however, if you feel an idea won’t be effective don’t be afraid to reject it. Accepting poor ideas will only lead to greater problems.

Focus on Results and Goals - Pick up the pace of your work and concentrate on making your deadlines. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by side issues.

Accept Pressure - Don’t insist on being given an indefinite amount of time to come up with every possible alternative.

Allow limits to be emplaced. In trading, set your own specific goals and deadlines for accomplishing those goals. It will sharpen your focus and improve your trading skill.

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Listen Actively - Be sure to pay honest attention to what others have to say. Giving them an open ear will do wonders for relationships with those who have the impression that you are proud and stubborn.Â

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ANALYTICAL - ANALYTICAL How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets.

You are an extremely organized person; you keep everything in its place and schedule tasks and activities very efficiently.

As a trader, this dedication to organization helps you focus on the current task at hand and gather as much information as you can as you trade. You like to think trades through from beginning to end in an unbiased, unemotional way before you take any action; this gives you the peace of mind that you have considered all pertinent facts and considerations so that your trading system is as accurate and thorough as possible.

You also have the ability to concentrate on a task for as long as it takes you to complete it; this gives you the ability to perform tasks at an outstanding level that many other people consider tedious or mentally tiring.

Personally, you are a courteous, well-mannered individual.

You are also very aware of your physical surroundings; maintaining a pleasant, clutter-free environment makes it easier for you to accomplish your goals in the accurate, precise manner you require. Your logical manner of thinking makes it easy for you gather, tabulate, and organize information.

In group settings, you like to ensure equality and fairness as -78-

much as possible.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

Organization is a driving concern in your life. The way you think, plan, complete tasks, even the way you communicate must be as organized and orderly as possible. This drive for organization extends in your trading system, dictating that you have identified, thought about, and planned for every possible condition, circumstance, and contingency the markets could give you. Your conscientious effort to apply a high level of organization to your trading protects you from making mistakes due to incomplete preparation.

You hate jobs that are done in an incomplete fashion, which prompts you to organize, clean, and tie up loose ends as you are performing the job. In trading, this leads you to constantly check each trade you make to make sure that your rules are still being met and that you can respond in the correct manner regardless of whether the trade moves for or against you. Your trading decisions are also far-sighted, meaning that you are always careful to compare the trading opportunity you are being presented with against the longterm impact it could have – for positive or negative.

Behavior under Pressure We are constantly under the influence of the pressure to -79-

perform--whether subtle or overt. As traders, this pressure can come from outside influences, but often comes from ourselves.

This pressure, from time to time, can affect our normal behavior. The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. People respond to these pressures in different ways. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: When in the midst of a trade, you are almost completely focused on that trade. Your insistence on organization and preparation allows you execute your trades with precision and self-confidence; you know exactly what you’re doing and know what the likely outcome will be before it happens.

Accuracy is a driving motivation for you, making you naturally skeptical of information you aren’t sure about.

You prefer to operate independently and alone. You are very comfortable taking on projects and completing them entirely by yourself because you know what you can do and dislike having to depend on others for the results you need.

Your independent nature lends well to trading because you are naturally suspect of information and opinions that you haven’t verified or confirmed for yourself. You automatically question the advice, suggestions and opinions of others. This isn’t because you have a distrustful nature; only that you don’t jump to conclusions because you don’t want to do anything in an impulsive, risky way. Rather, you like to gather the pertinent information, process it, and draw conclusions that are as accurate as possible.

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Your workspace is maintained in the same way as any personal space you have; it is always neat, clean and very organized. You are very aware of your space; if somebody moves something from its proper place, you know about it.

When pressure increases, you operate in exactly the same manner you normally do: you remain accurate, thorough, patient, able to concentrate, and you are able to retain your impartial, unemotional sense of fairness. You also continue to focus on the task at hand until it is complete before moving on to the next one.

Possible Need for Improvement While every investor profile has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges. Here are a couple of areas that may improve your trading.

Order and precision are such driving motivators for you that you can become preoccupied with them, leading you to dwell on preliminary and organizational activities longer than necessary. This is a challenge to your trading because it makes you susceptible to “analysis paralysis” – you may miss good trading opportunities if you don’t feel everything is organized in exactly the way you want it to be.

Your natural skepticism of outside information leads you to see life in clear-cut, “black and white” terms. There is no room for “gray” viewpoints or information in your view, which can create problems in personal and professional situations, as well as in trading. The market often changes and the trading principles that were once accepted as true can quickly be proven otherwise, which can cause havoc in the neat, ordered -81-

trading rules and system you have established for yourself.

Your desire to do things right the first time can cause problems when you need to deal with other concerns, such as relationships with those around you. You are so geared towards logical thinking that you can be inconsiderate of others’ feelings and insensitive to their needs. It also makes it difficult for you to deal the frequent illogical activity that occurs in the trading markets.

Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it often enough just to learn to recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Moderate Information Gathering - Don’t worry so much about getting every detail when getting information from others. Allow yourself to express thoughts and feelings as well.

Express Your Opinions - Don’t worry so much about offending others by expressing yourself. Your thoughts are just as valuable as theirs; don’t hesitate to express them.

Decide More Quickly - Have confidence in your opinions and decision-making ability. Don’t be afraid to base decisions more on feelings and not so much on facts.

Respond More Quickly to Others - You require a few seconds to organize your thoughts when responding to questions or -82-

new information. Let others know you are processing the information by saying something like, “Okay, let me think a second.”

Prioritize and Get Moving - Assign a priority to each of your tasks and then carry them out as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Assume Leadership More Often - Don’t be afraid to take the initiative if you know what should be done.

Express More, Control Less - Don’t insist on doing things your way every time. Allow others to assert control even if they seem to trespass on your territory. Let others know the why of what you are thinking. In trading, remember that there is always a sense of randomness that exists and that sometimes even your best-laid plans will go awry.

Share Your Feelings and Emotions - Though it may seem risky, the rewards of trust and closer personal understanding make sharing your feelings with others worthwhile.

Be Flexible - Try to view the situation from all possible sides; you may discover that your original thinking was biased in some way and therefore inappropriate. In trading, remember that the markets can often stray far away from where you thought they would go; you need to ready to adjust and respond to these changes when they happen.

Be More Tolerant of Differences - Don’t automatically assume that your way is best. Others have valuable input because they -83-

see things from a different perspective. You need to respect that. In trading, remember that there is no single, “best� way to trade; letting others share their viewpoints and experience with you will help you see the markets in ways you may not have imagined before.

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ANALYTICAL - METHODICAL How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets.

As an investor, you are very self-controlled; you are very good at keeping your emotions firmly in hand even in the face of rapidly changing conditions. You don’t like to be surprised, and so you make a conscientious effort to maintain a cool head and to take the time to reflect on new things you encounter so you can have them clarified in your mind as much as possible.

You like to maintain things in your life that are familiar and comfortable to you, which naturally translates to the investments you make. When you identify a trading strategy or method that works well for you, you don’t see the need to “tweak” it or to change tracks and try something new. You are most comfortable when you have a structured pattern to follow in your trades and are very practical and matter-offact about your investments.

Personally, you are quiet and deliberate in everything you do.

You think before speaking, and when you communicate, you are good at remaining relaxed and soft-spoken, even in highstress situations that often bring loud volume and intense -85-

emotions from others. Your quiet, considerate and courteous nature makes it easy for you to get along with just about anyone, and helps you foster solid long-term relationships.

You are also very affable and pleasant, which makes it easy for others to approach and talk to you.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

You have a mild and possessive nature, with modest aspirations about what you hope to accomplish in your investments. These all contribute to your ability to view, analyze, and place your trades in a calm, diligent, and patient manner. You are driven to produce quality results in your investments, which leads to treat the markets in a factual manner and to make sure that everything you do is accurate.

This drive leads you to wait before committing to any type of trading action in developing situations until you feel you have a good idea of the likely result.

When the market or other conditions and circumstances around you are changing or changes appear inevitable, you need time to adjust to the changes. You know that time resolves more problems than people do, so you make very few unnecessary decisions. It is important to you to maintain the status quo. You understand that much of the success that comes in the trading markets comes from tasks and activities that are both repetitive and specialized in nature, and so you -86-

focus your daily trading efforts on those tasks.

Although you are confident in your ability, you don’t want to appear to be arrogant to those around you so you do things in a modest, unassuming way.

Behavior under Pressure We are constantly under the influence of the pressure to perform--whether subtle or overt. As traders, this pressure can come from outside influences, but often comes from ourselves.

This pressure, from time to time, can affect our normal behavior. The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. People respond to these pressures in different ways. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: As a trader, you take pleasure in seeing where you are today compared to where you started or to previous time periods more than looking forward to the uncertainty of your future trading success. You may speak of better times in the past and “the good old days.” As a conservative individual, you are generally not an initiator of actions, meaning that you don’t engage in daring and risky plans or investments. You prefer to treat your trading one trade at a time rather than managing several trades at the same time.

Personally, your quiet and amiable nature, coupled with your desire to “get along” with nearly everybody, leaves you unlikely to avoid showing hurt openly; but you can bear grudges which, in time, can influence you with a desire to -87-

get even with the person that offended you. You are also possessive of your responsibilities and tasks, hesitant to delegate or trust them to others. Your need to be thorough and correct the first time in completing your tasks can make it hard for you to meet deadlines.

Possible Need for Improvement While every investor profile has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges. Here are a couple of areas that may improve your trading.

You sometimes spend too much time checking and rechecking details, striving for perfection at the expense of deadlines and the patience of others. You tend to hesitate to act without orders, rules, or precedents that make you feel justified in taking a particular course of action.

You may also be too tentative, guarded, and slow to decide when presented with something new that you are unsure of. In trading, these tendencies can delay your trading decisions until the opportunity to realize a useful, profitable trade has passed. Changing situations and circumstances make it difficult for you to take timely action when those circumstances don’t fit into your normal procedures and strategies.

Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it often enough just to learn to -88-

recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Talk More, Make More Requests - Your natural tendency is to remain silent. This can be frustrating to you as well as those around you. Open up and talk to people around you; don’t be afraid to ask for things, especially important needs.

Express Your Opinions - Don’t worry so much about offending others by expressing yourself. Your thoughts are just as valuable as theirs;don’t hesitate to express them.

Be More Candid and Frank - You often have trouble telling it like it is because of your desire to keep from offending others.

You need to realize that sometimes candidness is necessary to establish respect with some people.

Take Risks - Don’t be afraid to step out and do something you consider to be risky. Sometimes you can hold back too much and you miss chances that can really pay off.

Be Willing to Disagree - Your aversion to confrontations should not be applied to situations where you really need to express your thoughts on a matter of importance. Holding back and not disagreeing can cause more harm than good.

Take an Independent Stand - In situations where all others seem to disagree with you, do not be afraid to stand alone and back up your ideas and opinions. In some cases you will be right when everyone else is wrong.

Decide and Move More Quickly - Have confidence in your -89-

opinions and decision-making ability. Don’t be afraid to base decisions more on feelings and not so much on facts. Also concentrate on doing things at quicker pace.

Share Your Feelings and Emotions - Though it may seem risky, the rewards of trust and closer personal understanding make sharing your feelings with others worthwhile.

Be Flexible - Try to view the situation from all possible sides; you may discover that your original thinking was biased in some way and therefore inappropriate.

Relax Physically and Mentally - Don’t allow yourself to become unnecessarily uptight. Understand that most situations aren’t as serious as they might first appear and go ahead and relax.

Actively Listen to Others - Show others you are listening by giving them visual and audible cues such as nods, summary repetitions, etc. Restrain Emotional Responses - When in a situation that produces a dramatic swing in your emotional state, exert control over yourself and prevent the emotion from getting away with you.

Be More Independent - Don’t spend so much effort ensuring consensus or obtaining confirmation before committing to something. Have confidence in yourself and your abilities and do more things on your own.

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THE

METHODICAL INVESTOR

An investor who is willing to take more risk than others but tends to remain emotionally detached is methodical. The term methodical is used because they will be more prone to trade placing trust in their method regardless of how they feel emotionally about the position.

As with every investor profile, the methodical personality has unique strengths that will help their investing profit potential as well as unique problems to overcome.

METHODICAL - AGGRESSIVE How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets. Look for these outstanding characteristics: As an investor you are introspective and constantly aware of your analysis giving special consideration to instinct. You are factual, accurate and concise in your interaction with the market enjoying intellectual activities, concepts, theories, projections and probabilities. You investigate facts constantly and pursue all possible solutions to difficult investment decisions. You concentrate on your work, but are also able to multi-task in managing multiple investments at once.

As a result of your intellectual activity and insistence on finding the best solution every time, you are seen by many as a perfectionist. You cannot accept just any answer; you work and work, eliminating all possibilities until you figure out the absolute best one - a process that often results in new and creative investment ideas and strategies. You are diligent, possessing of a strong sense of responsibility.

You are sensitive and constantly alert to potential problems.

You work hard to avoid situations that might be risky for you. Your systematic nature helps you develop a mode of -94-

operation that is both methodical and succinct. You have a passion for impeccability and order in accomplishing tasks. You follow directions carefully and in the order they were given to you so that you can turn in an error-free performance.

You try to look ahead in order to avoid unnecessary trouble and risk and you are good at predicting and sidestepping such problems.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

You are driven toward an elusive goal: the quest for the perfect trade. The ultimate result for whatever situation or problem you are dealing with. Nothing less than perfection satisfies you. You do not feel like you’ve achieved success if you are forced to settle for an unconfirmed investment which could possibly have better results if you just worked at it.

You are a visionary and live for your investment objectives.

At the same time, you are able to keep in mind all of the details and steps necessary to reach your goals. Your keen perception of alternatives and options always leaves you wondering what else could have been done to further improve results. In other words, after you are finally finished, you almost always go back and re-analyze.

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You seek solutions and results since you are a problem solver who is always searching for something intellectually challenging. You enjoy the intricate puzzle that is the markets and you love the challenge of developing and applying new systems and strategies.

You prefer to work alone at specialized tasks and you do not like to be limited in the amount of time you are given to come up with solutions to the problems you are given.

Even though you like to work alone, you are generous if asked to share your unique talents and skills with others.

Behavior under Pressure The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: When you trade, you concentrate exclusively on the discipline of trading and dislike being sidetracked by matters that are not related. You prefer a trading environment that is free from distraction. You like people - you are just more comfortable with situations that are not people-intensive.

Your love of systematic nature of the financial markets and your insistence on determining the best strategy is the focal point of your trading. Your skill at coming up with a wide variety of opportunities and ideas serves you well in trading, but can produce difficulties if you are not given enough time to fully explore all the possible strategies so that you can choose the best one.

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You may become frustrated by the lack of time and lethargic market conditions. Compounding the problem, you may become your own source of frustration due to a constant drive and a hesitancy to make a quick decision. However, in the long run, your desire to identify all possible strategies and make the best decision will benefit you in finding the best possible opportunities.

Your ability to envision your financial goals as well as all necessary details and steps for achieving them becomes more intense when working in the market. Be aware, however, that your overwhelming desire to produce the best results will often cause you to second-guess your trading decisions, leaving you unsatisfied with your final results.

You produce the best results when you have sufficient time to explore all of the options and when you have the freedom to probe into all areas of relevance. When not allowed this freedom, you can become discontent with investing and unsatisfied with your outcome. It is important to you to produce high-quality, thorough results.

Possible Need for Improvement While every investor profile has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges. Here are a couple of area’s that may improve your trading.

Your confident, creative, intelligent nature seems to be at odds with your tendency to be somewhat guarded investments.

You prefer to work independently and come through with a -97-

unique and often powerful flair.

It is not really a problem for you that you prefer to work alone, since you will chip in and give advice to others when needed.

In group situations your performance may suffer, especially if the group dynamics include social banter and other things which you might consider to be a waste of time.

If others wish to tap into your creativity, you will most often offer small bits of inspiration but you will expect them to expend the same level and quality of thought and build on your input and generate their own creative ideas.

You are a valuable but often elusive resource for those around you; they come to depend on your creativity but have a difficult time getting you to contribute anything of substance.

You also tend to go “full steam ahead” at times; other times you put on the brakes, seemingly without any consistency or recognizable pattern. This erratic pace can confuse and frustrate those around you, especially if it affects important events.

Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it often enough just to learn to recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

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Avoid Over Confident Trading - Overly assertive behavior is often punished by the market. Avoid it completely by taking the time to consider the needs of others.

Be Open-Minded to Alternatives - Be sure to listen to the ideas of others from an objective standpoint; they can often see things you don’t.

Be Willing to Compromise - Don’t feel that your way is the only way; open up and find areas where you can give a little to make your ideas work better with the ideas of others.

Discuss Disagreements Impersonally - Try not to let the strength of your opinions overwhelm the situation.

Accept Pressure - Don’t insist on being given an indefinite amount of time to come up with every possible alternative; allow limits to be emplaced.

Listen More Actively - Be sure to pay honest attention to what others have to say. Giving them an open ear will do wonders for relationships with those who have the impression that you are proud and stubborn.

Be Flexible - Don’t be so rigid in your thinking that you won’t even consider another course of action or another idea. A little flexibility will smooth over many personal conflicts.

Relax Physically and Mentally - Take a deep breath from time to time and just think about something else for a minute. Get up and walk around, talk to people about the little things, and -99-

just detach yourself from your tasks every once in a while.

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METHODICAL - INTUITIVE How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets. Look for these outstanding characteristics: You have an easier time processing the variable nature of the markets than most, although you tend to make decisions based on intuition and previous experience than on stone cold facts. You tend to leave yourself vulnerable in volatile market conditions as you often trust your intuition and are easily swayed by changing conditions.

You style does well in a group, building you bank of friendly, warm and open with everyone you interact with. Thoughtful, constantly mindful of the feelings and needs of others.

Sensitive, highly responsive on an emotional level.

You are a people-pleaser. You constantly search for opportunities to satisfy the needs of everyone in your life, both at work and in family and social environments. You warmly broadcast amiability and goodwill and you are wellliked by others.

You have a talent for making others feel good about themselves and about their accomplishments through sincere compliments, genuine praise, and by giving recognition for -101-

achievements both in public situations and in private.

You have a wide array of solid verbal skills and you are attentive to details, making you naturally proficient at working with people in a service capacity.

Also among your skills is your inherent ability to persuade others in a genuine, down-to-earth kind of way.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

You are driven by a desire to meet the needs of other people.

Basically, you are not happy unless everyone around you is also happy. It is important to you that all members of a group feel comfortable participating in the activities. If someone doesn’t seem to be fitting in, you will go out of your way to make sure that they feel they are a valuable member of the group and that their input is important. You work toward having active involvement and consensus from all members when important decisions are being made.

You hate conflict. When a situation looks as if it is approaching a state of conflict you will do whatever you can to diffuse the situation or avoid the conflict altogether. Under conditions when the potential for conflicts is present, you jump in and take the role of the peacemaker. You actively solicit resolutions to problems, serve as an intermediary whenever one is needed, encourage cooperation between group members, and work toward unity in goals, decisions, and in attitude. You very easily assume a diplomatic or supportive -102-

type of role when the situation demands.

In many situations, you react quickly to events. Your reactions are often based on your emotions, a tendency that can potentially generate reactions that you may regret.

Behavior under Pressure The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: Your skill at building and maintaining relationships is very much in evidence.You work hard to create a relaxing, friendly environment for those around you, concentrating on the personal side of your relationships whenever you are able.

You go to great lengths to be thoughtful of things important to others. You are the kind of person who keeps lists of everyone’s birthdays. While you desire to plan something nice for everyone’s birthday, you may forget about it until the last minute, so you might find yourself scrambling to write out a card or buy a small gift.

You work best in a job that employs your considerable peopleskills, something service-related that allows you to develop relationships and apply your efforts on a personal level.

Because of your love for social things, you are always at the center of planning social events. If you are comfortable in a social situation, your Expressive side comes out and you often become the life of the party. When you are less comfortable, your Amiable side tends to keep you more quiet -103-

and reserved.

You tend to be a font of ideas, words, and gestures when you are working with people you feel you can relax with.Your desire to maintain harmony will come into play as conflicts may arise between those around you.

You recognize the potentially disagreeable attitudes building in those around you when the pressure starts to grow, and you begin diffusing that tension so that the group can continue working peacefully together. You use your peacemaking skills as a means of releasing your own stress and tension, and if you are unsuccessful in easing the conflicts around you, your stress level rises accordingly. You work best in a group setting in which there is no friction between members, and you exert a great deal of energy to make that true for every group you join. You are driven to help out those around you or anyone else who asks you and will respond to their needs, often to the detriment of your own activity requirements.

You often find yourself doing things at the last minute, frantically trying to complete tasks you would have had time for had you not been helping someone else.

Possible Need for Improvement While every investor profile has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges. Here are a couple of area’s that may improve your trading.

One of the things you are most driven by is your need to please people. You want everyone in your life to be content -104-

with their situation and with their relationship with you. In trying to please people, you may quite suddenly become disappointed if others do not show the same “people first” attitude. When you do this you are expecting too much of them: some people just aren’t as people-oriented as you are. You tend to get your feelings hurt easily over the perceived indifference or ingratitude of other people.

Because you focus so heavily on people and relationships, you may often lack the necessary level of attention to complete tasks in a timely manner. This affects not only your overall quality working time, but also your decisionmaking ability. You may be indecisive when confronted with a decision, particularly those which impact others, fearing that someone will be offended, alienated, or negatively impacted. You may also struggle in your management of time and personal space. You tend to be unorganized and may have difficulty prioritizing and beginning tasks.

Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it often enough just to learn to recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Express Your Opinions - Don’t worry so much about offending others by expressing yourself. Your thoughts are just as valuable as theirs so don’t hesitate to express them.

Make a Plan - Don’t automatically assume that things should be handled by others. Make a plan and then take the steps -105-

necessary to make it happen.

Be More Candid and Frank - You often have trouble telling it like it is because of your desire to keep from offending others.

You need to realize that sometimes candidness is necessary to establish respect with some people.

Take Risks - Don’t be afraid to step out and do something you consider to be risky. Sometimes you can hold back too much and you miss chances that can really pay off.

Give Honest Opinions - Don’t be afraid to tell someone what you really think; be straightforward.

Be Willing to Disagree - Your aversion to confrontations should not be applied to situations where you really need to express your thoughts on a matter of importance. Holding back and not disagreeing can cause more harm than good.

Take an Independent Stand - In situations where all others seem to disagree with you, do not be afraid to stand alone and back up your ideas and opinions. In some cases you will be right when everyone else is wrong.

Control Personal Feelings - Don’t allow your feelings to be the sole basis of important decisions. Rein in your tendency to be impulsive.

Restrain Emotional Responses - Moderate the amount of emotion that you express to others. If you feel something strongly, don’t let it all out.

Display Self-Control - Try not to let the strength of your -106-

opinions overwhelm the situation.

Accept Pressure - Don’t insist on being given an indefinite amount of time to come up with every possible alternative; allow limits to be emplaced.

Distance Yourself from Relationships - Make an active effort to place limits on your involvement in relationships. Realize that over-involvement in relationships requires more time than you probably have to give.

Concentrate on Facts and Details - Be more data and fact oriented; putting effort into the details of your responsibilities will allow you to be more effective when things need to get done.

Limit Relationship Factors - Devote time to your responsibilities as well as your relationships. While relationships are very important to you, your responsibilities and committments should also be important. Don’t neglect them or you may hurt your credibility with others.

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METHODICAL - ANALYTICAL How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets.

As an investor you are conservative, moderate and careful in the way you handle your investments. You prefer caution and stability over risk and exercise patience and reservation.

As a result you are not easily swayed or thrown off course, but may have difficulty executing trades.

In making investment decisions you are conscientious and concerned with making the right choice from the very beginning. You do not like to err. You are precise and systematic and follow your system from beginning to end.

You prefer very detailed systems and follow the procedures to a “T�. You like knowing the parameters of your tasks so you can perform them in the time you are allowed and produce good results. You follow directions carefully and in the order they were given so you can turn in an error-free performance. You have high standards and expectations for yourself and your investments.

In stressful situations you are generally cooperative and compliant with whatever needs to be done, often sacrificing your own plans and ideas so as not to go against the grain.

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You are diplomatic when dealing with potential problem situations, skillfully preventing them from escalating. You are sensitive and constantly alert to potential difficulties or problems that could arise. You try to look ahead in order to avoid unnecessary trouble and risk and you are good at predicting and sidestepping such problems.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

You are driven by a desire to be accommodating. You like to think situations and plans through before you act; you are contemplative about anything new. You prefer to follow a proven, methodical pattern for doing things so that you can be assured of the outcome. You also try to keep an open mind about new things so as not to offend others. You strive to maintain a flexibility which is both an asset and a hindrance in trading.

In your daily activities you see a need to follow directions, precedents and carefully adhere to rules. You don’t mind a trading environment that require painstaking attention to detail and are good at making sure that nothing is overlooked.

You prefer to share responsibilities by working as a member of a team and would do well working in an investment group, although you feel more comfortable as a contributor than as the leader.

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You dislike sudden or abrupt change; you like established patterns and known quantities. You are a good planner since you keep yourself well-informed and also because you are accurate about details and conservative on estimates.

Behavior under Pressure The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. Here is how you typically perform under pressure: You feel an overriding desire to perform to the best of your abilities. This pressure can influence your success positively or negatively. You perform best when your environment is structured: you like to have everything clearly defined which can create conflict in unpredictable market conditions.

However, once you reach a level of confidence in your analysis your opportunity for success is improved. You approach trading from a conservative standpoint, preferring to be sure of things before you commit yourself to action or to an important decision. In an environment that is clearly defined, you are very dependable and stable, knowing what you can do and delivering on your commitments. Your manner can be very flexible: you like to keep everyone happy, avoid trouble, and do your work in a precise and accurate way. You set high objectives for yourself and you do whatever is necessary to come through on your responsibilities. You prefer trades that are based on well established patterns and probabilities and for that reason your decisions are almost always sound.

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Even under high pressure you avoid jumping to conclusions and making impulsive decisions.

Your passion for order and impeccability, normally an excellent trait, may actually work against you in the time sensitive financial markets. Therefore it is important that you have a set of investing procedures and protocols that will define your mode of operation. You feel that the best way to achieve your goals under pressure is to stick to the plan and perform it to the best of your ability. You also seek approval and feedback from others to ensure you are making the right decisions. However, you are comfortable working alone and unaided.

Your willingness to take responsibility for your own work and the conservative way that you commit to responsibilities really pay off when you come under pressure.

Because you like to have everything well-planned ahead of time and dislike surprises or abrupt changes, pressure situations that are highly dynamic can be extremely stressful for you. Such situations will force you to commit to actions and decisions before you are really ready.

Possible Need for Improvement While every investor profile has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges. Here are a couple of area’s that may improve your trading.

You have a tendency to over-manage your trade decision, and particularly those that pose an element of doubt. Give -111-

the market time to make its move and resist the urge to exit when the market when the plan isn’t going perfectly.

Another area that might provide potential problems for you is in your time management. The market requires timeliness of execution. You most likely check and re-check details of your work because of your perfectionist nature, and by the time you gather the confidence in your trades, the opportunity is gone. Learn to trust your analysis and execute in a timely fashion.

Trust your Analysis. The decisions you make are usually low-risk because you make them in a tentative and guarded fashion. You may hesitate to act on your own initiative, preferring to wait for instructions. You dislike antagonism and may give in to others in order to avoid conflict. In giving in, you most likely won’t let go of your original idea and you may hold a grudge for having to give it up.

Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it often enough just to learn to recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Don’t Second Guess Yourself - In situations where all others seem to disagree about your trading decisions, do not be afraid to stand alone and back up your ideas and opinions.

In many cases you will be right when everyone else is wrong.

Decide More Quickly - Have confidence in your opinions and -112-

decision-making ability. Don’t be afraid to base decisions more on feelings and not so much on facts.

Initiate Action - Don’t waste time moving on what you’ve decided, get after it right away.

Make Specific Suggestions - Be sure to express in detail exactly what you are thinking otherwise people might not get what you’re trying to say.

Actively Look for Solutions - Don’t wait around to have things spelled out for you. Take initiative and find a solution to the problem. You are well suited to find meaningful solutions to difficult market dilemmas.

Focus on Objectives - Back off from your total concentration on detail and look at the larger financial picture. Think about the overall goals involved and less about perfecting the details.

Ask Questions - Instead of stifling your curiosity, indulge it.

When you want to know about something, speak up and ask about it.

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METHODICAL - METHODICAL How You See Yourself.

Your success in the financial markets has as much to do with your personality as it does your level of expertise. It is important to develop a trading style that is consistent with your natural inherent characteristics. The following is a representation of how you might see yourself in the financial markets.

As an investor, you are very attentive and aware of the current market environment and are good at identifying potential problems or barriers to your trading success.

You are thorough and show a high level of foresight in the decisions you make. You are very accurate and precise in the manner you work with and process market data and news.

You are a stickler for following your system to the letter; you are very good at enforcing your trading rules on every trade you make.

When making decisions you prefer to use proven precedents and known facts as much as possible so as to avoid unnecessary risks. Your precise, perfectionist nature helps you to meet the high performance standards you set for yourself when the current market environment fits those precedents; however, you become uneasy when the market changes and those precedents no longer apply, because you feel you have to make decisions without any historical basis to justify them.

Basic Desires and Motivations Your basic desires and motivations drive your abilities and -114-

performance in the financial markets. Learn to use your motivations to your benefit as you develop trading rules and system that are unique to your trading style.

As an investor, your trading system is focused to provide accurate, consistent results with little or no risk. You like to follow “standard operating procedures� in a conscientious and systematic way; this means that as you make trades, you look for opportunities that fit into historical patterns and precedents. You feel that your by-the-book approach, coupled with your high attentiveness to potential problems is absolutely necessary to your success.

You feel a high level of responsibility for your investments, and are very active about tracking and managing each investment you make. As you analyze data from the market and your trading activity, you are factual and matter-of-fact about what your data tells you. Your maintenance-oriented approach to your investments allows you analyze your investments results objectively and define your trading rules and system in even more detail.

Behavior under Pressure We are constantly under the influence of the pressure to perform--whether subtle or overt. As traders, this pressure can come from outside influences, but often comes from ourselves.

This pressure, from time to time, can affect our normal behavior. The markets oscillate between periods of relative calm and wildly volatile. Your ability to perform under pressure will directly influence the outcome of any given trade. People respond to these pressures in different ways. Here is how you -115-

typically perform under pressure: You perform best when your environment is structured: you like to have everything clearly defined, which is why you perform best when the market fits into historical norms.

In such an environment, you are very dependable and stable, knowing what you can do and delivering on your commitments. You approach trading from a conservative standpoint, preferring to be sure of things before you commit yourself to action or to an important decision. You like to make investment decisions based on long-term probabilities.

For that reason, your decisions are almost always very sound.

You set high marks for yourself and you do whatever is necessary to come through on your responsibilities in a precise and accurate way. Even under high pressure you avoid jumping to conclusions and making impulsive decisions; however, your passion for order and impeccability, normally an excellent trait, may actually work against you when timepressure is applied.

You focus on keeping a cool head and executing your trading system in a timely fashion. You feel that the best way to achieve your goals under pressure is to stick to the plan and perform it to the best of your ability. You try to stay openminded and you work hard to follow your trading rules and on a consistent basis.

When you work in a group, you strive to maintain peace when the tension is high. It is important for you to make sure everyone in the group supports whatever decisions are -116-

being made before you will go along with them, however you are also comfortable working alone and unaided. Your willingness to take responsibility for your own results and the conservative way that you commit to your trading really pay off when you come under pressure and help you achieve your goals.

Because you like to have everything well-planned ahead of time and due to your dislike for any abrupt or surprise changes, pressure situations that are highly dynamic, such as a rapidly changing market environment, can be extremely stressful for you. Such situations will force you to commit to actions and decisions before you are really ready.

Possible Need for Improvement While every investor has unique characteristics that compliment trading, you also share challenges with others that match your investor profile. Here are a couple of areas that may improve your trading.

You may spend too much time checking and rechecking details, striving for perfection at the expense of an appropriate and profitable trade that may not fit every criterion you have set. “Paralysis by analysis” is a real threat to your trading success.

You may become too dependent upon procedures and unable to take timely action when the market changes and expectations become unclear. You may hesitate to act without orders, rules, or precedents that make you feel justified in taking a particular course of action. You may also be too -117-

tentative, guarded, and slow to decide when presented with a new trading opportunity that you are unsure of due to the lack of precedent.

Ideas for Better Performance Here are a few high impact suggestions that might improve your success in the financial markets. Do not worry about changing these characteristics, it is often enough just to learn to recognize when they are affecting your investment outcomes.

Take Risks - Don’t be afraid to step out and do something you consider to be risky. Sometimes you can hold back too much and you miss trading opportunities that can really pay off.

Be Willing to Disagree - Your aversion to confrontations should not be applied to situations where you really need to express your thoughts on a matter of importance. Holding back and not saying what you think can cause more harm than good.

Take an Independent Stand - In situations where all others seem to disagree with you, do not be afraid to stand alone and back up your ideas and opinions. In some cases you will be right when everyone else is wrong.

Decide More Quickly - Have confidence in your opinions and decision-making ability. Don’t be afraid to base decisions more on feelings and not so much on facts.

Initiate Action - Don’t waste time moving on what you’ve decided, get after it right away. If a trading opportunity meets -118-

your rules, act rather than re-analyzing to check your facts.

Actively Look for Solutions - Don’t wait around to have things spelled out for you. Take initiative and find a solution to the problem.

Control Feelings - Finding a balance between following your instincts and making sure your trading decisions have a strong foundational basis is critical to your investment success. Do not allow your feelings to overwhelm your judgment and bring about actions or decisions that are not well thought out.

Look at Situations Objectively - Try to view the situation from all possible sides; you may discover that your original thinking was biased in some way and therefore inappropriate.

Restrain Emotional Responses - When in a situation that produces a dramatic swing in your emotional state, exert control over yourself and prevent the emotion from getting away with you. This would probably be an effective time to get away from the market for a while and find something else to distract your attention.

Be More Independent - Don’t spend so much effort ensuring consensus or obtaining confirmation before committing to something. Have confidence in yourself and your abilities and do more things on your own.

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RESOURCES The Psychology of Investing Lifson, L. & Geist, R., Wiley & Sons, 1999.

This book is a series of papers taken from the Harvard Medical School Conferences on the Psychology of Investing. Although ranging far and wide, their uniting theme is how human emotion affects financial decision-making. It includes papers on topics such as “The Emotions of Risk,” “Why It Is So Difficult to Sell,” and “Investor Overreaction”.

Contrarian Investment Strategies: The Next Generation Dreman, David, Simon & Schuster, 1998.

In a clear, witty style, David Dreman spells out the benefits of being a contrarian—buying stocks of good companies and mutual funds when they are out of favour. Based on patterns of predictable psychological errors, Dreman demonstrates how investors overreact to both good and bad news, and how this has sweeping implications for financial decision-making.

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk Bernstein, Peter, Wiley & Sons, 1996.

Detailing the history of how humans make choices under conditions of uncertainty, Bernstein captures the tension between those who believe the best decisions are based on quantification

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and numbers and those who base their decisions on subjective feelings and beliefs about the future.

Rational Choice in an Uncertain World Hastie, R. & Dawes, R.M., Sage Publications, 2001.

A good, easy to read overview of the psychology of judgment and decision-making from a cognitive psychology perspective.

Beyond Greed and Fear: Understanding Behavioral Finance and the Psychology of Investing Shefrin, Hersh, Harvard Business School Press, 1999.

A good introduction to the new field of behavioural finance.

Shefrin does an excellent job combining theory and practice while maintaining an entertaining and conversational tone.

Mind Over Money: Match Your Personality to a Winning Financial Strategy Schott, John W. & Arbeiter, Jean S., Little, Brown & Co., 1999.

A practical book written from a dynamic psychological perspective that helps the reader understand his or her emotional investing mistakes and what to do about them.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shawn Lucas is a leading expert in the field of technical and economic analysis of the financial markets with over 15 years of investing and training experience. He has traveled extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Asia providing lectures, training, consulting, and expert testimony to companies and individuals on the art and science of financial analysis.

He has authored sixteen books and studies on the use of technical and economic analysis in stock, option, foreign exchange, and futures trading. His simple and methodical approach to the markets has helped thousands of investors better understand and improve their performance and profitability in the financial markets.

Having written material and trained fund investors for some of the largest and most recognized names in the financial industry, Shawn became disenchanted by the unethical methods and costs saturating the -122-

financial education community. As a result, he left larger companies to provide training through Proform Trading, a company dedicated to providing higher quality education at affordable prices for average people.

His purpose in writing the Investor Profile was to aid in helping his many students and others understand themselves better and, more importantly, understand how to manage their own personalities in the world of investing.

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So you want to invest? Are you up to the challenge? Can you talk the talk and walk the walk? The investor is a curious breed who lives the sweet life when winning and finds religion when losing. But contrary to popular belief, knowledge and skills are not enough to become a successful investor. It requires knowledge of who you are, what motivates you, and what scares you.

The Investor Profile was created to help investors learn to recognize their natural internal characteristics that both help and hinder financial success. Your motivation, confidence, commitment, self-esteem, reasoning, and emotions are just some of the inner qualities that influence your ability to make sound investment decisions. Investing success requires the mastery of your internal character resources with the application of sound investment strategies.

Every person’s investor profile consists of primary and secondary (or dominant and recessive) personality traits resulting in 16 possible specific outcomes. Each chapter of this book focuses on how to learn from and harness your personality type in order to make the most of your investing capabilities.

Take the test now and learn what makes you tick, but more importantly, learn how to turn that tick into profit.