Well, let me put it this way: failures are divided into two categories: those who did and never thought and those who thought and never did. I like simple thinking...
Yeah, being intelligent does not hurt as long as you realize that you are intelligent and so you have to be careful in order to trade well
This is a good discussion topic. You don't have to be smart to be successful at anything. I often read in the paper about pretty dumb people who come up with very clever scams that make them money. I don't think they are smart, just cunning. Their situation necessitates cunning. Like pit traders that just watch the really big orders come in and piggy back them. Is that smart. No. Cunning yes. Sometimes I overthink trading - I continually try and improve a system when in reality, further improvement is more likely to be further complication. Simplicity is brilliance. And some times the simple mind finds the best path. Like when a 3 year old turns to you and says something profound. It's not that they are smarter than you, they just have to ability to strip everything to its simplest form. Something adults lose with time and experience. unintelligent traders who know they are not smart are very likely to find a successful trader and copy his methods, rather than find their own. This is cunning. In real life, cunning is more important than intelligence. Runningbear
Yeah, and that's somewhat sad...because original thinking should be rewarded more than just the ability to copy others...but you are right, in real life it's not always the case.
Is intelligence really important for trading? Uh, how many people trade at Bright? Doesn't that answer the question for you? There are different skill sets required for different activities. To be a professional football player, you don't have to score high on your SATs. To be a Victoria's Secret model you just have to have a nice body and no brains are required. George Bush is proving you don't have to have brains to be President (actually, Ronnie proved it in the 80's). And to be a marketing manager at Bright you don't have to be smart, you just have to know how to practice the art of sales, marketing, and good old boy B.S.
Many of the most successful people I know have higher EQ than IQ (in the business world). That's why you can have a guy with a 120 IQ bossing around a bunch of guys with 150 IQ's -- because the 120 IQ guy can relate to people and is a much better socializer (perhaps also an alpha male, too). I also don't think you can quantify intelligence in any one specific category. I'm -> HORRIBLE <- at realizing things that require the most basic of common sense yet have been told that I am gifted in other areas. If you're smart enough to use a computer and smart enough to understand what it means when the little squigly line is going up or down, I think you meet the requirements for trading. Anything more than that and you start shooting yourself in the foot with "over-analyzing" things. I do think that the critical barrier that any beginning trader must overcome at some point is treating it like a business and getting the hell out of Dodge when you don't belong in that trade.
LoL...it's funny you asked this. I had just run across this quote the other day, and couldn't help but chuckle. When I first came down here, I was Mr. Big Ego. I had a law degree and here were all these ex-cops and truck drivers and people with 200-word vocabularies trading in the pits. I figured I'd make a killing, right? With this competition, how could you lose? Then I got the shit kicked out of me. Then I got the shit kicked out of me again. You know what I've learned down here? Humility. Discipline. You come into this business with any sense of superiority, and you're dead. Marty Dickman, corn trader
That really seems more like a discipline issue. Also having self confidence and trust in your own decisions and that your plan is well thought out is critical as well. Over thinking is not a sign of intelligence but rather neurosis. (I am not saying your neurotic or anything) I would say in this case you demonstrated your intelligence by being able to analyze the situation and recognize your overthinking as a hindrance and correct your own habit.
Who in their right mind would be able to acknowledge how dumb they really are. If they were, then they would be smart, or even enlightened. An old saying goes: Only the wise knows that he doesn't know. I think trading is a mix of many things, the mere fact of being able to understand the amount of information that is required to make a proper trade is already a proof of a certain degree of intelligence. If a monkey had a buy and sell button, I'm pretty sure he would blow off his account in no time. Take it easy guys and learn to control your emotions.