IMHO trading is about knowing yourself. You have to know what type of trading suits your personality and probably more important what doesn't. Know how you deal with stress/risk/greed and fear. And I guess if your smarter than the average bear then that would be a plus. According to the so called IQ test I'm a high scorer and a high IQ hasn't helped me in trading, probably has hurt more than helped. I kick ass at taking tests though, helped a lot back when I had a civil service job and it helps with some other work I do. I don't consider myself a trading expert, my views may be irrevelent.
So, what about balanced that we can fill in the blank in the phrase you have prepared? Still discredited?
Correct me if I am wrong: Long Term Capital Management had not one, but TWO, Nobel prize winners in Economics: They still went up side down......in flames....big time..... A significant part of TRADING is an "art form"...gut instinct... INVESTING, on the other hand, is pretty basic.....I don't think Warren Buffet has a PhD..... SteveD
That's accurate for the most part, but there are exceptions. I was dating a girl in grad school who asked me to test. Ironically, she took it very personally when I tested 10-handles higher on the Mega test. Mensa was a lot more popular with the egghead-set before the internet.
I think IQ is useful for designing systems and strategies. It doesn't help much with the execution side especially if the high IQ resulted in patterns of behaviour that don't work with trading. Re the above post: 1. iq tests look at matches with static patterns not moving patterns (design vs implementation). 2. iq tests normally test math, pattern, language. they are biassed in the language section but also in sometime in the ease of understanding instructions. never forget though that chinese asians outscore europeans (possibly because of the language they have to learn). 3. agreed on the right vs left brain. not the big thing the new agers wanted it to be.
PhD= pemanent head damage.. All general knowledge is is potential.... Don't let ur own potential be your achilles heel....
There is a correlation between "tests" and intelligence, you cant deny it. But this does not automatically translate into success. I read one study where highly driven/determined, but dumb people tended to become financially successful because they were too stupid to realize how bad their odds of success was The "smart" people gave up early and never tried because they could see how unlikely it was that their hard work would pay off given some business plan.
Sure, here you go. A friend I've had for over 40 years was in the National Honor Society in hs, appointed to the Naval Academy and became a Mensa member about 25 years ago. Great brain. But...he got thrown out of NHS, flunked out of the Academy, still works in a blue collar job, married and divorced 3x, and has made more unwise decisions than anyone I know. He's pushing 60, in very poor health, lives in a crappy house, has almost save no money for retirement. Tried to help him for years and realized nothing was going to make him believe he was anything than a worthless piece of junk. Ansare
Wow, same experience with a co-worker from years ago. Mensa, Honor Society, etc. and lived in a trailer home on five muddy acres behind an oil refinery somewhere around Baytown, Texas.