|  MAR 1988

Fitting your "social style" into trading by Herbert Friedman, Ph.D.

Fitting your ""social style"" into trading by Herbert Friedman, Ph.D. When it comes to investing, each of us must develop his or her own methodology and manner of approaching the markets. To a large degree, our ability to do this determines our investment success. For example, many commodity traders have lamented the gap between knowing what will happen and having the discipline or desire to execute successfully. Commodity traders also often comment on how their emotional or mental mistakes can be extremely expensive. Whether this gap between your ideas and your bottomline is the result of an emotional response which works against you or difficulty in decision-making, to trade successfully requires all aspects of your investment behavior at their peak . For many traders, the psychological aspects are just as crucial to monitor as the technical or fundamental. The easiest and best system to understand yourself in terms of decision-making and behavior under stress is the ""social style"" model that has been used for years as a means of teaching successful management practices. The beauty of social styles is that it is a simple, easy-to-understand model that can give you insight into your normal mode of functioning. Understanding yourself in terms of this model can give you invaluable hints for managing yourself. In trading, this increased self-management skill can lead to increased profits.

by Herbert Friedman, Ph.D.