Regarding the traits of top traders, Bernard Oppetit first points out that traders need to be passionate about the financial markets.
"First of all, he must be interested in the relevant markets and want to know everything about them. This is a trait that most traders lack. Most people think that the financial markets are very boring."
"Even if they think that trading is exciting and fun, they get bored after a while, because trading involves a lot of research and analysis, and it takes a lot of time."
"You have to understand why the market behaves in this way, you have to judge who buys and who sells, and what their motives are. You have to pursue the answers to these questions all the time, and you have to have extraordinary patience, energy, and desire."
"The most important and most often lacking trait is the passionate attitude and perseverance towards the market. Most people are 'distracted', trading on one hand and thinking about other things on the other, planning how to spend money and enjoy themselves."
The passion for the market comes from the motivation for trading. Oppetit then discusses the issue of motivation.
"You have to have a natural desire to learn, to succeed, and to make money. This impulse must come from yourself, not from your boss or customers. This desire and passion must exist from the beginning, and cannot be forced or pretended."
Oppetit believes that lack of motivation often leads to failure. Many top traders agree with this theory.
"To a large extent, people fail because they want to fail. For some reason, they want to punish themselves. In their subconscious, many people do not want to win. I don't think they know this themselves. They often blame their failure on bad luck, but it is a matter of attitude, and it has nothing to do with luck."