As parents we like to think that our children will learn life’s lessons from us. We don’t often think we learn much from them; we’ve been there, done that. Our purpose is to break the ice, to show them the way. This book, by my son Dr. Jason Williams, turns that notion upside down for me.
While I have been trading the markets for some 50 years now, in this book I learned from my son. The child was the teacher. The first thing I learned is that in order to change taking incorrect action and not changing detrimental habits, we really do need to know ourselves.
Without knowing yourself, how can change occur?
I kind of thought I knew most of the things about the market as well as my own personality as a trader. I was flat out wrong. When I took the personality profile test that Jason gave me, I immediately learned my strengths and weaknesses. What surprised me was that I had never realized any of these points before.
I always knew I could develop great mechanical trading systems, but could never figure out why I had such a hard time trading or following them myself. My best trading has almost always come from a much more freestyle form of trading, something that can’t be bottled up or reduced to a single mathematical formula. It was not until I took the personality test that I understood why I can develop good systems but simply had problems following them.
What I found was that the shoe didn’t fit. While intellectually I can develop systems, my personality is not one to follow them. That was a real breakthrough for me as it crystallized the best possible trading strategy for me. I was able to find the shoe that fits. That realization, as to how I function as a trader, also taught me how I can best use mechanical trading systems. This was a double win for me; I learned my best personal trading strategy as well as how to best use trading systems!
When they were shown to me, that was very much an “A-ha!” experience. I instinctively and intuitively knew those were the areas that made me a good trader as well as the areas I needed to work on.
Risk has never bothered me, so I have not been afraid to take trades. The test confirmed that. What I didn’t know was that my largest trading weaknesses have been my lack of paying attention to detail. Clearly I’m not the world’s best detail person, not even close, but I never realized until reading Jason’s work and understanding my personality how much of a hindrance that was to making my trading even more successful.
It is my hope, and Jason’s, that as you read this book, you will have deep insights into your personality. That can be accomplished by simply looking over the shoulders of the personalities of some phenomenal traders.
In reading this book, I picked up additional insights into successful trading, thanks to the wonderful people who facilitated Jason’s work. My hat goes off to these individual traders, who opened the doors of their hearts and souls so mere mortals like us will become better at this business of trading and investing.
We typically read books on trading and investing to learn about the market. That’s not true of this book. In this book you will learn about yourself . . . you will learn how successful traders think and respond and be given techniques you can use to improve the way you go about trading.
That’s what is terribly unique about this book. It was written specifically for you. The data in this book are presented specifically to make you a better trader.
If you know the enemy and you know yourself, your victory will not be in doubt.
You have known the enemy; now you can know yourself.
Larry Williams
Trader and proud father
St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
2012