Which Type of Trader Are You?

[Caseynotes]

I'm hoping @JamesIG  might be able to set up a poll for this question to shed some light on the differing trading styles of our forum users.

The list, as described by Steve Burns, is a useful analogy of the main trading styles in itself.

Value investing is buying discounted dollars.

Trend following is letting strong dollars grow.

Swing trading is flipping dollars.

Momentum trading is doubling quarters.

Day trading is flipping fast pennies.

[Mercury]

Could be interesting @Caseynotes, as we have discussed recently it is vital to understand where any commentator is coming from (i.e. there biases) is you want to take on board what they are saying.  You and I may agree on many things but ultimately we trade on different time-frames and with different methods so we can also disagree and yet still both be right...

As I look at the list I think they items are not mutually exclusive in that, for example, I could describe myself as a swing trader but also at times a trend follower.  Not sure value investing is trading (I separate my investing activity from my trading activity and take very different approaches, albeit that one informs the other).

I also thing it might be useful to draw out some additional aspects such as Technical trading (of which there are many forms); News trading and so on.  There used to be a strap line on contributors profiles where they self describe what kind of trader they are, which I found useful. 

[Caseynotes]

 @Mercury the strap line at the bottom to help identify yourself was helpful, I think you can add something to your profile page here on the new one.

The list is not mutually exclusive as you say but most will have a 'most preferred' style of trading that will fall into one of the categories. I would keep investing in as a large number of IG clients and so forum users are inclined that way and the proportions between all the groups would be interesting and useful to know.

I liked the added diversification of the dollars, quarters and pennies to add a sense of time frame and turnover related to the different styles.