What sort of trader are you?

When spread betting, you’re not trading against others so much as against your own habits and tendencies, says John C Burford. The best traders are those who know themselves.

This week, I thought I would cover some important aspects of trading that perhaps I have not covered as extensively as my analysis of current market situations using my tramline trading method.

Of course, we are not trading against other traders so much as against our negative habits and tendencies. I can give two traders my tramline method and money management rules and guarantee that after a few months, one will outperform the other.

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John is is a British-born lapsed PhD physicist, who previously worked for Nasa on the Mars exploration team. He is a former commodity trading advisor with the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission, and worked in a boutique futures house in California in the 1980s.

 

He was a partner in one of the first futures newsletter advisory services, based in Washington DC, specialising in pork bellies and currencies. John is primarily a chart-reading trader, having cut his trading teeth in the days before PCs.

 

As well as his work in the financial world, he has launched, run and sold several 'real' businesses producing 'real' products.