Competencies of Online Trading

Beverly Trayner (www.btrayner.blogspot.com) had posted on Feb. 11, 2006 a selective notes of Alan Levine (www.coddogglog.com) on the presentation of Nancy "Snow" White (www.fullcirc.com) at the Northern Voice conference regarding seven compentencies of online interaction.

I find that some of the notes reflect an important facet of my online trading practice. Thus, I have reproduced and reformatted the notes here in such a way that they suit for the trading profession.

1. People think that trading online will be easy; but when you get online, trading is not that easy.
2. Trading online involves thinking laterally not vertically. Global traders, those who absorb large amounts of information randomly and then see patterns, do better than sequential analysts who tend to take linear steps that follow in a logical order.
3. We have to be able to read more information a lot more; we need to be able to scan and see patterns.
4. Trading online involves bringing your heart and mind into the online world.
5. Ego, greed and fear don't work as we become intelligent and open-minded traders.
6. Trading interaction is emergent and multi-contextual.
7. We have to be able to calculate risks. And we have to be risk-takers, in the real sense of the word.
8. Online traders can take a lot of information online and makes sense of it – we have to be able to filter it for our principals and financial backers who have little or no time browsing the Internet.
9. An important competence in trading is to be curious and "unknowing".
10. Blogging is going to increase our online trading competencies – it will change the way we interpret news and ideas.
11. Online trading is "not a solo gig". We interact and trade online with others, while the experience of it is an individual one.
12. The power and importance of the "lurker".
13. We have to learn to be "creatively abrasive".
14. Very important is "the art of invitation" – crafting an invitation that gets other traders involved.
15. Our role as bridges for the investing public who have limited time or little access to global news and information.
16. Our struggle to manage our multiple accounts and portfolios in various instruments and markets in which we are trading.
17. The importance of outsiders in giving unbiased analyses.
18. The importance of striving for self-awareness in online trading (becoming self-aware, not self-absorbed).

Visit the following link and listen to Nancy White's audio presentation: http://cogdogblog.com/2006/02/11/nancy-white-nv06/