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Another interesting trader personality type that we will discuss as part of our article series on traders’ personality types is the Spontaneous Forex Trader.
Dr. Van K. Tharp identified the “Spontaneous Type” as traders that have good prospects for overcoming their typical challenges and weaknesses if they are willing to tenaciously work through them. This is also the case for 9 other of the 15 Tharp trader types.
Out of those 15, 3 were dubbed by Tharp as the types with the lowest possibility of becoming successful Forex Traders in the long term.
Spontaneous Traders are normally people who can make quick trading decisions and then act on them without much effort.
Spontaneous Forex Trader Qualities
Dr. Tharp evaluated the possibility of a certain psychological profile becoming a successful Forex trader in the long run based on how many of the 3 key traits they possess.
The Spontaneous Trader has one of these traits and specifically, that is the ability to comprehend the big picture and make the necessary links between the different points in it to help them in making the right trading decisions.
However, while they are able to make quick decisions and seeing the big picture certainly helps them to do so even better, traders of the “spontaneous” type will tend to skip making the deeper research of the Forex market and their past trading activities.
In addition, they will tend to lack the discipline when closing positions - either for taking profits or cutting losers. This is in contrast to their quick and proficient decision making when entering trades.
Trading Strengths
The advantages of Spontaneous Forex Traders mainly come from their effectiveness in executing trades – in spotting the opportunities and taking them.
They have no problems with hesitation or second-guessing trades like some of the other types of traders - which is a great advantage for them.
These traders are also willing to try out new trading strategies and are also comfortable to use real money in small amounts to do so. This is very good way to improve as a trader and also fine-tune any already successful trading strategies.
Trading Challenges
Discipline can be a major challenge and later down the road, a weakness for the Spontaneous Type of Forex Trader. This is probably no surprise judging by the name Dr. Tharp uses for them.
They don’t like to plan things which can be a very bad habit in trading - as we have discussed in many of our posts on trading psychology.
The Spontaneous Trader’s main challenges involve maintaining their trading discipline, paying attention to the market and following through on existing trades. Again, like in most cases, having a good and well-defined trading plan will be of great help to Spontaneous Forex Traders as well and will help them to deal with their challenges.
They also tend to be easily distracted by things happening around them and on the outside. Dealing with these situations can be a challenge for them as well. Also, they will often like to consult with others and will need confirmation from them in order to help them validate their trading ideas.
