John Mylant's  Instablog

It is Wall Street 2008. The best and brightest traders-you know, the one's hanging Ivy League Educational plaques on their walls and strutting Goldman Sachs pedigree. They went to the right schools and worked for the right investment banking firm. And they were rewarded for their part in the 2008 crash. So what do they do after that? Supposedly everyone was doing the right thing. It just goes to show that even with the best education and working at a prestigious firm does not mean one is always correct.

With this in mind, I have found that one trait that we need to 'recover' that-we some how have lost between childhood and adulthood is art of curiosity. Our success as investors and trader in stocks and options is going to be directly tied to our ability to ask questions.

We are taught to approach the markets with a sense of scholastic intelligence. This is understandable as we have been systematically trained from childhood on up to listen to someone and feedback what we have learned. Our 'success' is judged by how well we reflect what we have been programmed with. The curiosity we had, just "to know" when we were young-that enthusiastic child-driven curiosity just to know-was systematically replaced with academic intelligence. And this is what we have been taught to use in our decision making process when it comes to researching our stock and option investing.

But-in a market that is rarely driven by logic, I suggest that if we are going to be successful investors and traders, we cannot ignore our emotional intelligence. There are successful investors who are quite intelligent. There are some that are not so intelligent. Book smart is good but without the emotional trait of curiosity, I believe too many investors have lost too much money while on the learning curve to success.

As hard as it is for us to lose money, it is just as hard to say, "I don't know." Or to admit "I don't have the right answer." We want to study come up with our own answers and be right. But it costs us too much time and money this way. In a market that sometimes teeters on the abyss of schizophrenia, we need to lose our fear of asking others for help.

A serious student of the market admits he/she has a lot to learn and is not afraid of what another will think of him/her when they ask questions. It is usually those who don't know a lot who tend to put up the front and boast how much they do know and usually need to be right.

You want to be successful in the stock market? You want to make more money trading options than you lose? Then don't be afraid to admit how much you don't know and continually ask questions. Redeem that curiosity you had when you were a child and become enthusiastic to learn all you can about the type of investing or trading you are interested in.

You are never told to ask how. You can always learn how to do something better. But you need to ask.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.