Understanding your own goals and attitudes to risk is the starting point of becoming a successful trader or investor.

 

An investor is looking to create and manage a long only portfolio that outperforms the benchmark that they set for themselves. They behave more like a unit trust or mutual fund. Typically the investor timeframe is longer than the trader timeframe, and they do not need to spend as much time following the market as a trader. In most cases the timeframe for investors is measured from months to years. 

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A trader is looking to opportunistically find trades that they can put on to generate absolute returns. They behave more like a hedge fund.The trader is equally happy being long or short and actively seeks leverage to enhance returns. For a trader to be successful in the longer term they have to be very disciplined in their approach to risk on each trade. Typically the trader timeframe is significantly shorter than that of the investor. The trader timeframe may be anything from seconds for some specialist traders to weeks or months for some macro traders. 

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See which mindset below you best identify with to find the right courses for you  (Launching soon).