4/12/2026 - If I had to identify one mindset quality setting successful traders apart from the others, it would be a *hungry* mindset. The really good traders actively look for where they might be wrong. They love information and making sense of information. They dig and dig: in news reports, in conversations with other traders, in their readings. Because they're integrating more information, their views tend to be more nuanced. For instance, they'll dissect an inflation report, drilling down to various parts of the economy, to identify relative winners and losers. They don't just say, "Stocks are going down because inflation is rising".The desire to know--that intellectual curiosity--came through as a primary predictor of success in the research I conducted at several hedge funds. Very often, the confident mindset and the defeated mindset are focused on one or two things, such as recent wins and losses. When a trader hungers for the big picture, they're more likely to come up with multiple ideas and big ideas. The best traders demonstrate that intellectual hunger in other parts of their lives and at previous points in their life histories. It's a talent, not just a skill.=======================4/10/2026 - It's been fascinating to see who has done well--in terms of trading psychology and in terms of P/L--during this recent period of volatility, correction, and rebound in the stock market. My most striking observation is that the most successful traders during this period are among the most successful traders in general. They have succeeded by focusing on opportunity during periods of threat and focusing on threat during periods when they were making money. The traders who have struggled have been rather uniformly optimistic or pessimistic. It's the flexibility of perspective that has distinguished the recent winners.For the recently successful traders, it's as if they are looking for what is stretched and where they might take profits or hedge when things go their way. When things are going against them, they're looking for areas where good trades now are becoming great trades. They are sized in such a way that they are never really big or small in an idea...they always leave room for getting bigger or smaller. Instead of trying to predict how things will go in world events, they're creating multiple scenarios and preparing themselves to pounce once one of those is playing out. A flexible mindset creates flexibility in trading.