This post is a guest contribution by Charles Kirk, author of the popular The Kirk Report.

From time to time I have been asked to offer my perspectives on things I have found common in successful traders. I have always struggled with my reply to that question because there are only a few traders of which I have gained enough understanding of what they do every day to achieve their results.

However, in Van Tharp’s latest book “Super Trader,” he provides ten common characteristics frequently found among the best of the best among the hundreds of traders he’s worked with throughout his career. Like me, I think you may find it of interest!

1. They all have a tested, positive expectancy system that’s proved to make money for the market type for which it was designed.

2. They all have systems that fit them and

 THE COMMON ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS:  A really good synopsis of Van Tharp’s latest book over at the Kirk Report. 

CONFIRMATION BIAS:  You better put it in your basket of mind games.  You are going to face it whether you recognize it or not.

TRADE WITH AN EMPTY MIND:  or just be stupid! 

TIGER WOODS AND LOSS AVERSION: Playing it safe could cost you more money than the risk.  Just ask Tiger?

IT IS NOT ABOUT THE SYSTEM:  It is more about learning and developing as a trader in order to use the system properly. 

And with the market playing tricks again, some quotes to leave you with:

“Nobody like change except a wet baby.” Mark Twain

“Success gives you the confidence to be patient with your failures.”  Eric Rohmann

“The only worse thing than waiting is

This is the second post of my series on why the best traders hide under a dunce cap.

See part one here.

If you want to work hard on Wall Street and not get paid for it then boy do I have the perfect job for you!

Work on discovering all the details about the stock market. There may be no monetary benefit but the job security is guaranteed. In other words, no one would pay you since it is an impossible task to ever complete.  You can never know everything there is to know about the stock market.  But you sure can know a lot about a little.  Sounds really stupid does it not?

The market provides millions of opportunities a day. So let’s face it, we

The top 30 most volatile days for stocks since 1969, bar one, all occurred in 2008. The one exception was in November 1987, shortly after the Black Monday wipe out. These are the startling results compiled by one of our favorite market gurus Dr Van Tharp.

Tharp is a trading psychologist and the author of one of the best books ever written about making money in the markets, Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom. His key insight into trading is that position sizing as a way to control risk is critical to success.

Tharp used a measurement called Advanced True Range (ATR) to analyze market volatility since 1969. ATR is a way of measuring the degree of price movement of securities developed by J Welles Wilder and introduced in Wilder’s seminal 1978 book on trading, New Concepts in Technical Trading

There’s one investing rule more important than all others. It has nothing to do with stock picking or market timing. Although about 95% of all investment commentary in the mainstream media deals with these two aspects of investing, you’d be surprised how little these actually matter.

Position sizing is what matters, says Brian Hunt, editor in chief of Stansberry Research in yesterday’s Growth Stock Wire. Trading psychologist Dr Van Tharp says its how “great traders manage their money.”

Smart position sizing is easy: never risk more than 2% of your capital on any one trade.

That’s it. We told you it wasn’t complicated. But would be surprised how few traders and investors actually follow this rule.

Here’s how it works. Take it away, Brian…

Let’s say you’re a trader with a $50,000 “grubstake.” And you’re thinking about buying Intel at $20 per share.

How many shares should you buy? Buy too much and