Investing by colours, not numbers

If you work out your personality type, your goals become obvious and you can invest according to your archetype

- MARCUS PADLEY

I did a personality test once. There are as many shades of personality as there are people, of -course, and to make any sense of something so complex, the analysis had to generalise, which meant pigeon-holing us all into categories.

This particular stockbroking firm's personality test broke us all down into four basic types based on four basic patterns of behaviour. They labelled them 'excellence', 'analysis', 'harmony' and 'action'. They branded me as 'high action', but they were looking for someone more 'high teamwork'. It's the stockbrokers that Macquarie rejects that makes Macquarie the best.

Another personality generalisation is used in the famously popular book Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson. The book interestingly classifies personalities into colours: red, yellow, blue and green. Each colour has its own traits and once you have identified your colour, the book teaches you how to interact with the other colours. I'm a red, apparently. I'm "fast paced, a risk taker, purposeful, driven, strong-willed, high energy, competitive and rational". I am also "impatient, intolerant and overbearing". You get the idea. I find all the other colours so slow!

And so we come to investors. After 41 years in the stockmarket, I can tell you, there are different 'colours' of investor as well. I, too, have generalised and have identified five. Let's take the lead from Thomas Erikson and call them, in order of risk tolerance: white, green, blue, yellow and red.

White