I've been thinking a lot about what makes a great investor or a great speculator. I think the most important attribute is some form of patience. This is summarized well by a quote from a famous speculator who lived from 1877-1940, Jesse Livermore:

"What beat me was not having brains enough to stick to my own game - that is, to play the market only when I was satisfied that precedents favored my play. There is a time for all things, but I did not know it. And that is precisely what beats so many men in Wall Street who are far from being in the main sucker class. There is the plain fool, who does the wrong thing at all times everywhere, but there is the Wall Street fool, who thinks he must trade all the time. No man can always have adequate reasons for buying or selling stocks daily - or sufficient knowledge to make his play an intelligent play."

LESSON: I must have patience to wait for the set-ups that work best for me.

Just a note, Jesse had patience when a stock he bought was showing him a profit, but when the stock moved opposite to his position and showed him a loss, he'd dump it fast.