I have spent the better part of the last 4 months interviewing great traders. Sitting down one on one with 10+ traders at their offices (a group managing collectively well over $10 billion USD) has afforded many unique insights.

What is a common theme among very successful traders? They are opportunity takers, not makers. Trend followers, as one example, need trends to make money. Where do trends come from? Sometimes trend following winners come from excessive risk taking by other market players. Consider the following BusinessWeek article: