Type 1 Investor

Type Ones are systematic in their approach to everything, and when it comes to personal investing, Type 1 investors are built for the kind of intense due diligence that leaves no stones unturned. They will analyze and reanalyze with multiple sets of assumptions – covering different scenarios – with conscientious precision.

Seeking perfection in investing – for example, gathering complete information, building the best possible financial model, checking off every investment criterion, covering all downside cases – can be a strength. However, when taken too far, it can also become paralyzing. Type 1 investors may be so hyper focused on identifying narrative fit and checking mental check boxes, they fail to see other possibilities on their investment journeys. 

Type 1 investors crave for exactness and order because they do not wish to find themselves making mistakes. But everyone makes them, so that mental refusal to accept the occurrence of wrongdoing leads to anger. If Type 1 investors find themselves tripping up on their financial journeys too fast too soon, it can put them off for good, since their tolerance for missteps is even lower than other Enneagram types

If a Type 1 investor holds oneself to the highest standards of achieving alpha returns every single year, and a bear market ravages portfolio performance, that feedback loop will be received like a tormenting critic. We all have our inner critics and there is an element of perfectionism in every one of us. For Type Ones, however, that inner critic is especially loud, and external criticism is amplified multifold.

Type Ones are prone to allowing checkboxes to take a life of its own. Just because an investment opportunity satisfies all their curated (and subjective) conditions, it does not mean that it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Misdirection of  energy to seek exactness can come at the expense of taking actions based on approximations of the bigger picture. Allowing the illusion of completeness to determine the course of investment actions – just because it checks all the boxes – can also lead one to precisely the wrong direction, like value traps.

The most effective antidote to Type One repression is the introspective nature of a Type Four (Individualist) archetype. Similarly, letting go into spontaneity, embodied by Type Seven enthusiasts, presents another direction of self-development.