i have been reading about some great traders…and it appears that they all had the opportunity to rub shoulders with other great traders…or sometimes terrible traders …in different banks etc
either that or they had several different roles in brokerage firms…maybe trading bonds, or being runners, or order processing…
it seems that the great ones were all exposed to the trading environment directly from where they learned how things worked on the inside and even did really boring jobs at times on the inside.
the question is…
to become a great trader…do you think its possible from the comfort of your own home or own office without ever stepping foot into a brokerage firm or financial institution…( i know you can get access to people online, and you can get books and videos by the thousand online)…but to really know the score…
is your opinion that you need to actually spend some time in the environment or not. ?
you may study hard 7 days a week at home …and be passionate…but you may waste lots of time chasing the wrong ideas…doing things that you eventually realise is a complete waste of time…whereas if you were in the environment …maybe you would realise sooner that …it is a waste of time…online you may respect and listen to others who come across really knowlegeable…
but in the field…it doesnt take long before their true worth is truly known…
Hey man, Glad to see your still hammering out Questions, lol…
I have to be honest, In my 20 months into this career, I have asked 3 maybe 4 question, TO ANYONE… TOTAL
I guess I just perfer to learn the hard way…
Anyways, I think im a great trader, and I have yet to meet anyone, face to face, that trades.
BUT, Law Of Attraction is very true, you become one with your company you keep, and surround yourself with.
Im now searching in my area I live in, Where the Richier people hangout. I havent a clue, if someplace exisist, but I would like to be friends with like minded individuals… Last hing I want o do is hang out at a bar, with people whinning cause the power is off, or water and sewer and taxes ned paid. I want o hear, " Im buying a boat " or, I just spent $250,000 on a new car", Or, " Anyone got a Dollar, I need my Cigar Lite", LOL
We are assuming that successful traders, regardless whether they admit to being traders, or the closet ones who sneak around in secrecy yet keep banking in the money, would want to rub shoulders with us.
With that being said, knowing someone who is willing to spend time with a newbie and having the patience to explain the very fundamental basics of the market takes great patience.
Something that we rarely find online.
Having someone point out things expedites the entire process by a few gazillion hours, provided, we are disciplined enough to listen to advice and follow it to see for ourselves.
Most of the time, when a newbie is thought something, they get too excited and a week or two later they are back after loosing more money and wondering what had happened.
So, coming back to your question, do we need to know a few traders who make money in the market in order to be profitable?
The answer is no.
Will it help if we did? Hell yes.
At the end of the day, whether you do this for a living, or you work on this as an added bonus for your retirement, or you are just trading and not thinking of the money that is being made, what ever the reason, you should remember some basic things.
There is no free lunch. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
With or without a mentor, you still need to be someone who is strong and who does not give up or easily feel frustrated. Make no mistake about it, I have done a few things in my relatively young age, and that includes running my own business.
None of it was/is as mentally taxing as learning how to trade was.
You need not only keep your frustrations and anger when loosing in check, you also need to keep your greed in check. Excitement of any kind, be it positive or negative, will affect your judgement call and it will cause you money. You cannot be cool as ice when coming to picking trades over night.
Learning how to trade will tax your mental and emotional capacity to the maximum. It comes in waves, the uppers and downers. I have cried when I lost yet another account, when I thought that I finally have it figured and this will be the last time I am ever going to top up an account.
So unless you are resolute and have an iron fist in your resolution to learn, you are probably going to give up sooner or later. Most end up believing that the markets will eventually screw you and no one really makes money from the markets.
And that brings me to the final point that I honestly think that any newbie should have if they want to be successful in learning how to trade. Without these, its sound advice when I say dont bother. Dont waste your time if you dont honestly think you have these basic qualities because you are not going to make it.
The last and most important thing that I think a newbie should have before they embark on this roller coster is the firm believe that the markets pay. The firm believe that people make money off trading. Not an iota of doubt should exist before you take the first step. This is the most important. Without this, when the emotional waves hit, you will be lost.
No but it will take you longer to get up to speed is all. I’m trying to think of an analogy here… err… say your car starts to splutter and dies on you. Now a machanic will quickly look to the ‘obvious’ causes and likely put it right in under 15 mins. If you have no clue, its call a mechanic or get under the hood for as long as it takes until you figure out the problem. I guess its broadly the same in FX. If you’ve no clue, figure on 1-3 years of going blind staring at charts and you’ll likely figure it out. LOL!!! Now providing your ‘mentor’ already has at least a few tens of thousands of hours on the clock he/ she will likely drastically shorten that learning curve. Its my understanding from reading posts here and there on BP, there are one or two reputable ones in your neck of the woods for £1-3k.
I dont think its required, some people do it on their own. its a personal journey, if you find a mentor who really fits you then great. otherwise it may make your learning curve longer. Its really about fit and function, if they are an options market maker its not really going to help you for example. But yes i have had mentoring and i really enjoyed it, a lot of what i do now has been helped along by some really great traders.
Indeed… during the three years I’ve hung out in here, I can think of at least half a dozen really solid traders (quickly decerned by their posts) and they have openly shared ‘gratis’. It would be time well spent seeking posts of those that remain out.
im not talking of paying for a mentor…im more thinking along the lines of working in a forex trading house and latching onto others in there who are making BUNDLES OF CASH…asking questions all day…
truth is …i would never pay for mentoring just because i would rather study some books…or make friends with other traders…or get a job in the environment…
plus dealing with one trader as a paid mentor…is a bit risky for my knowledge you may pick up a trading style that isnt truly you…or bad habbits…plus the type of mentor i want to learn from wouldnt even consider making a poxy 3 grand here and there as a mentor…he may do it as a friend…but if 3 grand is worth pursuing by a trader in his own time…then he aint really made proper cash…
would a multi multi millionaire who can earn possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds per month…start advertising to mentor others for 5 grand mentoring fee…
the time it takes him to do an induction course to the guy being mentored…he could have made the fee 10 times over…he is actually losing money…its a negative economy…
not that i totaly disagree with mentoring…im sure its save a lot of people a lot of money…rather than made a lot of people a lot of money…and its another way of making money for the mentor …which is fantastic…good entrepreneurial spirit always gets my respect…but we have a popular saying in britain …it goes like this.
Hehe… you are… err… blunt! But thats OK. I believe the saying is… ‘those that can do… those that can’t teach’. Thing is a ‘poxy’ £5k might well save you taking a bigger hit short term is all. Its a steep learning curve!
Quite, and it is not necessarily the case that a good mentor has to be some multi-millionaire über-trader. A good mentor can be someone who is still amassing their cash themselves, but who is much further down the path than you. So they might have reasons for mentoring, for instance they could be using the mentoring to give a regular (and pretty good!) income while they compound their own trading account to the point where they can go out entirely on their own. There is often a misconception on here that all good traders are rich, and all rookies have no money and a flawed strategy. There are people in both of those categories, sure, but there are also many shades of achievement in between, in my experience.
yes r carter i think you got the saying right.
im not against mentoring…i think its a great idea …especially if you got a few grand that you cant afford to lose…it would be wise to get educated on some principles as soon as possible before you lose it all.
good points simon …and yes…even the multi multi’s …were not always that way.
Does an wannabe body builder need a personal fitness coach to become a body builder? No many have done it without one.
When Esiden made the light bulb did he have a coach to show him how? No he didn’t but he did.
When the Wright Brothers decided to bend a piece of metal and fly it over the ocean did they have someone to show them how? No they didn’t but they did it.
All the above are extreme cases of my point.
But do you need a trading coach to become successful in this industry? No you don’t. Will it help? Sure will.
It will help because you are rubbing shoulders with someone who already has the success you want. It will speed the process up and increase the chance of you actually becoming successful.
I rubbed shoulders with a great trader back in the day when i was trading stocks and working for him. It certainly helped me.
But i don’t think it’s going to make or break you. It will speed up the process.
