I was thinking about signing up for a forex mentor like “Rob booker.” I know there are some here who have trained with him. should i get a mentor or should i just keep learning on my own from the internet?
A good mentor, and I mean an actual professional and profitable trader, not someone who just sells stuff, will help out alot. It’s kind of like getting first hand coaching from a pro. Imagine learning to play basketball from Michael Jordan. The same applies in the forex.
However, the problem is finding a good mentor who can give you personal attention. With alot of the big mentors out there such as Rob Booker, they can tend to get overextended and you might find yourself struggling to get any attention. So do some research and before paying for anything, really make sure you will get some 1 on 1 attention.
Any suggestions on who would be a good mentor? How did you guys learn? Did you have a mentor or are most of the traders here self-taught? I would really prefer not to learn by my mistakes, as that could become costly!
That’s a good question! Is it really possible to become self-taught in the Forex world? Right now, I am just reading. I am trying to be a Forex sponge, taking in all that I possible can. I know one thing everyone agrees on, BECOME WELL INFORMED! That seems to be written everywhere, by everyone. I am trying, but there is a lot of knowledge to soak up. I am thinking about a mentor, but I am not sure I want to shell out a $100 + a month to become a loser.
Rob Booker actually has some free e-books, I haven’t downloaded them yet. I am still reading the Forex School here, but if you have finished that you may want to check them out. http://robbooker.com/free_forex_advice/get_id.php
I don’t know that you can really be self-taught, you read all the information you can to make informed decisions. Yes, there will be some trial and error. Start out slow, and don’t trade more than you can afford to lose at first. Don’t go in debt thinking you are gonna be the next self made millionaire, it probably isn’t going to happen. Try the Oanda website and play their FX Game, they give you like 100,000 to play with http://fxgame.oanda.com/
Those are nice links guys, I think they will be helpful. Iam gonna read the ebooks when I get done reading the school here too. Thanks!
Perhaps a good mentor would be somebody you already know, a friend who is an expert and who would have the time and patience to guide you through the process, the tips and all those important things you need to know.
Right on the money, geline. When learning Forex, trust between the mentor and the student is most important. You have to trust your mentor that he is honest with you. So, yes, friend would be the best.
Besides, a friend-mentor wouldn’t charge that much and sometimes, with
an all-time attention and support.
I would suggest that if, over six years on, DiegoG is still struggling with this question then his issues are more wide-reaching than simply whether to trust Rob Booker.
In terms of finding a good mentor, you really want to look for three things;
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someone who has extensive experience in the field and is well respected
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someone who when they speak about trading - it makes sense and seems intuitive. This person should be passionate about what they do as they will then put 110% into it.
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someone who gives good attention to their students and has been given consistently positive feedback from their students.
Of course, you want to be interested in what they are teaching specifically, but that becomes immaterial if you do not have the above.
These are the same requirements I use when looking for a teacher in any field, and I find this works with trading.
Hope this helps.
Kind Regards,
Chris
I just read Booker’s free e-book. In my opinion, he went to great pains to say absolutely nothing. I understand not wanting to give away his cash cow (mentorship) for free but that e-book was a giant waste of time.
Getting mentored is well worth it. Tony Robbins says (whether you like him or loath him it’s sensible advice) that if you want to get good at something, find somebody who’s outstanding to teach you.
You can find all the info you need to trade on the web, but 99% of it will be useless to you. Finding the 1% that you need and resonates with you is all important. An experienced mentor will quickly figure out your strengths and weaknesses and give you that 1%. He / she will then work to help you overcome your weaknesses and mould you into a stronger trader.
When choosing someone, make sure you can get (and validate) references from others, ask to see their trading record. Get hold of them on Skype if you can and talk to them about where you are now and what you need from them. If they won’t talk to you even by email, then they’re probably just selling off-the-shelf tutorials rather than 1-1 mentorship.
I have to agree with some of LazyTrader’s sentiments here (btw - why be lazy? nobody who ever accomplished anything great has been remembered for being lazy - they worked for it).
But I think there is a key point not being discussed;
That you have to value learning over money.
If you value money over learning, you will choose the cheaper program that is $50 less, but has nothing of value in it. You will put a limit on your learning process all based on something you can make more of (money). That does not mean the most expensive program is the best.
What it means is you are dedicated to learn, regardless if it makes you feel uncomfortable (financially). All learning processes for skill based endeavors will make you feel uncomfortable - and that is the point. If your current thinking, understanding and programming worked, you’d already be successful. But you’re not and there is a reason why. You simply need to be re-programmed, and that process will be uncomfortable emotionally, mentally, perhaps even spiritually.
You will have to learn to go against your limbic brain and millions of years of evolution. You will have to go against emotions and fears, about dealing with uncertainty, about dealing no solid ground or no predictable paycheck on x day of the month.
You will likely have to face the unrefined points of yourself that need to be worked on, that have ideas about money, success, wealth, taking risks, etc.
If you value learning above money, you are committing yourself to the process energetically, and are willing to do what it takes, while focusing on process and technique, not immediately concerning yourself with outcome or how fast you can grow your account. You will not cut corners and will do the things most developing traders fail to do.
And one last thing to consider which I never hear from developing students is…
What can I do to be the ideal student? Instead, most students look outward towards the mentor to do all the work for them. They spend all their efforts trying to find the best mentor, but they never spend the time or really put in the work to be the ideal student for learning.
Have you ever been in a class or learning environment where one student totally flourished above the rest? Ask yourself what they were doing that you were not, and that will likely bridge the gulf between you and them - not intelligence.
So perhaps this post should be equally focused on what one can do to be an ideal student, and not just focus on an ideal mentor.
I hope this helps gives you new ideas and food for thought on the learning process.
Kind Regards,
Chris Capre
Lol - Don’t worry, I’m not lazy (far from it), however I’ve put nearly 5 years of hard work, sweat and tears into trading and have now developed a “lazy” style, in that I only take one kind of setup, and a 20 minute scan each evening is enough to identify them. I don’t spend any more time in front of the screen trading these days than I need to.
But to get to this point took thousands of hours of screen time.
Here’s the problem with paying to learn from a forex mentor–You can get all the information they are teaching from online forums like babypips and forexfactory for free. It is not very hard to grasp the technical aspect of trading.
However, the most difficult part of forex is the mental/psychological aspect (taming your emotions and building your emotional intelligence)–which many mentors fail to cover/fail to cover effectively.
After being a member of several forex courses, I had figured out that it was my mindset that was hindering my progression, not my technical skills. Most of the mentors taught nothing new from what I had seen on forums.
If I could do it all over again and go searching for a mentor, I would prioritize the following:
- Needs to understand and teach the significance of trader psychology, which is a huge and often underestimated part of forex.
- The mentor has to offer great support for if you have any questions.
- Lots of examples of trades, whether it would be youtube or text or any other medium. An explanation on how to do something will give you the basic knowledge, but examples will enhance that basic knowledge and teach you how to apply it.
With that said…
Chris Capre @ 2ndskiesforex was my turning point as a trader. I highly recommend him. Why? because he places just as much, if not more, emphasis on the psychology of trading than he does on the technical part. Additionally, he’s worked for FXCM, wall street, and hedge funds along with having an educational background in neuroscience which enhances his teachings on trader psychology.
In the end, whichever mentor you side with, read, research and [B]practice[/B].
A good mentor should have practical experience in forex market and he should be earning from forex a healthy income. If anybody says he is a good trader but can’t show you his real earning of past 3 - 4 years, then he will definitely be a scam.
You’re right. Good mentor must have good achievement and there must be proof about his performance. Usually, you could ask his performance in myfxbook to know the quality of trading which he has done. But for me, it is not easy to find out mentor in forex trading and you don’t need to try find it out too much because there are many good traders who can trade well with getting information from blogs, ebooks, forums, and trying it into demo account.
It is very lucky if there is trader who can find out personal mentor for himself because there are few people who want to spent time for mentoring you personally. I prefer to learn by myself than relying on other traders.
I will assure you that you will save a bunch if you just get a couple of these books:
Trading Price Action Trends: Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader by Al Brooks
Naked Forex: High-Probability Techniques for Trading Without Indicators by Alex Nekritin
Understanding Price Action: practical analysis of the 5-minute time frame by Bob Volman
If you sign up for any these “mentors”, soon you will find out that they have a ton of other services to offer you (another words more money sucking) usually making you feel that you need them also because they go so “well” together with what you just signed up. Believe there is no easy way in and you can learn to trade by using trend lines for free if you want to, anything that these guys can show you is readily available off the internet if you search for it. Most people sign up for this stuff because they think that these guys hold the golden key and the truth is they don’t. Save your money that’s my opinion!