Hellooooo! 
I’ve been sick this past week so I really missed talking to everyone here! 
Anyway, I’m so happy cause I finally got one of my friends to finally try forex trading! 
But she told me that she would always be messaging me for tips and advices along the way. Of course, I’m very excited to help. But I just got a bit worried that I’m not qualified enough for her to depend on me that much. 
I’m just curious, for fellow traders who have been trading for a while already, when did you become confident enough to give trading advice? Is it enough to be trading for a while and have multiple wins every now and then? Thank youuuuu.
I think it’s important to be honest. I don’t even try to give advice, but share opinions, experience and explain some potential risks related to certain decisions.
I don’t feel confident enough to say “you should do XYZ”, but I may say “you can try XYZ and see” or “doing ABC may end up with DEF” 
Especially with friends, I believe it’s important to draw this line, where you will not take any responsibility for their actions on the market. You can always help, explain, share opinions, experience, but any fall is their to take
I think that as long as she will stay on demo, market will tell her what’s working and what’s not. She probably just need to understand how it works and not fall into “get easy money” hole
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That’s interesting! 
Haha. Tbh, I didn’t really view the “you should do…” and “you can try…” as having much difference. Somehow, I feel like there’s still responsibility attached (since I’m a natural overthinker. 
) But it’s good that I’ve made it clear to her that I’m not an expert also and that since it’s gonna be her money in the future, the decisions are completely hers to make.
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There is subtle difference between coaching and mentoring
If you position yourself as mentor - you are acting from position of superior knowledge and you TELL what action should be taken
(“It is pin bar on support resistance, so you should open short, set Stop Loss at Y and target profit at X”)
If you take coaching approach, you’re not necessarily an expert in the field, but you are able to guide and help someone learn themselves.
(“You already know how to read price chart, so now you can try to learn some candle formations and drawing S/R lines.”)
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I always love being here cause I get to learn something new. Hahaha. Thanks for that Wil! I’ll try to take on more of the coaching approach cause I’m not even close to being qualified to be a mentor. Haha. Are you currently coaching anyone when it comes to their trading?
Haha you can say I’ve just coached you 
I’ve shown you two strategies for helping your friend and you’ve made your decision which fits you best based on that (to some extent) I’m not an expert trainer nor an expert trader, but I know something and by sharing this something I can help you do your thing If I would try to act like mentor, I would say “oh Ria, you should definitely coach her”
But joking aside - no I’m not coaching anyone at the moment during last >10 years I’ve shown just basics to few friends. One of them is still trading stocks
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I thought I was good enough to give out trading advice the next day after I started.
In fact I needed to trade through a crash to be ready to give advice.
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Get well soon! When you know, you know. You have seen for yourself what you do is consistent ( not every now and then ). This is a hard business. Make sure you know what you are talking about. Otherwise you will need to correct your advice at a later point in time, because you are doing a disservice by giving false information.
Simple questions. Are you a consistent profitable trader? Not just a few dollars a month profit. Are you able to make a valid income from trading forex? Or do you have a valid strategy that is proven to work?
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There is a responsibility when giving advice. Does not matter if you are coaching or mentoring. These two things can only be done when you are a professional, hence you are responsible to a certain degree.
If not, then you just share your experience and knowledge. This is fine too as long as you are honest to your audience.
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It is worth remembering that there are two types of advice.
Firstly, there are factual questions like "what is leverage?", "how do I calculate my exposure risk?", etc. These tend to have a single correct answer and anyone should feel confident to answers these if they know the answer themselves.
Secondly, there are the subjective questions like “what timeframe is best?”, “how many markets should I trade?”, where should I set my target/stoploss?", “which is better to use, indicators or price action?” etc.
These are very individual issues and we can usually only respond from our own experiences. What works for one person, may not work for another. So we should qualify our advice to reflect its personal nature.
But even though it is only personal experience, it is still useful information for someone totally in the dark and seeking directions. And, naturally, this learning period for a newcomer should be on demo anyway so all advice can be useful even if it eventually proves to be useless!!
Trading is a growth skill and we are all evolving with it no matter how long we have been trading.
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We missed you too. I am glad you seem to be recovered.
Though I do not condone operating a live account until you are absolutely sure you know the mechanics of setting up, opening, managing and closing a trade (preferably a couple of hundred times), I do see a lot of posts on here that appear to not add any value to the newer members. What I mean by that mostly is that there are a lot of assumptions that newcomers have a certain minimum amount of knowledge, and that is not the case.
I am happy to advise about how a trading strategy and subsequent plan fit into a newcomer’s overall objectives in life, and I am less comfortable concentrating on specific techniques or rules that determine how a trader should use what he or she has learned to take decisions on entry level, stop loss, take profit and exit.
Confidence comes from knowing that you either do have or you do not yet have a demonstrable and repeatable positive edge, and more importantly, that you know from where you have determined that the sources of those positive edges.
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Ria
My tip - suggest that she reads :-
Trading in the Zone - Mark Douglas
Good luck with your mentoring 
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After a couple of years of experience. Most advice, including my own should be taken with a pinch of salt. The majority of us are mere speculators.
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And she will blame you if and when she blows her account. IMO, You must set a red line that it’s her responsibility when trading FX, not yours. Politely, of course.
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I was actually going to say that! Hahaha. A lot of time and effort goes into both coaching and mentoring so it’s understandable!
That’s interesting. Did you give any advice when you were still at the early stages of your trading? I wonder what your first trading advice was to anyone. Haha. 
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Thank youuu! It really is a hard business. 
As someone who has been helped by lots of other experienced traders here, I guess I’m also just excited to give back and share all the information that I could. But answering some of your questions really opened my eyes! I’m getting there.
Ooh. I think this is a great way to look at it. And I guess, one way to know if you’re qualified is if you know the answers to the technical questions like the ones you’ve mentioned.
Agree! Hahaha. This is what I tell myself also, which is why I really like sharing my experiences of opinions. Thank you so much Sovos!
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Thank you sooo much Mondeo! I especially missed reading your posts and responses! Haha.
Unfortunately. I’m also guilty of this sometimes. 
But to be fair, it’s sometimes because some of them expect to be spoon fed all the information. I do agree with your take on confidence being rooted from knowing you have a positive edge. I guess the challenge for me now is to really reflect on what my positive edge in trading could be.
Noooo. I’m not mentoring. Hahaha. I got a lil nervous there Johnny. But I’ll recommend this book to her! I have a copy of this and I’ll just lend it to her when I see her again.
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