FAQ Can You Recommend a Mentor, Coach or Trading Course?

[sigmund1]

Watch Out, Ther's a Vendor About.

One sure fire way to separate the chaff from the wheat...

ASK QUESTIONS FIRST BEFORE YOU HAND OVER ANY MONEY.

Don't be a doughnut. Don't be a Moron.

Don't fall for the Nigerian scam letter.

Don't fall for the "I Can Teach You To Trade The Markets Scam".

But what should you ask your Friendly Super Vendor.

Ask for a Full Disclosure Check List that I'm sure any Vendor would only be willing to show you.

Name of their Broker.
How long they have been trading.
Average number of monthly trades.
How long held for.
Win/Loss Ratio.
Average Win/Loss Ratio.
Max Peak to Trough Drawdown.
Maximum Number of Consecutive Losers.
Maximum Number of Consecutive Winners.
Standard Deviation Per Month.
Sharp Ratio.
Average Profit Per Month.

Ask your Friendly Super Vendor to Sign a Statutory Declaration to the Above.

Just in case you find out later they are nothing more that a Gambler-Holic and compulsive liar trying to purloin some money from your pockets.

Lastly, dont forget to ask them to give you Full Access to Their Trading Accounts.

No point taking chances.

And I'm sure that every Vendor reading this will agree with me fully.

 

[redtag12]

Apart from Sigmund whose advice is ok. You would find it very difficult to learn to trade on your own it will cost you a fortune in mistakes and how would you identify what you need to learn apart from the very basics which can be learned at Babypips.What do you trade? How much is going to be put into your account? where is your account? is the broker regulated?What type of trader do you aspire to become?And the list of questions goes on.So you're going to learn to drive a car or fly an aircraft on your own best of luck with that one. Well trading is the same I can tell you that with the right sort of training you could if you're any good be trading within 6 months with a regulated Ecn or Stp broker do not trade with spread betting brokers they make their own market will trade against you with their dealing desk.so what will really decent training cost you go and look up Jarrett Davis He is not cheap an institutional trader runs his own fund and trades as most institutional traders do .Do not scrimp on your training cost it will return and bite you.The bonus with Jarrett Davis is if you are really any good you may well be offered a job as I say good training by a good trader a very good trader.Thanks for your time Mike.. hope this helps.Oh and by the way people I do not have any association with Jarrett Davis at all.

 

[JimTatus]

You are your mentor

Take your time to learn. Apply what you are learn in demo trading account alternately. You are the best mentor for yourself

 

[petetrades]

You have to learn in a prop firm. Human psychology needs a father-figure with a stick to beat the monkey when he/she gets out of line, fails to manage risk and has no edge and high trading costs, it's not going to work buying some tool's ebook.

 

[buzzfxbroker]

There is so much information online about forex it can be difficult knowing what source to trust, particularly if you're going to pay money for a course.

BabyPips.com is my favourite resource as it has all the basics alongside a healthy dose of humour. Their forex school is completely free.

My advice would be to read up on forex education first but when you're ready, be sure to open a demo account. It's the best way to learn in an authentic trading environment without risking real financial losses.

 

[DavyBFX]

There is so much information online about forex it can be difficult knowing what source to trust, particularly if you're going to pay money for a course.

BabyPips.com is my favourite resource as it has all the basics alongside a healthy dose of humour. Their forex school is completely free.

My advice would be to read up on forex education first but when you're ready, be sure to open a demo account. It's the best way to learn in an authentic trading environment without risking real financial losses.

Thanks I'm going to go on baby pips then. I'm a complete novice at trading.

 

[timsk]

Thanks I'm going to go on baby pips then. I'm a complete novice at trading.

Hi DavyBFX,
BabyPips is not without merit and, as buzzfxbroker says, it does contain the basics viz a viz forex and with a good dose of humour. However, what it doesn't do is to provide a novice such as you with a complete picture of the financial markets 'in the round'. And the reason for this is because it is completely biased to all things forex and promoting forex as the 'best' (dare I say only) market to trade. A large percentage of its income is derived from people and businesses with a vested interest in the forex industry which, needless to say, may not be in the best interests of the retail punter at the end of the line. I'm sure I don't need to spell this out - but I will anyway - that retail punter at the end of the line is you!

If you've done extensive research and have decided that forex is the best market for you to trade - then BabyPips is likely to confirm that you've made what you belive to be the right choice. However, if you've not done said research, then all BabyPips will do is to add weight to the gross misconception that making easy money from forex is as simple as falling of a log when you're the weong side of six pints of Stella. To my way of thinking - that's not a service, it's a disservice. So, unless you are 100% confident that forex is the market for you, the best place to get a rounded introduction to the markets and trading is right here on T2W. You've no need ever to look beyond the virtual walls of this forum.
Tim.

 

[buzzfxbroker]

Happy pipping!

Thanks I'm going to go on baby pips then. I'm a complete novice at trading.

 

[Windlesham1]

the best mentor-someone who will sit beside you and watch you trade. Unless you are already successful, like the 0.000001% of forex people are, you will quickly find out it's just a churn of newbies.
You may find someone who will let you sit with them and watch them trade-you'd die of boredom in my world, but then I make money trading options with 1-4 trades a month.

 

[buzzfxbroker]

the best mentor-someone who will sit beside you and watch you trade. Unless you are already successful, like the 0.000001% of forex people are, you will quickly find out it's just a churn of newbies.
You may find someone who will let you sit with them and watch them trade-you'd die of boredom in my world, but then I make money trading options with 1-4 trades a month.

Yeah copytrading is massive for exactly this reason and not a bad route to go down when you're starting out, as long as you find the right trader to trust with your investment.

 

[progix]

Yeah copytrading is massive for exactly this reason and not a bad route to go down when you're starting out, as long as you find the right trader to trust with your investment.

I guess this new social trading idea is very much similar to this i.e., copying the trades of skillful traders IMO!

 

[tradingdojo]

I mentor people for free.

 

[paulkoger]

I think you've understated how much effect a mentor can have on a new trader.

1) They can give you a strategy that actually works..finding one yourself through trial and error is going to take ages and you're probably going to quit before it happens.
2) They will show you exactly how they do it, from where to find the stocks in play to the actual execution. Basically you can get a process that you need to follow.
3) You will be guided to avoid mistakes that you would otherwise make on the expense of your bank account.

I would say that a mentor can increase a beginner trader's chances of success by at least 5x.

Now the tricky part is finding someone that could actually do all those things for you

 

[Quantt]

I think you've understated how much effect a mentor can have on a new trader.

1) They can give you a strategy that actually works..finding one yourself through trial and error is going to take ages and you're probably going to quit before it happens.
2) They will show you exactly how they do it, from where to find the stocks in play to the actual execution. Basically you can get a process that you need to follow.
3) You will be guided to avoid mistakes that you would otherwise make on the expense of your bank account.

I would say that a mentor can increase a beginner trader's chances of success by at least 5x.

Now the tricky part is finding someone that could actually do all those things for you

Who is the crazy one? Or wait, maybe the crazy one is the newbie who'll spend all the money and the "mentor" is going to be laughing all the way to the bank...

 

[bootsyjam]

Price moves because of buying and selling volume coming in and out of the market in different forms (limit orders, buying selling at market price) at key levels where liquidity lies.
A successful trader understands what levels to look for where liquidity is likely to be resting, watching the price and volume relationship to gauge whether price will reverse or continue in order to enter.

Forex is a bust because there is no volume reading. Futures is the only way forward if you want to see volume. A friend of mine used to run an fx brokers in the US (you know MT4 etcetc) and did very well before his dodgy partner messed things up. His quote always resonates: "I've never met anyone trading fx who makes any money."

Of course there ARE people out there in fx that make money. But they are few and far between and will most likely have institutional experience.

If you want training then your first bet is to make sure you look at futures, volume/market profile and auction market theory. The latter term basically means "how volume and price interact with each other at different levels."

 

[Brumby]

Of course there ARE people out there in fx that make money. But they are few and far between and will most likely have institutional experience.

I agree that fx traders with institutional experience have a leg up because of the tools they use. Fx price movements are driven by economic news and data. Those traders have Bloomberg terminal or Reuters Elkon.

 

[bootsyjam]

I agree that fx traders with institutional experience have a leg up because of the tools they use. Fx price movements are driven by economic news and data. Those traders have Bloomberg terminal or Reuters Elkon.

If they are not part of the interbank liquidity pool that is responsible for placing massive spot fx orders in for sovereign wealth funds/hedge funds/companies, and don't have the front end tools to analyse this volume, then all the terminals in the world won't be much help.

 

[FXX]

If they are not part of the interbank liquidity pool that is responsible for placing massive spot fx orders in for sovereign wealth funds/hedge funds/companies, and don't have the front end tools to analyse this volume, then all the terminals in the world won't be much help.

You don't need access to order flow information to make money in fx. I have several friends that trade for either hedge funds,investment banks, or privately (leaving their firm) and they have shown me exactly how they do it and it doesn't involve order flow data. All their trading strategies revolve around fundamental analysis for opportunities after which they employ basic technical analysis for entry\stops\targets.

 

[Brumby]

You don't need access to order flow information to make money in fx. I have several friends that trade for either hedge funds,investment banks, or privately (leaving their firm) and they have shown me exactly how they do it and it doesn't involve order flow data. All their trading strategies revolve around fundamental analysis for opportunities after which they employ basic technical analysis for entry\stops\targets.

I completely agree with your view provided you are trading FX and not stocks. I had to re-tool my whole trading approach to FX once I understood how institutional traders were approaching it. The problem I think is because most trading books are written by retail traders. Basically retail traders approach from the premise of "how" and not "why" in positioning trades.

 

[FXX]

I completely agree with your view provided you are trading FX and not stocks. I had to re-tool my whole trading approach to FX once I understood how institutional traders were approaching it. The problem I think is because most trading books are written by retail traders. Basically retail traders approach from the premise of "how" and not "why" in positioning trades.

Do you still trade stocks?

Technical analysis is an easy sell and with more options than there are numbers in the lottery it is like a rabbit hole without an end. Once you enter you are doomed. I don't know other markets well enough to comment outside of understanding correlation and its importance to understanding why fx might be moving in the absence of data releases or an obvious sentiment.