Quote from cabletrader:
Books for me too but you can only learn so much from books as they're all theory, gaining practical experience is invaluable. I learned more from expensive hard knocks, but with a good mentor I could have avoided those losses. How would I know if they're good? Well a few live trading sessions would probably do it, maybe a profit sharing agreement to make it worth their while, kind of 'earn-as-you-learn' and 'pay-as-you-go'.
No doubt, the books just give you a starting place to jump from. They can guide you in the right direction and then with screen time you can piece it together for yourself.
Profitsharing agreement would be nice, except the people that are really good enough to be a great mentor usually are too busy raking in the cash to spend time teaching a stranger.
I think forums like ET are a great place for rookies to learn. there is a lot of good stuff here. They just have to learn that there are a lot of vultures hanging around who can't trade, but will gladly take their money under the guise of teaching them how to trade. I am not pointing to anyone in particular, I'm just saying...