It's an interesting topic as to whether trading can be taught.
Take the famous story of the Turtles. Some of the best performers on the Turtle program (http://www.investopedia.com/articles/trading/08/turtle-trading.asp) were no longer trading even a few years later and had to resort to writing books about the experience, as opposed to actually trading once the program finished. On the other hand, some are still managing money on behalf of others (I think).
If the rules are well defined and you have a sustainable edge (which it sounds like IAN has), it is quite probable that an intelligent and motivated person could take those rules and have initial success. The problems come if and when the market changes to the extent that the system doesn't work so well anymore. How does the person who inherited the rules adapt to the situation? Do they know enough to tweak the system to maintain an edge? Can they handle the losses that were never seen before for that system? Does the style of trading sit comfortably with the individual's personality or is there some internal conflict trading someone else's system? I think the success of the teacher is only known a long time down the road...
IAN's situation is much harder than the one faced by Richard Dennis and William Eckhardt because there is also a parent-child relationship involved. True success would be if the child is able to teach their own child many years later, most likely when the parent is long gone!
Ultimately, I think the steps to be taken depend on the precise goals.
One goal of the father might simply be to develop a closer bond with the child. I think that's why my father took up golf, not because he enjoyed golf so much, but because he wanted to start something that he could share with me and maintain the father-son relationship once I had left the family nest.
If the goal for the father is for the child to improve on the father and become an even better trader then the plan has to be something else. It would be fun for both parties if the child was eventually showing the father new tricks, developing a trading style that is quite different and reflected the child's different personality. As they say, "there is more than one way to skin a cat".
Perhaps the goal is somewhere in between. You just want to help give the child the ability to earn a living from trading that beats a regular 9-to-5 job. That is a worthwhile goal and perhaps most realistic. Accept that anything else is a bonus. There's a saying, "The easiest way to take an account balance to a million dollars is to start with ten million dollars!"
Finally, it is probably worth the father involving the child in the discussion when setting the goals...easy to forget this one...
Take the famous story of the Turtles. Some of the best performers on the Turtle program (http://www.investopedia.com/articles/trading/08/turtle-trading.asp) were no longer trading even a few years later and had to resort to writing books about the experience, as opposed to actually trading once the program finished. On the other hand, some are still managing money on behalf of others (I think).
If the rules are well defined and you have a sustainable edge (which it sounds like IAN has), it is quite probable that an intelligent and motivated person could take those rules and have initial success. The problems come if and when the market changes to the extent that the system doesn't work so well anymore. How does the person who inherited the rules adapt to the situation? Do they know enough to tweak the system to maintain an edge? Can they handle the losses that were never seen before for that system? Does the style of trading sit comfortably with the individual's personality or is there some internal conflict trading someone else's system? I think the success of the teacher is only known a long time down the road...
IAN's situation is much harder than the one faced by Richard Dennis and William Eckhardt because there is also a parent-child relationship involved. True success would be if the child is able to teach their own child many years later, most likely when the parent is long gone!
Ultimately, I think the steps to be taken depend on the precise goals.
One goal of the father might simply be to develop a closer bond with the child. I think that's why my father took up golf, not because he enjoyed golf so much, but because he wanted to start something that he could share with me and maintain the father-son relationship once I had left the family nest.
If the goal for the father is for the child to improve on the father and become an even better trader then the plan has to be something else. It would be fun for both parties if the child was eventually showing the father new tricks, developing a trading style that is quite different and reflected the child's different personality. As they say, "there is more than one way to skin a cat".
Perhaps the goal is somewhere in between. You just want to help give the child the ability to earn a living from trading that beats a regular 9-to-5 job. That is a worthwhile goal and perhaps most realistic. Accept that anything else is a bonus. There's a saying, "The easiest way to take an account balance to a million dollars is to start with ten million dollars!"
Finally, it is probably worth the father involving the child in the discussion when setting the goals...easy to forget this one...
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