They say teaching is the best way to master your craft

[ktm]

I feel like a mentor/coach/teacher should provide the tools and terminology and education about how everything works - maybe with some examples and a little bit of handholding, but that's where the value has to stop.

I can't teach someone "how to trade" any more than I can find them a wife, and it's a valid comparison. The things I enjoy and can tolerate are very different from the guy sitting next to me. We might both find a great wife and we may both be happy, but they could be totally different women. I think trading is very much like that. If you truly want it to be sustainable, you have to build it yourself in a way that suits your personality and lets you sleep at night.

 

[themickey]

Huuuuge amount of work involved in mentoring.
One reason, you may be explaining a move only for 10 minutes later need to re explain it differently because it changed.
So what was said 10 minutes ago no longer applies, a new theory is needed.

 

[NoahA]

I feel like a mentor/coach/teacher should provide the tools and terminology and education about how everything works - maybe with some examples and a little bit of handholding, but that's where the value has to stop.

I can't teach someone "how to trade" any more than I can find them a wife, and it's a valid comparison. The things I enjoy and can tolerate are very different from the guy sitting next to me. We might both find a great wife and we may both be happy, but they could be totally different women. I think trading is very much like that. If you truly want it to be sustainable, you have to build it yourself in a way that suits your personality and lets you sleep at night.

I think its an excellent analogy. Take those pick-ups seminars as an example. Sure, you can learn lots from sitting in a room all weekend learning theory, but its the in-field component where the real value is. You might be a guy too scared to even look at a girl, but the teacher should hopefully be able to demonstrate how easy it can be to approach a girl, build rapport, make her interested in you and seal the deal with a number. Of course the outcome wont matter because he will do this 20 times in one night, and a few solid leads are necessary in order to reach the final destination, but by having access to someone who can show you how they do it from beginning to end is invaluable.

Its like this. A man who doesn't have a clue might think giving a girl a compliment is a great way to start. What woman doesn't like compliments after all? But it will probably take dozens of attempts to realize your strategy isn't working. The true alpha male will never compliment the woman but instead create an environment where she will feel lucky that she has a chance to interact with him. Good luck figuring this out on your own. (Especially when you consider the amount of feminist bullshit that the average guy is inundated with on TV and on the radio. This is guaranteed to lead him down the wrong path)

Most men will spend years figuring this out on their own, and most probably never even will. But if given the right start, you can literally shave 90% off the learning curve. Just like with trading, each person has to develop their own style, and learning a bunch pick-up lines isn't what is going to get you laid. But having access to first learning about how women (the market) operate, being shown various strategies, watching those in action and seeing how they both fail and succeed, and then developing your own strategy within this new framework, well, this is what the mentor will hopefully provide.

 

[ktm]

I've known lots of guys over the years that are amazing traders and make great money, but I could never do what they do because of a whole host of personal and specific reasons. And most of them wouldn't do what I do because it doesn't suit them. We all do pretty well and it works out. For me personally it's as much about learning about YOURSELF and how you react when you are up/down, under pressure. I suggest to others to do what I did for so many years... take a little money and just trade. Make some mistakes and learn and adapt and keep learning and adapting until you get it right. There are lots of guys here that have done it - most are pretty quiet or visit infrequently these days - but nearly all of them built their strategies from the ground up over the years.

It's work. Real work. And if it were easy lots of people would do it.

 

[deaddog]

I feel like a mentor/coach/teacher should provide the tools and terminology and education about how everything works - maybe with some examples and a little bit of handholding, but that's where the value has to stop.

You shouldn’t expect a mentor to show you a method. You should expect a mentor to guide you through the process of finding and developing a system that suites you. Too many people are looking to copy a method that may not be appropriate for them.

 

[destriero]

A bit of a digression but how much do you attribute to fate and how much do you attribute to personal development?

to clarify: In your opinion, what % of success as a trader is attributed to inherent, innate, God-given talent...and what % is due to the rest of it (skill development, effort/work ethic, resilience, resolve, discipline, etc...).

I became super undisciplined once I found what (IMO) works. Recently, I stopped doing what was working (long term vol; switches, etc) for something short term and my PNL (hit rate% x avg $win), tripled. So skill development is key, but what can we know about subconscious pattern reco -> what really drives discretionary trading?

 

[speedo]

I've known lots of guys over the years that are amazing traders and make great money, but I could never do what they do because of a whole host of personal and specific reasons. And most of them wouldn't do what I do because it doesn't suit them. We all do pretty well and it works out. For me personally it's as much about learning about YOURSELF and how you react when you are up/down, under pressure. I suggest to others to do what I did for so many years... take a little money and just trade. Make some mistakes and learn and adapt and keep learning and adapting until you get it right. There are lots of guys here that have done it - most are pretty quiet or visit infrequently these days - but nearly all of them built their strategies from the ground up over the years.

It's work. Real work. And if it were easy lots of people would do it.

True, no two people trade the same, as no two people ARE the same. They may trade similarly but different none the less. A consistently profitable trader has to formulate his/her own recipe regardless of the quality of influences. We all have different levels of discipline, focus, patience and courage as well as cognitive abilities.

 

[speedo]

 

[toucan]

I'm seeking a mentor, to guide me in futures trading. I win some, but I lose big too. I feel like I'm making intelligent trades, but I can't deny, retardation takes over too often. I need a mentor. If you're willing to mentor me 1 on 1 in futures trading, indices, gold, oil, over the internet, I'm willing to learn. For free.

hi...

do you trade futures and if so what futures do you trade

are you a daytrader that enters and exits several times each day and never holds trades overnight

thanks
toucan

 

[nooby_mcnoob]

The true alpha male

Men really do not understand that alpha means the ability to lead. Alpha chimps, for example routinely get knocked off unless they build consensus and networks. So to be alpha, is really to be the focal point of a community and successfully thwart off attempts to remove you.

It's way too much work to be alpha.

The older eventually chimps figure out that all they need to do is be friends with the alpha. Now go look at images of successful politicians. Who is around them? Old dudes. Same old dudes will be around the next alpha.