What has been ur experience with COACHING?

L

lemarche

Did you find it valuable? Could you put the improvements on profits clearly to the coaching process?
For those who found it valuable, did it get you several coaches to find one that really helped your PnL?

Ever since I started trading, I likened it to football... where you would have to play a game everyday Monday to Friday. So in the end, it s only natural to think that one would need a coach even more than in football...
 
In my case, all vendor/coach were fail for me. One day I asked a thing about even the platform and trying to close a wining trade and first my account manager said: "nobody is gonna tell you how to trade".. In my early days after 2 years of studing a market (with real money) I also told my manager (in another firm) that the advise he was giving to me were huge in his benefit (for instance "let run losses couse big guys are just testing you").. Well finally after tons of trades with real money, test probably most of markets (I compare this with tennis technic), read all the books about finance, market, etc... (and still doing); and the most important, in this forum someone's who i call master answered me about some in depth questions about market what makes me at least to choose one right direction between all. It took me in the overall 4 years trading with real money.
In my case, trading and failing was my best coaching.
 
I think i know that guy, didnt he worked for Goldman Sachs? I think he could have huge knowledge.Probably good coaching.
 
Thx. in general am not talking abt methodology, but coaching more as in the sense of improving your own trades (u already have a methodology) and reaching the next level (guess has more to do with psychological/discipline/setting targets etc).

This would have to be done, I believe, on a long term basis/follow up (min. 6to12months) and am very wary of courses for >1000$ for a couple of hours over a couple of days/weeks... where u will have time to learn next to nothing, since trading is mostly practice as Javier already said, repetition...

This guy has his own methodology, which I am sure is a good one (long/short stock names, "typical" hedge fund strategy), does not fit mine (directional/indices).
 
lemarche said:
am not talking abt methodology, but coaching more as in the sense of improving your own trades (u already have a methodology) and reaching the next level
More...

This is the chief difference between a coach and a "mentor". If somebody's coaching you, he will first determine your goals and objectives and learn something about your personality. He will then explain how to formulate hypotheses about the market and how to trade it, whether this focuses on price action, indicators, automation, whatever. He will then explain how to test these hypotheses so that eventually you have a thoroughly-tested and consistently-profitable trading system. IOW, he will work to help you navigate the course you've chosen for yourself. He will also sound any cautionary notes if and when he believes for whatever reason that the course you're plotting for yourself will eventually be a losing one.

Someone who focuses instead on his own method and on teaching it to you regardless of who you are and what you want is a mentor. If for whatever reason you agree with the mentor's views and his approach, great. If not, then you're in for a lot of wasted time.

If you want to draw an analogy to sports, no coach insists that every player play exactly the same way, holding his club, his racket, his football/soccer ball/ baseball exactly the same way. Physiology if nothing else requires some flexibility. Nor does he coach those who want only to play at the country club the same as those who want to play the pro circuit.

In any case, neither should be promising anything. If they do, look elsewhere.
 
Right Dbphoenix, after my explanation I think my post is clearer, and your coaching/mentor differentiation is useful to make sure we are all talking abt the same thing.

Right, mentor is the guy who hires you for example at a bank, to train you to trade like him... "Mentor" is a typical word used in banking, but I have never heard of coaching in a bank.

So if you have already developed a (your) trading style, most mentors will be useless to you unless you are ready to start all over again (or he has the same style as yours). My guess.

Now question is: where to find good coaching? FPA does not have a lot of reviews on each coach, and does not differentiate. And from what I see, most really are mentors aimed at newbies.
 
lemarche said:
Now question is: where to find good coaching? FPA does not have a lot of reviews on each coach, and does not differentiate. And from what I see, most really are mentors aimed at newbies.
More...

"Aimed at newbies" is a more apt phrase than you realize. :)

Where to find it is a big issue as most of the "traders" you run across really couldn't care less about you beyond whether or not they might be able to sell you something. Note, for example, the responses people nearly always get when they post requests for help (or pleas). Almost with exceptions these responses are suggestions: do this, don't do that, read this, ignore that, etc. Out of a hundred, there might be one or two that seek to find out just what it is that the person seeking help is trying to accomplish, what his goals are, whether or not he even has any sort of trading plan.

Unfortunately, your only recourse may be DIY. But then trading is essentially DIY anyway. The Hall of Fame threads may be of use to you. You ought to know within the first two or three posts whether you and the thread starter are on the same wavelength. Most of those people are gone by now, but you may be able to find them by googling their names. Or you could try a PM in case they drop in occasionally just to see if things have changed.

There's also the trading room route, of course. I can't say I don't recommend them because I learned a lot from an excellent one back in '98. But that was back in '98. If you do decide to investigate the trading room thing, I strongly suggest you read the attached pdf:
 

Attachments

Depends on your learnings style. If you like reading and learning on your own then it's a waste to spend money on a coach until you are ready to go from good to great.
 
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