Your trading mentor

Quote from nitro:


opm8,

...No one would do it for nothing...

I am not trying to be a smart ass.

I honestly do not believe trading can be taught. Only strategies can be taught, and that is not the same thing...

nitro
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Exactly...

strategies can be taught but how to trade can only be learned by yourself.

Also...you need to make sure the mentor that's teaching you...

how they trade (I'm not talking about their strategies) is suitable for you.

For example...the mentor may be teaching based on multiple contracts and your only able to trade via 1 contract.

His/her methodology...most likely will cause problems for you because those types of mentors are most likely adding to profitable positions or scaling out of profitable positions.

Therefore...via that example...you'll want a successful mentor that trades via 1 contract only or at least teaches you while trading his/her own account in front of you via 1 contract only.

There's lots of other things also to look for in a mentor to make sure he/her is suitable for your needs.

SimpleSimon nailed it also...

Quote from SimpleSimon:

The problem with mentors is that they will try to teach you THEIR method and it might not be right for YOU.

Then if you fail, the conclusion could be drawn that you just didn't have it, which may not be true.

My advice would be to figure out what sytle of trading you have the most aptitude for and then see if you can find a mentor to assist you in that area.
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My mentor (he no longer teaches) taught me in his home based office while trading his account in front of my own two eyes...

he would then give me education material to go home with for reading that correlated with the events that unfolded in that particular trading day.

He was organized and had stuff ready for different trade scenarios...if they unfolded in front of us...he gave me reading material to go home with.

No signals...no education material and no hindsight teaching of stuff that didn't occur.

If you can't afford a mentor...

best next solution is get together with some trading pals in your city or nearby city and learn from each other.

Make sure their doing ok as traders (they don't need to be bringing in 6 or 7 figure incomes)...

eliminating the situation of the blind leading the blind.

NihabaAshi
 
I exchange emails all day with 3 traders......who day trade in short bursts like me. Really helps my trading no end to go over everything all day. Two are only a couple of emails a day, one it is like we are on the phone all day. Found two of them on ET. I have learned the most from doing this. :)
 
Quote from opm8:



Are you trying to say that a mentor is not worthwhile? The reason I'm looking is because I haven't been able to do it on my own. Not consistently, anyway.
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Nitro will tell you more as time passes.

The many concepts of mentoring that you see here each have a different focus.

My experience in this is oriented to several things that are valuable to learners. Answering their questions is at the top of the list. Mentor answers would fall into the categories of learner interest and be valuable to the learner.

I view mentors as local people that would work with you. Not as trainer types or strategy advocates.

I have kept records on how people progress with mentoring that is oriented to day trading and to equities trading.

The key elements seem to relate to real time stuff and Q and A stuff. The nearest parallel I can think of is how a child learns. The fact is that when a person is ready to learn it comes in spurts. It seems to be like a hunter thing as well. Hunters don't learn much about hunting after they have made a kill.

"That worked, I think I'll keep doing it" is a typical hunter orientation.

A mentor has to be like a parent. He has to be there when the learner is in a learning mode. The topic is determined by the child.

Your continuing performance, taken in this context, doesn't bode well for you. Instead of considering mentoring as a go/no go thing you need to get to a place where you can lay on the table (your table) what is what for you. Then, mentoring might appear as a possibility.
 
I am learning to day trade without a mentor and it is progressing well. Here are some things that I am doing that seem to help in my pursuit.

- I have only one trade type in one time frame ( 5 min ). I use a MACD to determine trend and buy or sell retracements within that trend. I look for flags on the 1 minute chart and/or candle reversals on the 5 minute chart for triggers..

- I am only trading 100 shares of SPY until I reach certain performance objectives, then I will switch to ES.

when I first started daytrading about a month ago I had about 3 different trade setups in my plan. I found this much to confusing and narrowed my focus to one trade setup. My performance has improved dramatically since then ( The past couple weeks have been at Break even ). Some days I don't even get a signal and that is fine by me.

Good luck
 
Quote from jack hershey:




I view mentors as local people that would work with you. Not as trainer types or strategy advocates.
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I fully agree... I believe that the best mentors are simply successful traders who live nearby who are willing to allow you to sit by them for no fee...

Coming a close second is the idea of a "trading gang": a mixture of newbies and experienced traders who trade together under one roof... I am not referring to prop shops... I am referring to independent traders who simply convert a part of their home into premises for a trading gang or who may rent office space where the gang can get together and trade every day... for an example of a "trading gang", see my website...

The main thing, in all cases, is that there is NO exchange of $ in return for mentoring... in my view, the best mentoring is usually done locally and free of charge.... the idea is that if you find and train some new kid who is liked by all existing members of the gang, he can stay with the gang and add to the spirit of fraternity, making trading an even more enjoyable endeavor...
 
Quote from SimpleSimon:

The problem with mentors is that they will try to teach you THEIR method and it might not be right for YOU. Then if you fail, the conclusion could be drawn that you just didn't have it, which may not be true. My advice would be to figure out what sytle of trading you have the most aptitude for and then see if you can find a mentor to assist you in that area.
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Yes, this is the main problem. And the truth of the matter is, as traders get along in their years and adopt one strategy or set of beliefs, they tend to condemn all other strategies, mentalities(i.e trend trader vs counter-trend trader) as one example. So then the neophyte trader who might have a personality best fit for counter-trend trading might start studying with a trend trading guy and not trust any of the stuff he is being taught. From people I have been in contact with over the past 5 years, I think this is the single biggest reason for a lack of success, (aside from the obvious psychological issues).

I think one thing that many will agree with though...People who generally have success with one type of mentality/methodology, will tend to really condemn other forms of trading. Sure, there are exceptions, but I find that most traders settle into one form after a lack of success with other types of strategies or trading vehicles...i.e., thats why you have entire threads dedicated to bashing options markets, futures markets, NYSE, NASDAQ, etc, etc...
 
I pretty much agree with what Nitro said. You are going to be your own best mentor, but trade small because its an expensive mentoring process. Keep a diary, write EVERYTHING down. Be objective in looking at your strengths and weakness. Find ways to maximize your strengths and minimize your weakness.

Brandon
 
Haha, candle. I can now see a thread: "Looking for a trading gang." That's probably even harder to find than a "mentor". The replies would be from prop shop people. WHat are the chances of someone finding a "trading gang"? Yours is prolly like one of the only 5 in the country or something. (BTW, I like your gang's focus on sex. I can only imagine the "GANG"bangs:)
 
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