IMO there's enough info on ET to show you how to trade profitably. The mental game you have to learn on your own. Like golf.
----------------------------------------------------- Hi, folks. I am a trader from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Though I frequently review this forum âactually I find it pretty interesting and plenty of substance- this is my first post. Now, going to the subject: fully agreed with austinp. That has been my experience as well as a stock trader since 1999, starting from scratch. For what it may help, the following is an article taken from somewhere, sometime, that complies 90% with my experience . Here it goes: .................... <i>The 3 Phases of Trading Business Maturity</i> As new traders, we must understand that the road ahead of us will not be easy, nor will it be a quick journey. The path that lies ahead is filled with daily challenges that will test our skills, both technical and mental. In fact, most traders fail to progress past the start-up phase. They fail to learn: To take a loss To be wrong That, to succeed, they must take the time required to learn! The one constant fact that all successful traders, including Borselinno, Fisher, Jones and more, all agree on is this: It takes time to become a successful trader. Borselinno says at least a year; Fisher says maybe 2 years, but they all say this business has nothing to do with instant success. Quite the contrary: Most successful traders say that Survival is the first key to success. <i>Typical Progressions of the Start-Up Phase of a Trading Business</i> We: Are lured by money Perceive a low barrier to entry Are influenced by âPeer Pressureâ news hype See that a friend did this and that Read a few books Go to a few seminars and get all that is freely available online Find some speculative capital Trade Win Lose Lose Find we need the right tools but think we canât afford them Think, âI need to try something more difficult.â even though we donât understand what we just tried nor do we have the tools or the education Lose more Understand that we truly do need to work on âplanningâ and a way to shift our emotions from an adversary with respect to our goals to a powerful force that guides our actions Finally, understand that it is okay to take a loss (In fact, we discover that this was the first lesson we needed to learn to survive!) Survival is actually the goal for the start-up phase. So, then, we graduate to the Growth Phase. <i>Typical Progressions of the Growth Phase of a Trading Business</i> We: Make a commitment to getting education and the proper equipment Actually learn something Plan Trade with better results Decide to make it complicated for some stupid, unknown alien reason Lose patience Lose Simplify again, refining Now understand the importance of patience in all of this Take more risk Are slaughtered by the market(s) even worse than ever before Now have trouble pulling the trigger when the set-ups are very clear Begin to understand the importance of discipline Discover the mechanics of trading Learn the life cycle of a trade Commit our capital as planned, using strict money management Get better Start actually accepting responsibility for our own actions Stop searching and start focusing (That is the key to graduating to the Maturity Level.) <i>Typical Progressions of the Maturity Phase of a Trading Business</i> We: Are patient in our endeavors Are disciplined enough to trade our plan Understand leverage Practice strict money management Take less and less risk, preferring to use size on stronger signals Learn how to handle huge dollar profits but keep our perspective (return on investment versus time to money) Find out how to handle huge dollar losses but keep our perspective (return on investment versus time to money) Truly understand the life cycle of a trade and can plan accordingly Commit to a lifetime of education and learning Now trade on auto-pilot, choosing to participate when the best risk:reward ratios exist Make our main priority to trade our plan.
There are a few. I've been away from the business for a few years but am looking @ getting back in, at least the mentoring aspect of things...so I would like to think that I'm aware of at least one quality mentor. Brandon
I would take the phrase "let the market teach you" very literally. I may take columns of numbers, print them out for various stocks and stare at the page and write down every thing I knew about what I am looking at. Then make notes on every possible question I don't know about what I am looking at. I sometimes would do this in what I might call a vacuum, without news and slowly add pieces to the information notes. I would do this in each segment of the market I thought may have influence. Short interest, up grades, gaps, and so on. I would just put my notes in a pile on each segment and ask questions on forums from my notes. Overall, I would venture a guess it took me about a year before I could even ask a decent question. Generally though I got in the habit of trying to find as much info with feedback from the market as opposed to having just putting a question out on a message board. Info from books became more relevant once you went one on one with the market esp re-examing your trades and trying to work it out without outside influence.
learning on your own can take 3-6 years for most people to truly get it. Taking a mentor can speed the process IF your lucky enough to find a good one but in the end it's still up to you.
This doesn't make sense IF you were a successful trader you never would have left the business but you believe that now after a few years off your qualified to teach ???? Sorry dude but you need a reality check and from what I remember about you, your mentoring was a flop too! It's guys like you (self deluded) that should stay out of the mentoring business UNTIL you yourself can make consistent income for several years FIRST. No offence
i learned on my own ..no teacher, no mentor ... just trial and error ... started with 10k back in 1998.. proceeded to lose 6k of it immediately ..then i never looked back ... i will admit i am a one trick pony ..but it still works ..( even though i wish it were 1999-2000 again ) --mm
I'm glad SOMEBODY got the joke.. sheesh! Unfortunately, most of what I "learned from sources outside myself" turned out to be temporarily correlative. I've spent a lot of time at a real-time screen, so I'd have to say you can observe a lot just by watching.