Hi I have always seen newbies or even experienced (but losing) traders have no sense about how much to pay for a mentor. As a mentor, each time, It lasts a couple of hours for me to explain that forex is an expensive job and if you don't pay now you will pay much more to the market. I started this thread to talk in this about and finalize an affordable price.
Probably around 30k/year at least when you think about how much the tuition at private institutions costs. Someone who is employed would basically have to fork up everything but what they need to live on. Steep price but mentoring is not cheap. At the mentor though you probably want to not completely gouge a student of his entire capital, so give him a small practice trading account and save a bit of the total money he gave you to give back to him when he becomes consistently profitable? Sort of like a little head start. Heh.
Profit sharing, it's worked for me on the rare occasion I've taught someone to trade. There are several benefits: Trading with the student in a live market instead of just theory or paper trading. Proof that the mentor actually knows what he's doing and really can make money. No risk of the student being scammed, if the mentor turns out to know nothing then it costs him nothing. The student pays and earns as he learns, he doesn't have to pay in advance. The downside is he has to have enough equity to make it worthwhile, sharing the trading profits from a 5k account obviously wouldn't be worth it. Another downside is finding students who have the potential to learn the business, I've come across more than my fair share of total morons!
There are several in depth discussions here at ET about how to determine the value. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/search.php?s= However, I have my own views considering I've met a few in person that have said they were mentored. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32793&perpage=1&pagenumber=7 Mark
For a long while I have been selling naked puts and things went well. However I feel like I am just stealing candies from kids. I want to be where the big money is...futures ! I pay 25 k a year for my mentor because : 1) He is a trader and a hedge fund manager first THEN a mentor and I am the only one he is mentoring. He doesn't want to mentor. Mentoring is not his job, he made an exception in my case. 2) His performance is non directional and it is rock solid. I saw it. 3) I go to see him in his office at times even during market hours, he does his things first then explains to me how to look at the market and what exactly he does day in and day out. 4) In his office there is a blackboard and for me there is no internet webex phone call conversation that is as effective as having the person who is teaching you something right in front of you. 5) My starting point will be pretty good, meaning I won't lose money. My learning curve is becoming super fast, I consider myself lucky and I am very grateful to him and I will do my best to be the best student I can be. I do not want to disappoint him in any way. 6) He is going to have me sign a non disclosure agreement which I will be happy to sign. I have absolutely no desire in talking about the things he is sharing with me. I can already tell that is powerful crazy shit. Is he worth the 25 k ? I think he is although it is for me very expensive. Will I make the money back ? That I don't know yet, but I think I will. In conclusion I think that one pays for education once or twice, but for ingnorance, especially in the market, one will pay forever.
I have mentored and the deal was a 50/50 split of net profits until the trader had made his first $100k (50 for each), then he is on his own. There's got to be enough starting capital that the potential gains are worth my time. If the trader is smart and dedicated, I would expect him to be able to make that in about a year to a year and a half.
Boredom probably No, actually it's very rewarding to teach someone to do something as difficult as trading and to watch them develop into profitable traders, especially if they have already lost money in the market. There are an awful lot of scams out there, obviously they're only looking for a financial reward, but for genuine mentors I think it can be a lot of fun.