I would say 7 out of 8 traders I taught were successful. The other guy didn't care too much about trading since he came from a rich family. I selected these traders because they were friendly and fun to work. I believe that these traders were successful because they work hard and follow instructions well. Offcourse, they were are grateful for the help. The thing that affected my performance was not being focus on my trading. It has nothing to do with the markets.
You have certainly described the skeletal structure of a good trading plan. However, the devil is not only in the psychology but also in the details (that, incidentally, fit the psychology). At least, that is my opinion.
Your prior post and this one quoted above are absolutely true unless you have a sizeable stake in the outcome of the traders' performance. I have hired, backed and mentored traders. There has to be a specific method to do this in order for you not to lose focus. I started shortly after I stopped being a prop trader and went on my own. I made more money on my own than I ever did as prop (on my second month after leaving prop, I made as much as I had struggled to make for 6 months pre-split while under prop management). This is not always the case. There is a lot that goes into mentoring. Most of the work has to be before and after the active periods of the day(lunch hours and after trading). I'm a trader first and a backer/mentor second. My experience in these situations is opposite yours. While talking through my traders with a new trader, I find that I was much more aware and focused. During the active hours of trading, it felt more like a shuttle commander making an approach back to earth just talking through the process and focused on the flow of the market. In my opinion, backing and mentoring people has taught me more about trading and has made me a better trader than I could have possibly been. Everything that I relayed to a new trader had to make sense or have logic in it or I was called on it through a question I couldn't answer. This happened a lot in the beginning and there was a lot of self-doubt even though I made good money. It was very enlightening to have someone there trading your plan and then discussing why it did or didn't work for him. I'm curious about something..... would you have done better had the deal been a standard futures prop deal where you get 50% and take all the risk for a long period of time? Would you have been able to make money and continue to groom better traders? Mentoring is highly focused and intense for the first 2 months. After this period, it is a function of managing the trader's risk and growth. You do spend a lot of time after work going over trades, etc. I went through a lot of introspection and gained a very strong respect for the psychological aspect of trading (many people think this aspect is just BS). I learned that the game is not about $$ taken but how professionally and perfectly you executed your trades. This is something I strongly emphasized all the time and continue to remind myself. I have had days where I was up more than more experienced traders, but I felt that I was lucky because I just didn't trade well enough. I also noticed that those were the days when I checked my P&L too often and made the entire job about the money rather than the competition and skill. Those are just my opinions. They are neither right or wrong. Everyone has their unique perspective and some things work for some and not for others. Good luck to all. PS: It is absolutely true in my experience that you can give someone a perfectly laid out plan that works and they will find a way to lose money executing it. This is why I don't believe in system or ideas relayed by books and software. Books have an unquestionable value in that a book will spark an idea while you are reading that is unrelated to the material the author is trying to convey. Sometimes a book will give you a great idea that is exactly the opposite of what the author is talking about. This is the true value of reading books. This is the main difference between a mentor and a book: A mentor and address your specific issues whereas a book is written generically and for all to consume.