I've been trading over 30 years. My mentor was a guy who i met on a trading forum who introduced me to Amibroker many years ago via his recommendation. Anyhow i used to pay him initially with bottles of wine to write Amibroker formulas, custom formulas. This guy 'kaveman' became a friend. He wrote scores of formulas for me. Once he wrote this very long complicated formula and it had a bug in it. I complained a few times but he couldnt detect the problem and mentioned a few times there was nothing wrong with it. In frustration i then spent 3 days looking at the formula and finally fixed it myself. I went into an incredible high, the thrill was like a drug. From then on i began to self teach myself AB code writing. Anyhow one day i asked kave to teach me about coding as this guy was and still is a real code genius. He began to teach me this code writing but i quickly lost interest as it was a lot about RSI's and Fibs and MA's etc. I dont believe in traditional TA. The point I make is, a mentors methods may not agree with your mindset about trading. I have a unique method of trading, never ever heard it mentioned. I designed it myself and trade it rinses and repeat. I've never had a losing 6 months as that is when i get to balance the trading account. Last year returned just over 14% which may not seem much but i broke my rules and had a flutter with gold stocks which cost me dearly.
I could never follow a mentor, I'm too one eyed, and most trading systems i think are just crap. For about 4 years attempted to auto trade futures but it is very very difficult to code that. However attempting that exercise taught me a huge amount about how the market ticks.
I'm not a trader! I'm a system designer. Engineer and love technical challenges, love designing. I'm very fortunate to have a very close friend who knows nothing about trading - zilch. We make a good team. She places the trades when i command. No questions asked. So i call the trades, she places them. This works brilliantly as my emotions dont get involved. I see the opportunity, call it, someone else pulls the trigger. I tried to do this with my 30 yo son. Never worked as he would try to out think me. Total fiasco!
Your best mentor is yourself. But its bloody hard work. Learning to code and many years of learning what does and doesnt work. Auto trading was what i was attempting to achieve but numerous frustrations, especially IB who i dumped as that broker in my opinion is a POS. My trading positions is stocks and ill sit in a position from a couple of days to a year or more. But attempting to auto trade by doing my own coding made me see how the market actually operates. My message to Surf and ive told him this before, however he wont listen - succesful trading is not about predicting but reacting. Surf doesnt get it in my opinion, the 'light bulb -aaaahhhhh' moment has not yet come to him. Using your phrase Surf "peace".
Peace to you also, brother. May the market continue to bless you with her bounty. your bottom line is all that matters! surf
Why are you looking to give someone your money for to have them show you what they think! You would be much better of to take the money as gone, and make it last as long as you can so that you learn from trading yourself. However, if you are not willing to do some simple research in relation to risk management before you start to lose your money (as you will lose at first), then odds are you will not succeed and you are just wasting your time. Making money is not easy, no matter what way you do it, but with trading you can make much more for the same amount of time and effort you put into something "normal". Never ever give your money to anyone else, even your pension, do it yourself and ignore what all the bullshit artists say - they are all a bunch of assholes who have only one interest, and that is get money from the dumb public and use it to pay themselves even when they lose the dumb public money - ignorance is an awful thing, but in this day and age those who decide to "stay" ignorant will get exactly what they deserve. BTW, there is a big difference between a so called "mentor" (or "dopes" as I like to call them) and a friend - if you want to ask somebody who you think might know something you want to know, then you should look at befriending them - a true friend will never ever ask a person for money, no matter what! J_S
Once again, altucher lays out the secret to getting a real mentor in my link earlier in the thread. Learn to bud fox your own gekko. There's no other real way. Stop pretending and do it yourself. surf
So you're saying you've never blown an account, that's an EXTRAORDINARY claim, unless you started with over 50K in capital. I recall seeing you on here and other sites selling a basic trading ebook without mentioning any specific trades you have taken with real money, that is a red flag to me. What sort of yearly % returns do you make on your capital to have such a risk-free trading style?
I tend to agree with you on this one in relation to blowing accounts, as i know a good deal about this topic. The world is full of people who talk the talk, but who can't walk the walk. Recently i came across another "seller" and i said that I believed what he said was correct, in that Trading is Math, It is not Magic. Does this mean i will buy his ebook, hell no, I wouldn't give him $1 for it, nor would i ever give another cent to anyone, as i did buy lots of rubbish in the past, but that is part of the learning curve as it takes a good while to sink in that most of what is put out there by others is just same old rubbish rehashed! The only way to learn anything is by experience, and of course others can point you in the right direction, but there really is no need to pay them anything once you keep telling yourself Trading is Math, It is not Magic. How many will take this on board. probably one person for a bit, but after a short while that person will lose intetest in the boring maths and look for something more "exciting", but who cares really, grown ups are responsible for their own actions and should stop acting like children when it comes to trading!