Hi, I have traded on and off for 4 years now (not successful) and want to take this thing seriously full-time. I am looking for someone that is successful and may want to offer mentorship and guide me. I'm not a know it all and very teachable. Whoever is out there that is in a successful position and that is open enough to give me a shot, my full appreciation goes to you. Many thanks
What's wrong with you ? No Setup ? Wrong Entry ? Bad Discipline ? Too Emotional ? Not Enough Capital ? Bad Money Management ? Sizing ? .... What type of method would suits you ?
I'm in my 4th year full-time swing trading, and went through the same thing. I lost a lot of money from March to September of last year, and was actually going to pack it in and go back to long term investing which I had done very well at for 7+ years. Best advice I got, stop trading until you figure out what the problem is. In other words, time to hit the books again. And if you're 4 years in, you're probably indoctrinated with the lingo, so re-reading should be easy enough. What works for one trader, won't necessarily work for another. Unless you have a money tree in the back yard, be very careful who you entrust. No such thing as easy consistent money. Final thought: write down (pen and paper) the criteria you demand of the trade, don't waver, and when things line up, pull the trigger, and after the close of every trade, analyze with a fine tooth comb, whether success or failure. Good luck!
What's likely to happen is that someone here who isn't particularly successful would be eager to give you advice. Finding someone who's really successful who would take his personal time to mentor you ain't gonna happen. But you may find some interesting ideas on this site. There have been some really good guys posting here throughout this board's history. Look around.
Lots of wizards got mentors. Unfortunately it ain't the same for lots of us. But what I can tell you is that doing it yourself is future-proof. I mean. If you can teach yourself. No one will stop you. As a trader has to adapt. You'll be able to evolve. Learn to formulate and test hypothesis. To discover what (do not) works. That's a big part of trading !!! Research & Development Then Implementation, & Execution. A trader that execute only is doomed. Especially if you don't work for a bank, fund. As an independent trader, you has to be a whole team. However you can read, talk, learn some stuffs from others. Welcome ! Wish you will go through those never ending difficulties.
In all seriousness, I completely agree with K-Pia. Many successful traders always have rules and their own trading plan. Rules are what they live by when they trade. The trading plan is almost always derived from gained insights from the stocks you are comfortable trading and also the way that you trade them. Having a mentor to follow will undeniably inhibit you to formulate these things yourself. Often successful traders do have mentors, but they don't necessarily follow their views and/or their strategies.
No successful trader is going to take time to mentor you. Try subscribing to a newsletter with great record.
More than a mentor for "short term" tradng, you can probably start transitioning to an "investing" mindset / longer term holding periods. As portfolio management in the late 20th century was bound by the use of individual stocks, mutual funds, and select index funds ( and very large sized index futures contracts) and attendant "highish" commissions, the 21st century has opened up a whole paradigm of investment products / ETFs ( and that have decent price and performance history ) that can be held for longer time frames and take advantage of stock universes whose underlying portfolios represent highest decile alpha premium. This can be in the form of small cap value * ( VBR ) or Nasdaq 100 index ** ( QQQ ). Trading may be alluring, but it does take a lot of work. Having longer term, "strategic" exposure to these universes has produced geometric returns with less work. * Academic studies, University of Chicago Booth School / Fama and French CRSP data. Small cap value premium. ** Nasdaq 100 constituents represent some of the best mid cap growth companies in the world. Difficult to hand select a portfolio that would beat the index as one would probably be selecting some of the stocks already contained in the index.