I have been blessed by having a trading mentor. He taught me many basic, yet invaluable, lessons. The first was that if 95% of traders (supposedly) lose, then you do not want to trade in the same way that those 95% trade. I have known a few people who mentor. They all have one thing in common - they are unusual. The reason? They are the 5%, therefore what they have to say will be an irritant to the remaining 95% of people. That's why from time to time you will see a post which contains good, sound information, usually by someone who has been in the trading game for many years and is still around. However, just look on the strategies board and you will see how many times these knowing posters are trashed by idiots. The knowing posters then give up and decide that it is easier not to share their knowledge than struggle to educate those who would rather be abusive than listen. So next time you see something which may sound a little weird, be patient and polite, and perhaps you will come to realize why the 5% consistently win. If you have to pay for a mentor, then that mentor is not worth a dime. Real mentors make eye-popping amounts of money and therefore have no need to be vendors - they do it because they are generous people willing to share their knowledge to an appreciative and worthy audience.
Nobody has answered the question posed initially. Any comments appreciated and how you were introduced to mentor as well.
Good and bad. Mostly bad. I learned what NOT to do though trading wise. side by side A mix of both. He didn't get to cash in the second leg though... Too costly. If I could do it over again, I'd go the self taught route first to see what you've got. If you don't have the knack, then maybe look into mentors or better yet, go prop. My guess would be that prop would be far less intensive training than a mentor, but the quality should be higher on avg. Oh yeah, my "mentor" was a casual acquaintance. Hope this helped, Sub
I was introduced to my mentor from networking. You can also call some of the firms to see if they offer mentoring programs. In the past, there were a few firms that offered it.
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com Go and read the annual letters. It will take you the better part of a weekend to complete. That's the best free mentoring service around. People think Buffett is just buy and hold. For the first decade of his career, he traded. He'd buy a stock on the cheap, and usually sell within a year or three for a nice gain. A good book on this period is by Roger Lowenstein. It's called Buffett, the making of an American capitalist. I suggest that you read and reread what melons had to say. Then read through these boards. Look for that. Every time I've ever posted strategy, I've been attacked. That's one of many reasons that I no longer post tactics. Learning is a very difficult and time consuming thing. If you think that someone will just pop out and teach you, you're wrong. There has to be something in it for them. I had a mentor for a brief period. This was after I was already profitable. He came to me because of something poignent that I said in a chat room. He helped me a lot to fine tune my thinking, not strategy though. The thing is that he got something out of the relationship. He got someone to mock every time I screwed up. He liked to take out his daily frustrations on someone. I was that person. I learned a lot though. I don't mind though. He was the greatest trader I ever met. Way better than I'll ever be I personally have mentored a few people. With one exception, it was an awful experience. Not a single one was greatful in any way, and almost all of them blew out their accounts within a month because they refused to listen to what I was saying. It was if after 30 hours, they'd decided that what I was saying was worthless. I don't think I'll ever mentor someone again. There just isn't enough in it for me. Unless, that person could bring something significant to the table for me......
My mentor blew his account before I went out on my own. We were going long on tyc in the afternoon. He bought 5000 shares, I did not feel that bold margin-wise and only bought 2500. (My account was twice his size) After whipping around all afternoon, I decided that holding overnight would be dangerous, (tyc was in bad news land), and covered a few grand down at 15-something. We got in at 16. The next morning, we got to work and found that tyc had dropped to near 10. My mentor was margined out. That was my biggest lesson ever, and the last one. Just be careful and make damn sure you pick the right mentor. He should have the ability to command you to hold in a drawdown and have REAL reasons/analysis to back it up. It goes without saying to see accounting/tax records to make sure your mentor is a good trader.
Your mentor should have a significant account size that a 50k hit like that tyc one won't wipe him out. There are lots of idiots who'll try to teach you with the best of intentions, but you'll just learn how to loose money faster.