Self Taught or Mentored?

To all those on ET who trade for a living, are you a self-taught trader or were you mentored one-on-one by a fellow trader?
I guess what I really want to know is if someone can still be a successful trader if he learns the hard way by himself. I know the learning will be a lot longer and more expensive, but is this possible at all?
Thanks.

 

Just hop into ET CHAT and trade the calls made by some of the most top notch traders this side of the Pacific.

 

I follow mrmarket's methodology.

On my second mortgage already

 

Bit of both, but I've exceeded all my mentors ..

It's hard to find someone who legitimately wants to teach you unless they're a personal friend.

 

Self-taught.

And yes, it took a long time and was expensive.

 

time to get your tuition back the easy way.

 

Ok but now more seriously.

I had to reteach myself since I was taught/forced the size scalp and bullet short scalp strategy from the prop firm I started with. Since I already had the experience of trading the stocks, I just started aiming for more trendy moves, pullbacks, reversals and tape reading. It had quite an effect on my P&L as I was down net everyday for about 2 weeks to a month.

Surprise, surprise, as I start hitting the profitable streak, bullets are gone. Our original "mentor" all of the sudden could not make a dime.

 

I'm self taught.

It took 3 years to finally catch on. (daytrading for income)
I've almost made back all of my tuition.

I also taught myself a couple other major things (guitar/business) but it probably depends on your personality whether or not a mentor or self teaching is for you.

I can tell you that with self teaching, you have to be totally passionate about what you're doing. If it seems like it is too tough, self teaching may not be for you.
If it seems like your patience is running out, a mentor may help.

But if your personality is meant for self teaching and you have the passion, you just find the drive to press on.

(Now, you have to have some logic too. Passion can also drive you to being out of cash if you don't become profitable in time ! Use a frickin simulator !!! I wish I had in the early stages)

 

I'd think that self taught is probably the best way to go. You have to learn how to adapt..."Only the strong survive"...

This it true for any profession, if you are an engineer, you are constantly having to keep up with new technologies and methodologies. If you are a doctor, you have to keep up with the new medicines, etc... If you are are a trader you have to keep up with the changing times. Just my two cents...

 

The paid mentor , trading course garbage leads one to question their legitimacy as well. If they can trade well, why would they spend many hours answering to whiny questions for a (relative to trading ) trivial amount of money? I roll my eyes if I hear that they "want to help people win". Most likely, they are fringe winners at best and are going into the educational field to offset their trading losses.

A more realistic scenario is to find a trader near your skill level, befriend him/her and then work together symbiotically - trading ideas, comparing results and what not.