Who is your Trading Hero, who you look up to, who inspires you.. etc etc.. It is OK even if you are a Trading God yourself, but who inspired you earlier in your career? a mentor? who gave you a break? how etc etc. it would be fun if people can open up. I'll disclose mine later if you care.
My father in the early 80's kept on buying Telefonos De Mexico(TMX) pink sheets on the OTC board. The shares came in the mail, and he had bundles of them. My father with no financial background understood the soundness of the trade and had the discipline to hold on. The shares fluctuated throughout the 80's before going public as I entered college. The shares listed on the NYSE with a conversion ratio of 20:1, you can imagine what happened then. That trade alone taught me that analysis of history and its cycles, can lead to the best trades of all. So if I really had to pick someone, it would be my father. I use to book keep for my dad, entering stock transaction manually for my dad into Pulse by Equis. We daytraded using FNN Signal even before it was popularized. The psychology of trading takes years to develop. Just like a samurai sword takes years of pounding to fashion it, so must a traders mind to develop that sharpness and edge. Noone really helped me early on in terms of direction, had to learn everything the hardway. Another memorable moment was when I was called up to the clearing firms owners office. It was early on when I was in my twenties. I put some tbond contracts late in the session. And the bond market kept on backing off resistance points. Then towards the close it blew through resistance and never looked back for 10 points or so. I had a hard time admitting I was wrong to put such a trade on and leave it alone to run with a drawdown. Well the owner took his time out of the day to call me into his office, he had a pony tail, that kinda stood out. He asked me what I was doing with the trade, he said it could keep going for another 5 points, and noone knows. After that conversation, I went to the floor and exited out. That trade didnt blow the account, but it did set it back. And the market did continue to move higher for a few more points. He could have easily had a underling talk to me about the trade or close it out without talking to me. But he took his time to talk to me. And that stood out. In this field you can tell someone lots of things and guide them, but I think a true trader, needs to experience most everything and go through the grinder themselves. You can give a set of rules to someone and have them follow it, and yes they can make money consistently over time, but I dont think they are traders in the true sense of it.
My heroes are all the guys making a living from home who did it on their own. The odds are so much against it but that is my goal.