I ask them how much they are willing to lose? Seriously, any real trader know they pay their dues in money and emotional stress and pain. Most people, it stops them right there, they say nothing. I say then you aren't qualified to be a trader. First you lose, then you break even, then you make money, then you scale up until you make lots of money. It's more detailed than that but you get the point. I am shifitng from break even to making money consistently. This is the toughest mental game I have ever done by far.
================ djput; Amen, also like hunting in that best moves tend to be early & late. And laziness showes up eventually, waste of time to teach lazibones; amd lots of work tends to be rewarded eventually
Don't give investment advice. If you make them money, they won't thank you. If you lose them money, they come and blame you. It's a thankless job.
I've only been asked a few times. I ask them if they have one solid year of living expenses in the bank. Cash on hand ready to make their monthly nut each and every month. They never do. I've told them it's taken me five years to get consistently profitable, and even then I still sometimes struggle with the psychology side of trading. They ALWAYS go away at that point. The other question I get asked (or told actually) is 'I should give you XXX dollars of mine so you can double (triple, whatever) my money." The balls on some people.
Well to be fair, I started knowing NOTHING (even though I thought I did), then my wife's cancer returned and I took a year off in there to umm, you know, take care of her, until her death, then a few months to get my head out of the oven, then I started up again. So, call it two years.
I would tell them to look into finding a good market training coach. They are out there. Mine is awesome. He referred me to this site for additional training.