I taught plenty of trading students online. Therefore, I can tell from experience that not even half of them have what it takes to become a profitable trader. I've seen students come and go. And I'm not even imposing my trading style on them, but instead, communicate the nature of price action to put them in the position of developing their own strategy that fits their personality. Here are the main factors that lack in them: Dedication: Something that disturbs me personally because I am a very ambitious and dedicated person myself. On some days they simply do not show up and obviously miss out on great opportunities. And when they finally find some time to trade, they get caught in a range. "I knew it, it happens all the time, trading is not for me." Patience: Other students have difficulties in holding a position for more than a few hours, or even days. This of course puts them in the dilemma of where and when to position themselves again in the very same trend. They buy again higher and higher in an uptrend, or lower and lower in a downtrend, than simply sticking with a profitable position in the first place. "The market behaved strangely, it lacked volume, I didn't trust the move, no one went broke taking a profit." Trust: They question everything, which can be healthy to only a certain degree. At some point, it simply gets distracting because at every small move against them, they start to close out, reverse, reverse again, repeatedly. "I had a terrible day, I shouldn't have done anything, everything would have been fine." [/list=1] I assert that a mentor can increase chances of success, but people will still fail most of the times. Thought I'd share.
Roughly estimated, merely 1 out of 4 who approach me reaches consistency and this after a whole year, sometimes longer. With the others, I notice precisely those characteristics mentioned which is why I believe this ratio could be better. There are slow learners and fast learners. And it is hard to filter out such people upfront because they all come with high interest and willingness.
What is your preference for meat? Wildebeest, deer, antelope, gazelle, giraffe, zebra? I have eliminated lion, tiger, crocs for obvious reasons.
Not really. If you look carefully you'll see that, in classic deadbroke fashion, he included the hidden words "wild", "beest", "gaze", and "bra" in his post; fairly related and in line with most of his posts.
I had someone attempt to teach me to trade for well over a year and finally after hitting my head against a wall over and over again did I realize what he was trying to get across to me. And that was just the basic technical stuff! The psychology was a whole other hurdle and I'm not sure how a mentor gets that part of trading into a student's head. I think it has to come from within at some point and for many it never happens.
Interesting. I have tried to get people to the table and have NEVER gotten any of them to do the simplest of things. Namely, to keep a journal, where they can be honest with themselves and see their good and bad trades. You can hand them the keys to the castle and they'll drown in the moat. A
I can relate to that, NoDoji. I often have the impression that the most significant parts are not completely understood. It is mostly common sense stuff, as you say, and so they are easily overheard. Success can only come from within, indeed. A mentor is there to give guidance and advice, not to provide long short signals the whole day.
It takes you a year and sometimes longer to teach someone to trade? This sounds more like a commentary on the teacher than on the students.