Self taught. Bumped my skull against the wall lots of times until I read some dude say "To make money trading the markets you don't need to know what is going to happen next". Ah Ah that was revealing. I was a moron who was making simple things difficult.
The first two books to really help me (certainly were not the first that I bought) were The Candlestick Course by Steve Nison and Support & Resistance Simplified by Michael Thomsett. Whatever patterns or candle formations you choose to stat with, just focus on one or two. Learn what time frames they are most often found, what conditions are they most effective and what conditions exist most when they fail. A good way to practice spotting these formations is to print out charts and cover them with a sheet of paper. Uncover one candle at a time until you find your pattern. Next decide if you buy or sell and play out your trades on paper, one candle at a time. Do it until you can easily spot a formation or two. Ask questions from anyone you know to trade successfully. After you feel somewhat comfortable finding your trade signals, then trade them on a simulator. Keep your job until you have proven you are consistently profitable. If you work nights, record the day's activity on a simulator and play it at night. If you at that time think a guru is helpful get references.
Self taught...by making lots and lots of mistakes...most of the mistakes I made were listening to someone else... This is a "self" business... Direct access technology...the internet...low commissions...have made my liberties possible....
Where did I learn wow great question. I learned it on this first date with some girl along time ago. It was a first date like I said before so it seems be going well because I am sticking it to her hard. Well I finish and feel it would be uncomfortable for me to pretend this girl had any importants anymore so I leave. This where I learned how great it is to be a winning trader.
I learnt how to trade way bake in grade 1 or 2 I believe. The lunch time snack market was a major bull market then. I could buy (our currency was of course baseball cards) a fruit roll-up and hold it for a couple week's, then trade them for twice the amount of baseball cards I got for buying them when the supply of them ran dry. My system was based on lunch rotation.
Started in 1981 as a local at the COMEX (N.Y. Gold Futures), On to a couple of equities hedge funds, independent ever since. Where did I learn? I'll have to get back to you when I finish learning.
I have been in the business since 1983, writing a lot of options premium but I really learned how to "TRADE" after I finally found an excellent mentor about 20 months ago.