My contention is that a trader must develop their own plan and execution contingency. If you are enamored of a Guru, you are not thinking for yourself. In addition, what happens when the Guru is not there standing over your shoulder to press the buy button. Maybe you wouldn't even want him there--he/she might press the wrong button.
I know you ask this in a "tongue in Cheek" but there is some ancient wisdom in regards of a Guru. 1) when you are ready the Guru appears... 2) with a the true Guru - you(disciple) have to ask(beg sometimes) to be your guru - never the other ways around. The MASTER never offers help or his guruship! 3) true Guru never advertises or promotes himself in Las Vegas or anyplace else...... 4) true Guru never takes any money or lives off his disciples 5) Bond between a Guru and disciple is a secret thing and can never be broken 6) The guru takes the disciple's Karma on his/hers shoulder. If you can apply this to trading is questionable but as for a guru in deeper meaning I would say it is right on. Also how many true trading gurus would you say actually adhere to this? Maybe the guy running the "trading tribe" is the only one.
IOW, he should develop yet another persona around all the lies that stem from social conditioning? Another subconscious voice to tell him what to do and what not to? Hell no. It's all about taking responsibility - the one thing in life they don't teach you in school, at work...
The hardest part of any disciple is to move on when the Guru dies. Many just flounder and leave the teaching like a bird with its wing clipped all of the sudden. This time is the litmus test or "final exam" for the disciple. A few who make it develop their own stuff (intuition, style, method, philosophy) and become independent. That's the way it is.
Self styled and educated trader,... or a user of other persons knowledge? Does it matter? The purists and philosiphers would probably say yes, realists about money would probably say no. The end product is about getting it right, the rest is just conversation. This thread should have been named: The Curse of the Dying Guru. Why? The self styled trader should maintain fluency, whilst the Guru trader needs to get to grips with thier new Guru. Theoretically, of course.
I don't think another persona is needed. Rather, trading concepts should engrained in the individual so as to be that individual. Successful trading concepts work in most area of regular life as well.
Dependency is the issue to be solved... Not only in trading but in all aspects that relate to your core need for independence... Guru's provide an uncomfortably comfortable mirror into your own insecurities to accomodate them vs. courage to do without 1, 2, or your mother's rejection and your father's disapproval of your trading success. So when you drive up to the old house you lived in, in your new Humvee, they ask, "how come you're wearing that ugly sweater?" When your need for acknowledgement is accepted as loss from them, your ability to stand on your own two feet and discover your process of realization that 'My success threatens them, and it's their problem, not mine' gurus that are actually a substitute for them get flushed down the drain with the rest of the shit! ... All that said, I am always open to quality input that takes my trading to another level from care with control for power broken gurus. ( that demand independence of them)