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Most of the thread seems to imply great mentors are just kicking about in the gutter waiting to get a call from "Mentors are us" referral network. - "you need a student? we can help!"
Very occasionally (only twice so far) I have heard of people getting mentors and it seemed the universe just put student and teacher together.
Trading is NOT a business, profession, skill "like any another" as educators would have you believe in their pitch.
It is very, very, different.
In something like downhill skiing you can watch a competition such as the Olympics. Everybody knows what is going to happen - who the best were last year - what constitutes winning, what the rules are, etc.
Trading is not like accounting where you have a set of knowledge and some exams to pass and you get your papers.
Its a field of posers and "wanta-a-bees" pretending they know what the things are you need to learn.
Go attend the New York Traders Expo, take notes.
Have you heard about these traders (among others, I am leaving out at least 4 more)
George Kleinman
Don Miller
Jeff Quinto
Linda Raschke
Larry Pesavento
Timothy Morge
All of them have structured, advertised mentoring programs. Do you doubt the ability and track record of these traders? Should I expect a proven trader to come up to me and offer his services?
In an ultra comptetive world, nothing is ever going to be visible or obvious. What are you willing to do? How desperate are you?
None of above are my mentors, I do not endorse them. I have two already. it took me 3years to find them, they were not advertising anything. Human nature what it is - once you have made a subtantial amount and understand how to prtotect it (unlike Livermore, who despite being the greatest ever, was never able to protect himself), then trading by itself is boring.
Inevitably some pros start teaching, finding those pros - that have made it, been able to keep it are the ones to serach for. Not easy, not supposed to be.
Lornz and Rad already pointed it out, a mentor is not essential. That is correct. But not necessarily the correct answer for you. Take a hard objective look where you want to be in 10years, 20years, 30years. What will it take to get you there in the simplest, most structured and most effective manner? What are you willing to do?
Someone else said, either develop an edge yourself or borrow one and change it to fit yourself (with a mentor).
I think it is great you have found mentors able to assist you.
As I said in a previous post different people need different things. For a mentor to have been useful to you you would have had to been behind them.
Perhaps you can offer Keving some tips on how to find a mentor - that was his question to the forum.
Here's my question to you - why did you not answer his question on how to find a mentor?
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{edit}
I believe one of the rules here at Big Mike's is to declare if you have any association with vendors. Deucalion is this a possible reason for your post "putting me in my place" - "take notes little boy" tone?
Are one of your associates planning to advertise their services here or give a seminar on their services and you feel my post might influence the success of their sales presentation?
Well, I finished reviewing the link above, twice, and it was very helpful. At times it was like drinking from a fire hydrant, but fortunately you can go back and forth in the sessions and keep up.
Thanks again for the link.
I have also found lots of info posted by Brooks on PA. I think I am starting to understand PA trading more, but still no where near able to do it well. More screen time and chart studies in my future.
I believe when you start, 90% is technical, 10% emotional and when you end it is 90% emotional and 10% technical. But, the learning never ends on both ends....
I am glad you like the link. It has gotten better and better and good stuff. Good luck!
Every once in a while I get asked to produce a financial radio show here in my state.
In this thread, I've held the stance that you don't need a mentor to be a successful trader.
Well what is success exactly? For a football (USA) player, is success getting into the NFL?
Or is it becoming one of the greatest NFL players ever? Or at least above average?
We can all be good at something but maybe we need a mentor to become one of the greatest
or at least better than most full time traders.
I believe everyone with an above average IQ (don't need much) has to ability to become
a full time, self employed trader. But do we want to be the regular quarterback or do we
want to become the top of our class? Mind you...regular NFL quarterbacks are still the best
of the best.
For a recent show, we had a guest on that talked about going from good to great.
Yes, I'm sure most of us have read or at least heard of the book. But that's not what
this guest focused on. He focused on taking a very talented individual and turning
him/her into something special (super freaking good) by using a mentor. Almost every single
great in history had some type of mentor or coach that helped them take it to the next level.
No matter how we trade, we can always do better. Seeing things from a different perspective/mind
may be a link to take us from good to great.
I still don't think you need a mentor to be a successful trader. But what type of trader
do you want to be? A 40k/year trader or a 400k/year trader? Do you want to be
the successful franchise restaurant owner, or the franchise restaurant owner with the largest profit margin?
I try to let go of all ego in trading. We have to. A mentor would be absolutely fantastic no matter how
advanced we are as a trader.
(I wish I could express myself as well as you have in your post. You did a good job of saying your point without getting heated responses, as I seem to get. Good post! )
Market has been biggest mentor for me. I simply discard any human being as mentor when i compare them to market in terms of "size", "flexibility" and "the fee" .
Development and progress of a trader IMO, is just similar to a new born baby...and think his surrounding as Market.
Child grow with continuous non ending observations, not limited to any specific provided by human mentor , it grows with constant collision from real surrounding obstacle with simultaneous reward and punishments for his actions and progress. Surrounding never demanded a "fee"....it was inherent as punishment. Continuing with this process at last baby grow up to a standard approved by his surrounding...it took time...some one took more and some one less.
So i pay fee to biggest mentor and im proud to have it as my mentor.
You have a keyboard, and a net login. And it is your choice to attack the credibility of a poster who has posted less than 60times in 3years. An agenda would have been apparent by now. Perhaps it was to provoke a response, perhaps not...
Nevertheless, its something I cannot logically respond to. I am defenceless in this matter, about what you wish to allege.
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