Nick…..
It’s my opinion that you can gather all the information that you need on trading from internet resources which are available free of charge. Trade 2 Win is just one such example.
You need to be careful. There are many aspects to a successful trader. A few of those aspects you may be aware of. There are other aspects that you are currently unaware of but will become aware of during the passage of time. A good book which covers this is John Pipers – The Way To Trade.
Basically, everyone is made differently. To assume that you can simply copy someone else’s trading style is an error. You need to discover and develop your own personal trading style, your ‘trading personality’. Sure people can help you do that but the ethos is that you are learning about yourself, not about someone else. One of the most expensive mistakes you can make is attempting to ‘clone’ some one you know who is successful. Quite often the reason for their success is there ‘uniqueness’ in a particular area which you may or may not be aware of. Attempting to recreate this uniqueness is impossible because it isn’t generally a mechanical formula, it is often referred to as ‘gut instinct’ and therefore can not easily be taught nor understood. I guess what I am really saying is that you will waste your money because you will go to your teacher with an expectation of what you are going to learn. These expectations will not be facts that are really going to help you.
Of course the really good coaches will be aware of this and will need to teach you to listen to what they are actually saying as apposed to you just cherry picking the details that you think are important. This is the key to a good coach or teacher.
You need to bear in mind that there appears to be something in the make up of human psychology which makes us think that, by paying more money for something, we get more than if we were buying something cheaper. This is the reason these over rated snake oil sales men stay in business. They know that by advertising courses for several thousand pounds they will attract a certain ‘type’ of person. The type of person who subconsciously ‘knows’ that ‘the same information is not available anywhere else for free’. This is not the case. I am certain that there is nothing taught at these expensive seminars which is not available freely across the internet or on sites like this one. Sure there is an art to locating and learning such information but at least you can do it in your own time at your own pace.
There are actually some very basic rules to trading which you can find very easily. The rules surrounding ‘Money Management’ are ‘perma-rules’ which should never be broken if you are considering staying in business (and a business is what this is long term).
There is a whole section on T2W which discusses money management. I would suggest that anyone trading should familiarise with that section. Having familiarised yourself with these rules, I would then look to consider the mathematics which surrounds these rules. Some would argue that it is not entirely necessary to know why certain rules exist so long as you follow them. Personally I find that I like to know all the ‘ins and outs’ which surround rules because I feel that it gives me considerably more motivation when it comes to following them correctly. Rules which govern position size are the most important rules to learn in my opinion. No surprises then that these are the most frequently over looked rules. This is why most people either fail completely or suffer a considerable loss of capital. The number one enemy in this business is ‘drawdown’. This is depletion of capital. As soon as your capital starts to get eroded you will require an even greater percentage return on the remaining capital just to get your position back to breakeven. Experienced traders don’t risk much more that 1% - 2% of total capital on any one trade. In my opinion, inexperienced traders shouldn’t risk anymore than around 0.5% of total capital on any one trade. That means that with a £1,000 account you shouldn’t risk more that about £5 on any single trade. Pretty boring hey !
If you ask most traders they will tell you that the biggest lessons are to be learn from actual physical trading. You can read books until you are blue in the face. Pulling the trigger on a deal or closing that out of control loss can not be taught by books or by tutoring. You need to experience these things for yourself to see how you react to them. It is only then that you can seek help on the individual points which are holding you back.
There is a popular saying, I first heard it in Junior school,”Practice makes perfect”….It isn’t actually true. Think about it. If you practice bad habits then those bad habits become ingrained to. The correct saying should be “Practice makes permanent”. It is a myth that by practicing anything you will become good at it. The only way to become good at something is to open your mind to the fact that you will never completely master something. Once your mind is open you will be in a position where you can analyse your mistakes and then try to ensure that they don’t occur again and again.
Hope this gives you some food for thought,
Steve.
