Have you ever consulted a trading coach, and if so, what was your experience like? Long-time followers of the Trader's Blog are familiar with the educational content that we provide and often have questions about other ways to learn how to trade including, trading coaches.
Today, we're sharing a bit of commentary on the subject from TraderPlanet.com's, Trader Ed. Read on to see what Trader Ed thinks about the subject and then leave a comment and share your insight or experience with us.
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How do I choose a trading coach? Do you have any recommendations? How much should I be paying, and how well do they really work? Any other advice would be helpful.
Personally, I have never used a “trading coach.” Perhaps one could have helped me become a better trader, but I will never know …
In my thinking, a trading coach is only necessary if one is having issues with his or her discipline. Now, I am sure some would say, “Oh, but a trading coach does so much more than help with discipline.” Well, that may well be true, but, again, in my thinking, it is better for a trader to slog through the process of learning how to trade, both making mistakes and making money. When one or the other happens, the learning trader analyses that thing to find out what he or she did in that process. I believe that experience is the best teacher, and in trading, nothing substitutes for experience. I attended a university that has the motto,” Learn by doing.” I still believe this to be true, and I practice this philosophy today.
So, unless you are having trouble with discipline, my advice is to throw yourself into the fray with a minimal capital account. Along the way, read everything you can about the market you are trading, talk to anyone who knows anything about what you are trying to learn, and take advantage of any and all free educational opportunities. In short, get to work trading and learn how to do it.
I have no recommendations as to which trading coach would work for you, nor do I know how much you should pay. How well does the concept of using a trading coach work? If you ask someone who has succeeded with the aid of a trading coach, you will get one answer. If you ask someone else who thinks he or she threw away money using a trading coach, you will get another answer. As with everything else in life, what you get from any endeavor is at least equal to what you put into that endeavor.
Trade in the day; invest in your life …
Trader Ed
Ask Trader Ed
TraderPlanet.com
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Trader Ed lives on a small ranch on the beautiful Central California coast. He is a writer by trade and a trader by choice. To learn more about Trader Ed or to read some of his other commentary, stop by his column by visiting the link above.
I think coaching in any area can be viewed incorrectly as "for defective people." When in fact coaching has always been something the best and brightest choose -- olympic athletes have more need for a good coach than an amateur.
I've worked with a prop trader who realized he simply wasn't making the money he wanted -- and that impacted every area of his life, from his commute time to his ability to marry his girlfriend and start a family. He was a brilliant man who knew the strategies he needed to use, but he just wasn't doing it -- the negativity in his office in Manhattan didn't help -- this was soon after the economic crisis in NYC.
This is where coaching comes in. It's for bright people who simply aren't yet doing what they need to do. By looking the fears in the face, clarifying his process (what works, what doesn't), doing a fair number of coaching exercises, and using my 30 Day Success Chart, he was successfully able to move past the blocks that had stopped him and complete the essential actions every day. Fears, old beliefs, past failures, doubts (his own and the guys who sat next to him) -- they no longer stood in his way. He became focused, calm, and was able to make the money he wanted to.
Coaching is not for everyone. Not everyone wants to be an Olympic athlete. Not everyone wants (or needs) to discover their full potential and realize their top level of success, and that is a personal decision. We all have different paths in life. I work with a select group, and their personality traits and drive is unique and exciting to work with.
I thank you for your post, and I have to respectfully disagree. I am a trader coach, so I am partial!
Using a coach to help with discipline and other trading issues, especially psychological, is a great way to go. The $500-1000/mo that you might spend is really nothing compared to what you can lose. (I am a trader too, so I understand how quickly and how big losses can be.)
What people don't often realize is how much a coach can help SUCCESSFUL traders. I have a client, for example, who has traded for 30 years. His trading is steady, profitable, and in the green. He supports himself financially through trading, and he trades others accounts. However, he has "played small" through his trading career.
As we worked together, he has examined this, where it came from, and how he would like to "play bigger". Now, his previously unconscious blocks that were keeping him at "just breaking even" to being really profitable are exposed and no longer stopping him. He is making a lot more money now--with just some shirts in beliefs, etc.
We all have blocks that stop us, most of which we are not aware of. If you are trading successfully, great! You are in the minority. Are you interested in going to the next level? Are you interested in increasing your success, even though it can be uncomfortable? If so, consider hiring a trading coach.
Trading is one of the hardest professions there is. Even with great schooling it is easy to be overcome by our own emotions and destroy our accounts, never mind our egos. Having a coach on your team is the best investment, in my opinion, you can make. Learning charts, strategies, etc. is critical, but since trading is 90% psychological, you are swimming in dangerous waters if you don't have a good grasp on your inner mind, your impulses, and your psychology.
Consider finding a coach you feel good about, and protect your account before you are too far in the hole. And, increase your odds for greater success.
Andrea Wylan
http://www.InnerWorksCoaching.com
My focus has not been to learn how to trade but instead to think of how to trade.
Not a bad idea... and it's part of the reason why I began my website... to assist others. After all, I can trade in privacy and nothing changes... or share the info. with others.
It is a big problem.
Are few the experts of the trader and it in bank is difficulty have of the good counsels.
I operate in the commodity. I am me made 6 months of study on the commodity.
Then Iinvesting 60,000 [euro] have operated and I/they am me made in the 2009 18,000 euro,
I follow all the stocks markets and commodity.
It is difficult' to find a good expert, at least here in Italy.
mario corso
Very good advise, indeed. I am following the same type of a stratagy. Thanks for endorsing my views.
I think any time you have a coach it is bound to help especially when starting out. To say otherwise is like saying take your schooling by correspondence because teachers don't add any value. Sounds like Trader Ed might be one of those pro traders looking for some novice to enter the market so that he can pick his pockets clean.
I am having no trouble with Discipline, but i do have a problem of not knowing where to enter, exit, place stop loss & take profits. You say learn on your own, true you can learn but still need the above info, when a coach has a good strategy, and can prove on a chart that by following his specific advice you make money, then sure its worth to pay, so he should teach it to you until you know it completly, otherwise you can be in the market for years and by trial & error alone you still wont know what to do. Hope you dont mind, i totally disagree.