Trading Mentor…. or not?

I received some email asking about trade mentoring.  As I have never taking a trading course or had a mentor I’m looking for some honest input from readers.

I think the worst part about finding a mentor is trusting if they are actually profitable.  If I was to have someone teach me, let’s say, how to install wiring for my addition to the house, I’m pretty sure I would only take advice from an electrician.  By the same token, if I was to take advice from a trader, I would want to see his statements for the last 3 years, and not some random stuff he might have made up.  Some online, lets log into your account and take a look, and see if your playing with some real money.  If he had 20K I wouldn't be interested.  I think an account of 100K or more and profitable yearly for 3 years would make me comfortable.  Good luck finding this taught.  Good traders are probably to busy making $$ to worry about teaching others to compete with them.

If you want something done right, do it yourself.  Learn price action.  Here is a suggestion.

Open up a chart with a 1hour timeframe or higher.  Zoom in so you can see maybe 50 to 100 bars.  Mark off areas with a box where you think price might turn next time it gets there. Let’s say there was a breakout to the upside, mark the area with a yellow triangle.  Then move along the chart marking off more area, don’t worry yet about seeing if that area was a turning point.  Once your done all the data, zoom out and see what happened.  Make notes.

Do this a few time with different pairs or trading instruments.  Then do the same thing but also mark off a target.  Then zoom out and see what happened.

You will notice that some trading vehicles don't give a rats ass about price action.  Try this first with EURUSD.  Then try some strange pair.  You will then realise that trading these odd pairs isn’t worth it.  I stick to the majors. unless I’m testing some EA.

Once your done this, watch a chart on a 5 minute time frame between 9am EST and 11am EST.  I have also done a 1 minute video screen capture of the NFPA news release to see how it moves.  Watch it a few times.  Watch price when it gets to a supply demand level on a 1 minute timeframe and see how it bounces around. 

My number 1 problem is that I chase price sometime.  I almost always lose money when I pull the trigger on a market order.  When I use limit order and set it and walk away, checking every 30 minutes, I’m usually profitable or breakeven.  I actually prefer to trade off 4 hour charts on forex, sometimes I have to wait more than 1 week for the entry. But in that week, I haven't lost any green, and the right set-up give you a smile on your face when it goes into profit shortly after entry.

So once you’ve done all that stuff above, try this game out.  Hint: switch time frames to drill down, use the pause button.

Click for the trading game Trading Game

By the way, if you’ve read this far, I just watch all Sam Siedens videos and got his odds enhancer list somewhere on line and studied it, to learn price action.  His stuff and Alphatrends helped a lot.

If you have a mentor or use a trading service, post a comment.  Not really interested in the service or who is the mentor, just interested in the result…. is it helping you become consistent and profitable?  Leave a comment.