“It’s good to learn from your own mistakes. It’s better to learn from the mistakes of others.” -Warren Buffet
This was once said publicly by one of the richest men in the world. If he’s claiming that to be true, we all should. In trading, there are endless paths to results that you can take. Today, there are more books, courses, mentors, videos online than one could ever come even fractionally close to consuming. There’s simply too much information being put out on a daily basis regardless of the subject matter for any one person to consume yet alone apply.
The abundance of information isn’t necessarily a bad thing however, it’s in our ability to focus and use the information available to us in a productive manner that will allow us to see progress in our own journey as a trader. In this article we’re going to lay down why it’s important to find a reputable course/program and to use it to its fullest extent so that you can reap the benefits and apply it to your own approach to the markets. Most traders only dip their toe in so to speak when it comes to learning from mentors, we want to change that… so that you stop jumping from program to program, coach to coach wondering why you’re not really getting anywhere with your trading.
Why Learning From Others Is Paramount To Your Success
To put it bluntly, there is a lot to know when starting out as a trader. Same goes for any new venture really. Regardless of which career you go to start or business you plan on building, you have to learn not only what to do, but what not to do and in what order to realize success.
For as far back as civilization goes, people have been learning from others in the form of apprenticeships. Over the shoulder modeling of what someone else who is further along down the track of skill and experience is doing. They know best because they have the know-how! Doing as they do and asking questions to better understand why they’re doing what they’re doing speeds up progress and shortens the learning curve. Imagine if you had to learn everything on your own without the help of others. It would take an unimaginable amount of time to learn most things. This is why we cannot stress enough the importance of having someone who’s been where you are, and is where you want to be. Coaching you and guiding you on your journey, speaking wisdom into you on what to do and what not to do along the way.
How To Know Whether A Course Is Proven To Work Before Joining
This is important. As we’ve discussed prior, there is an never ending supply of information online these days with everyone claiming to be an expert at what they do to make some money as a coach or by selling an online program. While a lot of them mean well and a good percentage of them are actually great at what they do, there is also a large portion of the market share pretending to be what they’re not. This is where having a proficient level of discernment comes in. It’s important to know who to listen to and who to ignore.
To keep this very simple, learn from those who have been exactly where you are in your journey and who are now where you aim to be in the future. This is how to narrow down your list of options. From there, it’s a matter of digging into what they do, how it’s presented and whether or not previous members in the program / community are seeing results themselves going through this program. If there are ample student testimonials and legitimate reviews / success stories, it’s worth trying out.
Results can be faked but for the most part, if testimonials are being taken directly out of the program’s discord community or from DM’s, or if wins of funding certificates and payouts are being posted, it’s legitimate. You can often tell who’s fronting and who’s the real deal. Volume of student wins and feedback is usually a good sign that the program you’re looking into is a good option.
The Shortcut To Success And Having Correct Expectations Going In
Where most people go wrong with courses and online programs, is in their expectations of what it’s supposed to do for them from the start. Most people assume that once they buy a course, they’re well on their way to million dollar trading accounts. This is not reality. The truth, regardless of whether you commit to a coaching program or not, is that it’s going to require a lot of work to get good at trading. It’s a skillset to be developed the same way a pro basketball player will shoot hoops for hours a day before they rise to the top 1% of players. Or how an olympic swimmer will spend their entire day in the pool doing laps and running drills. Trading is no different. Having a coach drastically speeds up your progression, but it doesn’t make it easy.
It’s best to enter a program with an expectation that it will require daily work to get good to the point where you can consistently generate an ROI on the charts and to get to the point where you can pass prop firm funding challenges, keep them and scale them. You can’t get around the 10,000 hour rule. Whether that rule is firm or not, it’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to require time and effort investment on your part. Having a coach or a team of coaches in your corner to support you whenever questions arise, as they will, will help you stay on track and not become discouraged when you face losing positions, missed entries, failed challenges, etc. Your mentor(s) is there to help you reset your expectations and keep you going when you face these forms of adversity. You’ll feel less like a failure and more like a work in progress. Learning to fall in love with the process of becoming great… and falling out of habits of gauging your ability by your outcomes.
Commit to the long haul with one mentor, one approach to the markets and see it through until you experience consistent returns and capital funding. If you never quit, your success is inevitable. It’s about as simple as that.
How You Can Get The Absolute Most Out Of Any Course You Take
Shiny object syndrome takes the form of chasing the latest strategy, tactic, or advice making the rounds within the industry. This is where so many traders go wrong. They jump from course to course to course not even completing the ones they start out of the hopes that the next one will be the solution to their troubles. While this may be partly true in that we agree some programs are poor in quality, the reason most traders never realize results in their trading is because they don’t stick with things long enough. They expect results in weeks or a few months when in reality it often takes 6, 12, 18+ months to actually start to get good at any particular strategy and begin seeing consistent results with it.
It’s just not possible to learn something in a month or two and expect to become a master at it when there are traders out there who’ve been mastering their craft for decades to achieve consistency. The majority of traders need an expectation reset so they can actually settle into what they’re doing for much longer. It’s the only way to grow and to gauge your growth as you progress. Our best recommendation, pick one strategy and see it through. Follow a plan like our funded trader roadmap. Do what they did to see results and model what they had their successful students do to achieve their success! It’s really just a recipe that needs to be followed through to the end. You can’t undercook a cake and expect it to come out flawless. Same goes for you in your approach to becoming a top 1% trader. Give it the time it requires. It will be worth it in the end we promise.
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Robert Castillo @coldwaterfx FX Trader & Analyst Writer & Editor
Rob is a funded trader from Toronto, Canada, and has been trading currencies, commodities, stocks, and cryptocurrencies for over 7 years. Outside of trading, he enjoys making music, boxing, and riding motorcycles.
