Greetings Raoul,
Thank you very much for your interest in my trading work!
Please find below my answer to your 2 questions: “Should one take a mentor or not?” and “What about the costs?”
I will start by stating that trading is a profession! The learning process can’t be improvised like is done by most of the novice traders. If you don’t do it the right way, the tuition money will go to the market, anyway, and the student will lose the funds, without ever becoming a profitable & consistent trader! The trading dream will be left behind! Believe me … I know this, because almost all of my students have done it, in the past before attending our courses. There are only 5% winning novices traders that will go through this process and start theevery-day trading life! The remaining 95% are out of business in maximum 3 months.
A. Self-Apprenticeship
This method is adopted by most novice traders due to their ignorance or do not own the necessary allocated capital for the learning expenses. Most of the time, this method is based on the books’ usage or course attendance in USA or UK. The eventual positive final results depend on the student’s approach and how seriously he took-up the learning tasks. However, even if logically, the job can be done, the chances to get a positive outcome are slim, especially after the classic losses of the first real-time trades:
–Advantages – Fewer funds are apparently spent because the final & global loss is computed only after approximately three months (sometimes more time), when the “to-be-trader” ran out of money, loosing his entire trading capital.
–Disadvantages – are numerous: low probability of success, waste of time, partial or total trading renouncement (permanent give-up), instillation of an anxious nervous state very harmful for the student’s personal or professional life, taking-up & getting accustomed with very bad trading habits that it will be very difficult to get rid of them. The worse would be a very probable loss of trading capital with ruin risk. Trader’s behaviour will be to operate without a plan, no emphasis on Money Management and abundant impulsive decisions, without the “What if” attitude. It’s like driving in foreign country without a map.
B. Mentorship
It represents in our opinion the shortest way to profitable and consistent trading. The mentor’s selection is not an easy task, because there are very few around who are as good traders as they are good teachers (refer to the question: “How to choose your mentor”).
–Advantages – the funds are very well spent for acquiring optimal trading results, in the shortest possible period of time. It is by far easier to understand complex topics, especially in the beginning, explained by a professional, rather than reading the subject alone in a book. The continuous mentorship will ensure a permanent trading assistance as long as the trader will need it. A plastic written expression would belearning how to fly a plane by himself guided by the books or with a flight-monitor.
Which one would be the most efficient? Take my word for it…the latter is the right
answer! It’s funny or rather disastrous (for some people) that when it comes to learning how to trade, most of the novice traders would choose the books, even if this is an almost sure choice of loosing the capital!
Another advantage for the trader is that he/she will acquire the right trading attitudeconcerning Money Management, and Trade’s Management, the two sure parameters so indispensable to reach the profitable and consistent trading level.
These are possible because the student will have the right attitude, from the beginning being well conditioned by the mentor. The next step toward success will be a continuous mentorship, whatever partial or total.
I almost forgot…the ruin-risk is almost inexistent! It’s mentor’s job to warn you before it could happen!
–Disadvantages – apparent higher cost than Self-Apprenticeshipbut far-better “capital- preservation”.
Good Trading!
Best Regards,
Dr Mircea Dologa, MD, CTA, MTA affiliate Paris – France
