If a person has at least a little potential, a mentor can GREATLY reduce the time it takes to learn how to trade. However, I'm not sure that people are inately programmed to fail at trading. I think many get exhausted / run out of fuel (money), then just give up. Whereas a patient mentor may have been able to get the individual over the hump. So, guess I'm in disagreement with your hypothesis.
This has me worried! Trading attracts people who want to get rich quick. People who gravitate to the markets with this goal in mind soon fall into the trap of wanting someone to tell them what to do. It could be either a mentor or an endless series of indicators that don't work or so called systems. We were trying to figure out the other day the % of successful traders and that number was like .0001% who made a lot of money consistantly- some argued that even that was way to optimistic!
Well put, db. It's this way in all businesses. Most people have a bit of a lazy streak that holds them back. If a person will bust his ass a little, he can achieve greater things.
Depends on what the mentee wants. If all he wants is to copy the mentor, then maybe. A bare maybe. But if he wants to learn how to trade and isn't willing to do the studying, the experimenting, the record-keeping, the planning, the testing, etc., etc., etc., there is no way a mentor -- no matter how good he is -- is going to be able to act as a surrogate. There is no such thing as a knowledge-and-experience transplant.
Depends on what the busting entails. An awful lot of people think they're working just because they show up every day.
I strongly believe mentoring is valuable. As a mentee myself, i would have to say that i learned more than just technique and methods from my montorship but also intangibles. How to deal with emotions, what kind of attitude to come in with and why do the preparation? How to do bids and offers while fighting off the blackboxes, the very real costs of commissions, how ECNs differ, so many such unwritten knowledge was passed on. Most of all, seeing a successful trader do what he does, being there as it happens and seeing the conclusions... this alone made having a mentor worth it.
This is a very funny thread! People get what they put into it, and any smart person knows the only way to get rich fast is the lotto or inheritance.
Quote from marketsurfer: ... by paying a mentor who overtly advertises ..... Maybe since Surfer blew up last week he wants to subtlety advertise on ET for those who seek mentorship.
LOL ! i am not a mentor and i did not "blow up". yes, i had a large drawdown caused by not following my own system--- very stupid on my part--but it happened and i documented it here. surfer