Question:

How can I find a successful mentor to work with? I have tried classes and tutorials, but it still comes back to the problem of my learning style. I do best by working with a mentor. Some companies have promised me mentor-ship for money, but never followed through.

Les From Mentorton

Answer:

Les, your question is a good one, and I hope others learning to trade decide to seek out a mentor. I did when I began, and it made a huge difference in my learning curve.

The benefits of a mentor are many, but the one that stands out most brightly is the personal touch a mentor brings to the learning environment. For this reason, I don’t encourage you to “hire” a mentor. I encourage you to find someone you know who is a trader, or is involved in the trading industry and knows enough about it to teach you the basics.

When I decided to start trading back in 2004, I knew I needed a mentor. So, I interviewed financial advisors. When I found the one I liked, and he had ample experience trading, I told him I would invest my retirement fund with him if he would teach me how to trade. Our arrangement worked out nicely. Over the next year, I ate up all that he could teach me, while trading lightly. In fact, I still talk with him at least four or five times per month, and now we talk as equals.

The bottom line is you have to find someone who is, or has been involved in trading. Perhaps finding a financial advisor is the way for you, but if it isn’t, place a “free” ad in your local newspaper asking for someone who wants to help you. In my experience, I have found that those who trade love to talk about trading, and they love to share both their experiences and their strategies.

In case you cannot find a mentor locally, consider reading traders who write columns or blogs. I have seen so many reasonable, thoughtful, and intelligent writers on the web. I am pretty sure you can find one you like, one that appeals to you, and when you do, send that person an email to begin a correspondence. If you keep it light and are persistent, I suspect you will find someone willing to “work” with you on your journey to becoming a trader.

Keep in mind, that your “learning style” is only your perception of how you learn. Perceptions can change, and when they do, they are replaced with a new one. Perhaps your “new one” could be that you can teach yourself by reading, trading lightly, and engaging with minimal risk

Trade in the day; invest in your life …

Trader Ed