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I feel your pain, many here do. Been trading 4-5 years and while I'm making improvements, still not where I want to be. Every successful trader seems to have had a mentor, I never have. I've always found this frustrating and discouraging. However, a mentor doesn't NEED to be someone in real life that you talk to on the phone or in person each day. A mentor can simply be a successful trader's video, book, article. I've accepted that this is the next best thing.
Take for example the Market Wizard series books. These are essentially distillations of hundreds of mentors giving their best wisdom, TO YOU. When you read their words, pretend they are talking directly to you. Believe and implement every word they say. So what if it's on a printed page. It's the same thing they'd tell you if you sat down with them for coffee.
On a final note, one wizard I really really resonate with is Marty Schwartz. Marty lost money for 10 years before he finally figured things out and guess what, he didn't have a mentor. He figured it out all on his own and then went on to be one of the most successful traders in history. He's driven, likes to work alone, and has never ever given up.
Never give up. Ever. If you want to trade, you will find success eventually.
Pitbull by Marty Schwartz was a fantastic book. I read it a couple of months ago and it was highly entertaining while also showing his drive and motivation.
Price action can help you. I was in a similar position and i have seen lot of improvement. I have not been consistent in profit making , but my winning rate has increased after joining here. You can trade Oil, ES and other Futures with mechanism thought in this group.
Be wary of posts directing you to algorithmic / system trading. I would say this is a difficult and slippery path where curve fitting makes a system looks great in a backtest but will likely not make profits trading live. At least not in the long run. This also would require a lot of education (which I am sure they would like to help you with).
If you like to be active this is not for you (I would say). You could not sit on your hands seeing your system burning money and trusting it's gonna be okay.
Linda Raschke knows a lot of professional traders. This is what she wrote:
"I’ve known hundreds of professional traders throughout my career. I don’t want to disappoint you, but I know of only two who where able to make a steady living for themselves with a mechanical system. (I am not counting the well-capitalized CTA’s who are running a money-management program with “OPM” – other people’s money.) All those other traders used some type of discretion that invariably involved watching the price action at some moment – even if just to move a stop up or down."
Source: Linda Raschke, Tape Reading (read the article)
Focus on the foundation, what makes price move.
Take care,
-Mich
p.s. riding a bike, swimming, skating, car driving and so on. You will only learn by doing (and by making mistakes). Don't be hard on yourself, be patient, go slowly and remember capital preservation comes first.
I'm not affiliated, and can strongly second what Pilot has written before about SMB Futures and Merritt Black.
He's a futures trader first and foremost (within the SMB Capital prop desk structure, and yes, the firm mainly trades stock, but Merritt only trades futures and some options).
He traded live on youtube for several years every day at the CL open for everyone to see. No hype, no bs.
He's a consistently profitable trader.
And he is in the process of building a futures desk within the SMB structure, hence the coaching and mentoring.
He is backed by years of experience within SMB rg. what it takes to become consistently profitable.
He's had his ups and downs, he knows what it's like and what it takes.
He is walking the talk.
I can highly recommend him as a personal coach.
And depending on your level of knowledge, his "futures foundation course" as well.
He does group mentoring which is less expensive than individual coaching.
In both he teaches EVERYTHING he uses daily, shares his screen setups, shows his trades and reasoning behind them.
He's a very successful trader, who also coaches.
His motive is NOT making money through coaching, but finding talented traders who want to trade for the SMB futures desk.
Dr. Brett Steenbarger refers to him in several blog posts and uses him as a positive role model / example.
If your serious about finding a coach, you need to check out Merritt Black.
WOW ---- Sure are lots of do this and don't do that . It goes to show there are many ways to succeed and also to fail . One person mentions 4 years may not be enough time and I don't disagree with that as it took me more time then that . That being said I know people who caught on really quickly , sure wasn't me . My biggest mistake was trying to look at several mkts at once rather then to really concentrate on one . Once you master one mkt others will become much easier . It took me years of chart time , every single time the mkts. were open to grasp hold of a plan that worked for me . I also made the mistake of trying to find the perfect plan where I would never lose and there is no such plan . Remember what works for one may not work for you . The best plan may just be the one you come up with as you gather knowledge over time . I never stop looking for ways to improve , that's what makes trading so interesting to me . There are many ways to to succeed at this the question is will a mentor do that for you . A mentor will will hopefully show you what works for them , the question is will his or her methods work for you .
might be having a brain fart but care to explain the "1000 delta chart" that makes my 4500 tick look like a sloppy mess. And honestly would rather trade off that, looks very clean... and I thought my 4500 tick was clean.. please share details/set up. Is this an add on I assume?
-P
"Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie"-Miyamoto Musashi
New to posting here. Not always easy for me to see if it is private or public. Great community here. I dislike vendors and snake Oilers in the industry. Wont get any of that from me.