Friendly Advice (and Straight Talk) for New Traders

Thu, Oct 5, 2017

Read in 5 minutes

Dear Friend, If you are just starting out on the glorious adventure of trading, if someone has told you how much money can be made in your pyjamas trading online, if you have attended some two-hour preview where the guy at the front of the room rants and raves about how great the trading life is, here is a friendly piece of advice: Get out of there. Run, don’t walk.

Dear Friend,

If you are just starting out on the glorious adventure of trading, if someone has told you how much money can be made in your pyjamas trading online, if you have attended some two-hour preview where the guy at the front of the room rants and raves about how great the trading life is, here is a friendly piece of advice: Get out of there. Run, don’t walk.

IT AIN’T RAINING MONEY, FOLKS!

Trading is a profession, and yes, you can spend relatively little time at it when you’re skilled, but most people are not going to become traders for the following reasons:

1. It takes time and work. If you think you are going to master this thing overnight, you are in for a world of suffering. On average, it takes three years to make a trader, and maturity comes more usually at the five-year mark. The statistics are a bit scant, but generally it is estimated that only 5% of people who attempt to trade make it. Think about it – you are trading against professionals, people who spent years honing their craft. If you think that it will be a cakewalk, they will take your lunch money faster than you can blink.

Before you ask, yes the time horizon can be shortened. A good training program (which I believe includes the Straight Talk Mentorship, but I’m biased after all) will shorten the learning curve dramatically – as much as 40-75%. That means you can POTENTIALLY get it in about six months to a year of applied diligence. How can this be? Glad you asked. Let’s look at the second reason traders don’t make it.

2. No one agrees on what needs to be learnt. Many reading this will be BAs, BScs, MAs, MScs and perhaps even PhDs. They are confident in their ability to learn. However, what happens if you sign up to a course at university, get to class on day one, and this is what the professor says, “Well, folks, you know the title of the course – “Day Trading Fun!” Here is an eight-foot long list of reading materials for you to get through this semester, but YOU have to figure out what you need to know. Oh, and the exam will be a surprise too. Good luck.”******

That’s what a trader’s first day at university would be like. No one really knows if you should be counting waves, studying news announcements, watching for moving average crossovers or applying advanced Fibonacci geometry. And to make it worse, every professor tells you something different. And of course, when you try it yourself, nothing works.

That should answer the question on why good trainers can dramatially reduce your learning time – by pointing out what you need. *It’s like having someone tell you what’s going to be on the final.* Make sense? Learning takes time, but if you can focus on learning only what you need, you can become successful without learning the rubbish which only loses you money (and there’s a lot of it).

Anyway, as I was saying earlier, most traders won’t make it simply because they will become lost in a complete jungle of information. You can even be recognised by a society of technical analysts, who will certify that you know a lot of stuff, but you may or may not be able to trade. You can get academic about it, certainly, but whether or not it works when the rubber hits the road is open to question.

3. Scammers operate in this vicinity.  The trading industry is one that is dominated by the blind, who are led by the deaf and blind. Scammers skilled at marketing lead more and more unsuspecting people into this area, and as a result, those people lose their money. I’ve seen these guys con people out of their last savings, take their retirement money and smash their family lives. It’s not just the traders who suffer – the families do too. It’s a sad fact, but it needs saying.

HAVE I SCARED YOU OUT OF TRADING? GOOD!

If this article scares even just one person away from trading who shouldn’t be attempting it anyway, it will have done its job. If you are wondering why I’m scaring away my own customers, here’s why – I am only interested in training people who actually have a chance of becoming traders. There are plenty of scammers and crooks dragging unsuspecting new traders into this arena every day, and I intensely dislike it. Most will live to regret it. Most of my clients have already been scammed, whammed and taken for a ride before finding me. I love training these guys because they are realistic, and they know value when they see it. They know promises of easy money are worth nothing. They just want simple, straightforward instructions to make it work. This is the kind of client I like because it does my heart good to watch them see the light and make good.

Do I train new traders? Yes, but rarely. It won’t come as any surprise to you that I am strongly against most people becoming traders. However, there are a few with just the right mix of determination, inner strength and balance of personality to make it.* If you really think you might be one of these, and want to work with me, contact me via the form below.* We can arrange for a mutual interview session to see if it is a fit. If I think you really have a chance at making it, then we can proceed to mentorship. BUT, if I believe that you are not suited to trading, or are not the best fit for the Straight Talk Mentorship, I reserve the complete right to politely decline entry. Is that fair?

With warmest regards,

Kaye Lee

Private Fund Trader, Head Trader Consultant, Practical Market Analyst
Straight Talk Trading