Com'on - Listen to the so-called guru's advice
Read the following in a local forum with interest of how silly and naive aspiring traders can be:
"I am a newbie and just started trading few weeks ago. I thought I got some good information from this forum and won some money initially. One particular forummer caught my eyes as he was very articulate and claimed he was right of the market movement for the past few months..2 weeks ago on a friday, when the market turned, I listen to his advice and go long, becos he sound to firm and sure abt the position..never did I expect he flip his position so fast on the coming monday..Now i suffered for a lost of $10450..very sad now I never lost such a huge amount in my life..and the above was my entire saving..I am keeping this away from my wife over the weekend and now feel very depress and lost"
Hey, in the first place, a few lessons we can learn from this poor chap's mistake:
1. Treat someone's opinion as a fact is fatal because a trader can turn his opinion in a split second. Since he is not giving you any advice, he owes no fiduciary duty to you. If you are wrong, it is your own mistake and you have no legal recourse against this guy. So, don't even think of suing that trader? No way, you are wasting your money and your lawyer will happily pocket the legal fee.
2. Never trade with the amount you cannot afford to lose. So, if you hear like this guy say "I suffered a loss {sic} of $10,450 ... I never lost such huge amount in my life", probably he is trading too big and thinking that this trade would be a home run. Once you are in the mindset of gambling, chances are you are asking how much this trade can make, and not how much you will lose if you are wrong in the first place. That's why gamblers can sometimes make money but in the long run, gamblers can't last. Probability is not on their sides anyway.
3. This is really a joke but is so common. So many people are not willing to pay a few K to get proper education because they say the instructors suck, the course sucks, the materials suck, the strategy does not work. Ironically, they are happy to pay so much money to let Mr. Market teach them a good lesson. You can call this moral hazard, or the law of adversity. Isn't it better to pay $10k for proper education and learn how to trade well and last longer, instead of paying $10k to Mr. Market and now the money is gone. This poor guy literally has less than $10k to start his trading business. He felt sad and probably he wouldn't trade anymore because humans are scared due to "once bitten, twice shy" syndromes.
Another victim ....
Showing posts with label aspiring traders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aspiring traders. Show all posts
2008-09-28
2008-09-23
Those who attended the course should sue these people for misrepresentation - the course promises easy profits, which is clearly untrue
Very often in the local forum, you will see someone stand up to be a referee or an umpire to tell the world that it is unfair for someone to make money and for the rest to lose money. I can never understand the mindset of these people. Most likely, they could be victims of these seminars, and perhaps lost a lot of money by learning how to trade or invest.
Instead of blaming themselves for being ignorant and perhaps not giving 100% to learn how to trade/ invest well, they choose to blame the seminar organisers, the instructors, the founders of the courses, the people involved in the seminars, their academic qualification (which has no relevance in trading/ investing whatsover).
The sad thing is that if you subscribe to this logic, chances are you will never be able to be successful in investing and trading. It goes by this simple logic - trading and investment is a skill and it is not possible to be acquired overnight. Most of the participants I came across carried what I called a "quick-to-get-rich" mindset. Worst still, if they also have the mindset of equating setbacks as failure, they will never achieve anything from trading and investing. The seminar fee will simply go down to the sink. It is as simple as that.
Now, if you are serious in learning how to trade / invest well, then ask yourself this question. Are you able to commit to yourself (not to the others) that you will do whatever it takes to achieve it? Are you able to design a plan to enable you to learn the process and the requisite mechanics? Don't say that you have a day job and you don't have time to do this. Maybe you have to sacrifice your sleeping time. Maybe you have to sacrifice your Friday night's drinks. Maybe you have to let go a hobby like golf over the weekend. To respect trading and investing as a business, you must put in time and effort to realise the dream. How do you expect someone to teach you how to ride a bicycle without you practising how to do it?
To think what these folks do is naive and obviously, don't say that I haven't told you so - they will fail and I guarantee that! The saving grace of course is that we need these people to participate in the market, so that we can grab money from them.
Very often in the local forum, you will see someone stand up to be a referee or an umpire to tell the world that it is unfair for someone to make money and for the rest to lose money. I can never understand the mindset of these people. Most likely, they could be victims of these seminars, and perhaps lost a lot of money by learning how to trade or invest.
Instead of blaming themselves for being ignorant and perhaps not giving 100% to learn how to trade/ invest well, they choose to blame the seminar organisers, the instructors, the founders of the courses, the people involved in the seminars, their academic qualification (which has no relevance in trading/ investing whatsover).
The sad thing is that if you subscribe to this logic, chances are you will never be able to be successful in investing and trading. It goes by this simple logic - trading and investment is a skill and it is not possible to be acquired overnight. Most of the participants I came across carried what I called a "quick-to-get-rich" mindset. Worst still, if they also have the mindset of equating setbacks as failure, they will never achieve anything from trading and investing. The seminar fee will simply go down to the sink. It is as simple as that.
Now, if you are serious in learning how to trade / invest well, then ask yourself this question. Are you able to commit to yourself (not to the others) that you will do whatever it takes to achieve it? Are you able to design a plan to enable you to learn the process and the requisite mechanics? Don't say that you have a day job and you don't have time to do this. Maybe you have to sacrifice your sleeping time. Maybe you have to sacrifice your Friday night's drinks. Maybe you have to let go a hobby like golf over the weekend. To respect trading and investing as a business, you must put in time and effort to realise the dream. How do you expect someone to teach you how to ride a bicycle without you practising how to do it?
To think what these folks do is naive and obviously, don't say that I haven't told you so - they will fail and I guarantee that! The saving grace of course is that we need these people to participate in the market, so that we can grab money from them.
2008-08-23
Finally, I got wiped out today after several days struggle
I read this note from one forex forum with sorrows. This student just picked up a forex trading class. He said in the forum that he could not control himself. He could not remove any emotion. He could not follow all the strategies and rules. He knew the danger but yet he continued to do it. He told himself he needed to stop not following the rules but he could not do it.
He shared in the forum about what happened a few nights ago. All the indicators were showing the strong uptrend. Yet, he was going for short position. When his trade was stopped, he went to short position again when there was signs of retracement. Worst still, he placed an order without profit target and stop loss. He admitted that he is gambling. So, in the end, his account was wiped out within merely 2 days.
He is in depression mode. He is remorseful and embarassed. An now he is asking others for help, in particular how to control his emotion.
As far as I am conerned, this is a classic example of why an aspiring trader can easily fail after paying for a seminar. A retail trader has a high tendency to approach trading in the wrong way. He trades without a plan. He trades with emotion, greed and fear. A seminar in itself is not in the position to put a newbie in the position of a professional trader. Instead, the newbie has to take control and makes a decision to follow the rules, and trade with a plan. If he fails, he cannot blame the seminar, the course provider, and the instructor. From this newbie's note, he did not blame anyone. So, it is indeed a good sign. He knows his weakness. He just does not know how to do it. In my mind, there is still hope on this newbie. He had a painful lesson and he will learn from his mistakes.
So, how can we help him? Actually, no one except him can help himself. Why? It is because like I said above, he has to take charge of the outcome. Maybe he should stop trading for a while. Maybe he should start again by paper trading in a demo account. Prove to himself that he can make consistent money before funding a new account. It's very obvious that instructors keep telling newbies not to put real money to trade but practise in demo account first. Not many people I know will follow the rules. In my case, I never trade a system unless I have backtested it and paper trade for a while. Only when I see consistent returns I will put my first $ at risk.. Some people call me nuts and some people disagree with me. Honestly, I don't give a damn. Why? At the end of the day, I am accountable to myself, not to the others. So, why am I concerned with what other people said?
I wish this newbie a successful trading career. Don't give up and take massive action to deal with the psychology part. Like what Conrad and I said to our respective students, it is trading psychology that brings success to a professional trader.
I read this note from one forex forum with sorrows. This student just picked up a forex trading class. He said in the forum that he could not control himself. He could not remove any emotion. He could not follow all the strategies and rules. He knew the danger but yet he continued to do it. He told himself he needed to stop not following the rules but he could not do it.
He shared in the forum about what happened a few nights ago. All the indicators were showing the strong uptrend. Yet, he was going for short position. When his trade was stopped, he went to short position again when there was signs of retracement. Worst still, he placed an order without profit target and stop loss. He admitted that he is gambling. So, in the end, his account was wiped out within merely 2 days.
He is in depression mode. He is remorseful and embarassed. An now he is asking others for help, in particular how to control his emotion.
As far as I am conerned, this is a classic example of why an aspiring trader can easily fail after paying for a seminar. A retail trader has a high tendency to approach trading in the wrong way. He trades without a plan. He trades with emotion, greed and fear. A seminar in itself is not in the position to put a newbie in the position of a professional trader. Instead, the newbie has to take control and makes a decision to follow the rules, and trade with a plan. If he fails, he cannot blame the seminar, the course provider, and the instructor. From this newbie's note, he did not blame anyone. So, it is indeed a good sign. He knows his weakness. He just does not know how to do it. In my mind, there is still hope on this newbie. He had a painful lesson and he will learn from his mistakes.
So, how can we help him? Actually, no one except him can help himself. Why? It is because like I said above, he has to take charge of the outcome. Maybe he should stop trading for a while. Maybe he should start again by paper trading in a demo account. Prove to himself that he can make consistent money before funding a new account. It's very obvious that instructors keep telling newbies not to put real money to trade but practise in demo account first. Not many people I know will follow the rules. In my case, I never trade a system unless I have backtested it and paper trade for a while. Only when I see consistent returns I will put my first $ at risk.. Some people call me nuts and some people disagree with me. Honestly, I don't give a damn. Why? At the end of the day, I am accountable to myself, not to the others. So, why am I concerned with what other people said?
I wish this newbie a successful trading career. Don't give up and take massive action to deal with the psychology part. Like what Conrad and I said to our respective students, it is trading psychology that brings success to a professional trader.
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