In the forex world, there are many educators. Some are very well known, well funded, offer nice presentations and charge a lot of money for training. Then there are the lesser known, maybe less produced traders who offer their wisdom, tools and techniques for much lower prices. Then of course like in any other business you have outright marketers who charge all kinds of prices and offer very little value. Most of these businesses aim to educate the novice trader.

This makes the selection process for the novice trader very challenging. New traders seek an education that fulfills its marketing message. Every educator implies in some way that you will become a “better trader”. You will see testimonials from people just like you who have quit their job to pursue trading. They don’t tell you how much they make, but that concept alone brings up the idea that, “this guy is making enough to replace his job? Wow, imagine if I can make my salary trading and only spend a couple of hours a day working.” Is this misleading? No, it’s marketing.

Many of these educators follow through on their actual promise. They give you the tools or information necessary to structure yourself better. The problem is, much of the time, you are purchasing some conventional strategy with some kind of special tool, software, or something to make it “different”. Once you have gone through the training, whether it’s online materials, in person classes, etc, then you are usually left on your own to practice. This is where people become frustrated. Why? This is where the training appears to be ineffective. Contacting support only reminds you that it is you that is the problem, not what you learned. Is this true? Well yes, but it’s not all your fault.

For example, you learned how to look at support and resistance, some special oscillator and a moving average on a 15 minute chart. Rules couldn’t be simpler: buy when price is at a support, oscillator goes above the 0 line and price is above the moving average. Opposite for a short. You even watched your educator take a trade that worked. Even after following the rules strictly every time, you find your results are still far from stellar. What is the problem here? They say it’s you, or it’s the market, or it’s both.

The problem is when you are learning conventional methods, you need to know enough or pay enough to learn that you need to tweak the system so that it is your own. Otherwise you will always be behind the market.

In your search for an educator here are three important questions to ask:

First question: Is the methodology original? This means it is not found in a book or online or anywhere for free.

Second question: Is the methodology robust? This means can it be applied to any market or specific markets? And will you learn enough to adjust the methodology as the market evolves? Or do you have to pay for the next package?

Third question: Does the educator provide you with a way to honestly measure your performance that allows for meaningful analysis of the methodology? In other words, are you provided a tool that will measure more than just P&L?

When an educator offers such tools and experience, that is one who I like to define as “results oriented”. Does that mean they guarantee results? No. No one can. You do have to take responsibility for your trading development as well. Speculating in the markets is a complex process that involves many factors. What usually happens to new traders who learn a “simple system” is that they don’t know how to judge it’s signals in the context of the global factors that are active at the moment.

If you are looking for an educator, you may not find the right one for you on the first try, but at least you will gain knowledge from the experience. Use it to the best of your ability and then continue your search. As you gain experience you will be able to better judge the quality of premium programs and better leverage the information that you gain from the ones that you choose.

—
Marc Principato, CMT

 

Risk Disclaimer

*No Relevant Positions