I need a mentor...read this and youll know why

I have been through the ringer.About a yr and a half ago a "friend" of mine scammed me into letting him invest 20,000 +40,000usd after watching him day after day make a lot of money.
At that time all i had ever done was buy and hold low risk stocks. Seeing him get all excited trading gaps on the 1min charts putting 150 mini lots per trade and making 2-3000 usd in 10-20min. Man i was hooked. I own a cabinet manuf. plant so I would conveniently excuse myself "as I had an appointment with a client or looking at an upcoming job" to meet with this guy at a local coffee shop and started to demo day trade right beside him.

At the time it was profitable, while I was there we would trade 3-5 times in 2hrs. on the ny&London lap time. this went on for several months. I started to read and became totally consumed by all this, it was just to good to be true, we were making in one day what i make in a week. all the possibilities were running through my head. It didnt help that he made it sound and feel so easy.

I need to insert that I wasnt skeptical of him and I know now that alot of his trades would have large draw downs. And to this day i dont know if the account was a demo or live. I do know that the balance was 292000 usd.


He used all the forex lingo and baffled me with BS. I felt that this guy was unbelievably kind to show me all this and to teach me to trade. I also felt that i was missing the boat. So i asked him to trade an account for me while i was demoing and when time came I would take that account back. I additionally told him that I would give him 50% of the profits , as it was money i didnt have before , seemed like a great deal for me, and added to what he was already doing.

He said, "no man lets just see how good it does and you just let that be your starting capital" . Again all of this was too good to be true. I insisted that he get something and he said he didnt need the money, the joy of my company and having someone to trade with was good for him.

This attitude just made me all the more consumed and grateful. I could relate as i have mentored people in my line of work for yrs just for the gratification of watching the person succeed.

we started with 20000 usd and went from trading the strictly ny&london overlap to a little of that and mostly meeting at night to trade asia. we took the account from 20000 to 37000usd in 1 week.

It was like the switch flipped I missed a couple days of trading and the account went down to @ 15000. I was concerned but because of the kindness he had been showing me I felt that expressing that might be a form of ingratitude. He went to work on my account and told me he brought it back up to 20000usd.

I go to his house one night and we start trading the gpb jpy we margined out the account that night while i was there if i had only 10000usd more we could have saved it .

Remember I didnt know that you shouldnt have those large draw downs and all this seemed like if i had been trading an account as large as his this wouldnt have happened. so....... I put another 40000usd to go along with the 8000usd I had left... this would supposedly give me more breathing room.


My business was really needing my attention and things got crazy so I let forex rest for a minute and demo traded on my own for a little over a month.
I ran 2 demo accounts from 50000usd to over 500000usd using his method. all the while talking to my friend and getting up dates. According to him all was well and he had made back the loss of 12000usd my account was back on track. and since I had been doing so well I really didnt question him . all on the up and up...

I started to get confident and thought i could do this so I opened a 20000 usd account to trade on my own.... and would just get with my friend when i could.... this is when i started reading here on ff and really studying. a little to little a little to late. I didnt account for the emotions from demo to live. and the strategy was based on high lots low pips large draw down... knowing what i know now a better name for the strategy would be "TRAIN WRECK"

I panicked and blew the account... all of the sudden cant find my friend gone vanished........



6 months has passed... I have been totally consumed with reading all i can to the pnt that it is info overload.... I would like to acquire professional help from a mentor..


I feel that i have the guts for this and the self control as well , now that I have a better understanding of the markets and mm. I also feel that my learning curve could be expedited given a good mentor , just as I have done for people in my business and as my G-pa did for me.. I cant imagine having to learn all i know from hard knocks. Nor is it wise.....


I have the potential of trading up to 300k account and would like this time to approach this professionally rather than "friends" , although i hope a friend ship would evolve. I will want to start with a business plan and a proven strategy with good money management.. and a person with a proven track record.. Im not sure how to go about this exactly, all i know is that I do not want to be taken again and will do my best to use sound judgment... I am willing to neg. terms of payment and would like this to be a mutual benefit to both of us...


The goal is for me to trade on my own and for a living (however long it takes)


Sorry this is so long winded I felt that I needed to let the potential person know where i am coming from... No pity please that was not the pnt.

I will over come and be just fine (Lord willing) (God will provide always has and always will)

All i can say to you is BE VERY CAREFULL. You seem like a very good and trusting person and this bussiness is full of people trying to take advantage of those qualities. Most mentors/gurus out there are nothing more than scam artists and you talking about having all that money to trade with and make it profitable for all involved would get some of those scam artists very excited. Again be carefull. I have been of this for a few years and have come across many mentors/gurus whose only profits from forex were made with mentoring people. And a track record rarely proves anything since there are many different ways of creating "a good trading record". I wish you all the best and again be carefull with who you trust or the journey could become very disheartening!

Until you find a mentor, you can visit this thread below. It has changed many lives.
With practice, patience and discipline you shall not need one after a year or so. All the best.

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=2331

i can mentor you but if i do you have to be willing to spend a couple weeks of straight looking at charts but you have to come work for me for a while and make me money (you can keep a cut) using the system I teach you

Read 'Master the Markets', that book alone has helped me out much more than anything else. You can find a pdf version online.

Don't waste your time reading through all of the system threads or journals here, it's a waste of time except for a few good threads.

Don't give anybody your money to trade. If they don't have a trading business and haven't bothered with getting certified to manage accounts, that's a huge red flag.

Don't open up your PM, lots of folks here don't have the ca-hones to solicit you in public but will be all over your PM like white on rice.

Like white on riceSo very true

As other posters have pointed out, be careful. You may want to consider this conundrum: In trading truly great mentors are hard to find, because truly great traders make far more money than most people can offer for mentorship, so why should they bother? Anyway, I wish you luck.

I appreciate all the responses both public and private.

I was fooled once but the only thing that could happen this time is I waste time and loose a little money due to the mentors system


Just as i told some one moments ago. My goal is to learn how to fish but i wont give control of the rod again...

I am willing to travel, and really as far as I am concerned if the mentors system and mm approach is sound than his payment could be the amnt the account grows while under his umbrella???

I just want to throw in that most people who mentor definitely do not do it for the money, for the very reason you discussed. Most people who mentor do it for the sake of trying to build something good and new; not financial gain.

t2l&l2t,

Send me a pm/e-mail and I might be able to make connections for you.

regards
daytrading

No one offered me good connections when I started my Mentor thread a year ago..... Maby thats because I dont have 300K though

Leon,

Pure coincidence that I saw and reacted to tl2's post.

If you still need (want) help, let me know.

regards
daytrading

Who can do it, that DO it. How do You want to pay Me? With Money?
But I have enough, and will get enough, still there will be markets.
In these days, from the profit, I am buying flat beside the University to my little ones (not in the age of primary school, yet). We have in our town an other one to live, and we have a small one in a famous bath place.(Certainly,
no mortgage, or similar) I hold my money in different currencies, and I am not dependent from my trading results. I even have a part time (flexible) 'job' to have social life.
My only aim left in trading is reach a set amount of money with lot of 000 000s, said other way: it is hobby, I love to do it.
Now, I ask again: How do You want to pay Me?
I speculate 14 years ago, started with almast nothing when I was 20, and learnt it by time and by getting over mistakes. You must learn:
1 Psichology of trading
2 MM (not this always 1% thing)
3 Fundamentals, Technicals, and the Structure of the Market You want to trade
4 TM
To do this, You need persistency. (When You make a mistake and lost under one day, MONTHs of gains, and just can say: ok, I must correct and never do this mistake again, that is persistency.)
1-4 I could teach You, but persistency? My work would be lost, if You have not enough. How can I know You are fanatic enough? (Everybody states He/She is.)

This is the thinking of somebody who made it. And the amount % of grow would be account mamagemant, not teaching. You would not have the 'real' learning curve (not You take the responsibility), and the person would have the free position, nothing to lose(just Your money) and gain big.

So, You should convince Me (or anybody in similar position) You are persistent enough, and how to compensate for it, how to make a win-win situation.

Personally, I wrote it to You, because of You have 4 children, and as a parent, too, I m worried about Your family financial situation.You know, that s not count much what You have, just what You can keep, and You looks, (don t take it personally) very, very green.

So, it is not needed to risk 300k, at all, and first always think, what You risk to take away from Your family, not that how impressed they will be with Your hipoteticall results.

Be well, talk and play a lot with the children,
M. Poirot

Ps.: Please, nobody ask for 'systems', as I just discuss MM questions on a forum like FF (If I have time and I feel so.), and this letter is just from a father to the other.

1st why do you really need to do this?

you seem to have a great family and a good job.

you need to keep them 1st and then start worrying about how to make money in forex, otherwise soon you'll get the reverse question, regardless who your master/mentor will be.

if you wish to continue i'd suggest.

microtrade 1 cent/pip for 1-2 years, hopefully you'll get a feeling, while losing about 10K $(that's 1 million pips at the above ratio)

find several 5 star threads on FF

try understanding the methods/logic behind these threads. you need to try hard to master more than one trading system. you won't be able to do this in the beginning.

after that you can start looking for a mentor, cause you'll have enough losing experience to begin understaning why and see how things work.

also work on your inner discipline, set trading times max 2-3 hours per day.
going away from your clients to watch your friend trading, screams loud you have no discipline and control over your self in this regard, and this is the point you are here now.

you are too young and inexperienced to this business at this point, whatever your age is.

Give Tim Morge a shout. He has over 35 yrs experience in trading.Currently he mentors ex floor traders of CME. In fact Google him first to see if he is the type of mentor that you are looking for.
His free sites are, www.medianline.com and www.marketgeometry.com.
Twee, Sadly i am not paid for promoting Mr Morge.

I read this thread with much interest. I can relate a little with your situation simply because I started off on my own without any experience... except the "i got scammed part".

But if you have the money to invest.

INVEST IN EDUCATION FIRST

I wholly agree with jami that you should find someone who is teaching this stuff.

There are lots of traders out there offering courses for a fee. Paying them will be much more beneficial for now. They give you the basics you need. Find a course that will teach you all the basics. The trading mentality.

Don't find a course that says I'll teach you the best system in the world. It is a nice add but a course that teaches the basics is more important... at least from my understanding of your posts.

Once you have that basic, come back to FF and search for someone to teach you a system.

Look up Pro act traders in Austin, Texas. I have no affiliation. They are free (well maybe a connect charge, but online webinars are free.)

It suck to loose alot of money, I won alot in demo by betting too much etc... but in live account I can't keep the same robotic fearless mode. So when 1 trade went really bad it make me think twice.

I don't think you need a mentor if you want to learn to trade by your self. A lot of the info on the net are FREE. The reason its free because they know that self discipline is hard and newbies trade can't do it WITHOUT blowing up 10,000 dollar at least. But you do need mentor, if you want to him to give you signal and explaining why that signal work and why that signal cause you lose (which is like he explain you how to use his system).

Think of this, why does piano players have piano teachers? You could just read the note your self in the book and try to do it. But if you have a piano teacher they FORCE you to practice song that is hard and that you hate.

Unlike piano teachers, forex mentor is someone you would probably relies on for the rest of your life because you are using their system. But do NOT expect to be come millionnaire if you have mentor. The only way you can become a millionaire is to go to all this hardship of learning forex by reading tons of info and act upon it.


Good luck,
- Victor

t2l&l2t:

How are you doing now? Have you started trading again? I see people telling you to invest in education. On the surface that sounds like good advice. But I would disagree that you need to "invest".

May I suggest you find what works for you. It should be a repeatable process. This is trading and just like in gambling, you don't know what will happen next.

I have been using inside bar trades successfully. When trading, that's what I concentrate on. I don't win every trade but the winners outnumber the losers. Since my background is in psychology, I work on my trading mindset more than learning about systems and indicators. Read all the trading psychology posts and books that you can find. Take notes while you read and while you trade. A pattern should emerge.

Please keep us posted on your trading experience.

you have no reason to worry with 300k you'll have people stepping over each other begging to mentor you.

Hope you get my point.

btw your friends technique of large drawdown large lots wouldn't by any chance be called "averaging down" would it?