Why are most Forex Authors not active Traders?

Most Forex Books Authors and "so called mentors" are not Active Traders. Why?

Would you trust the advice of someone who does not trade?

A quote from Sheldon Cooper of the Big Bang Theory comes to mind:

"Oh, I’m sorry, I thought making the transition from actor to acting teacher was the signal that one’s career had reached the end of the road."


To answer the question, I would not really trust it if the person was not profitable. Of course money isn't everything and I'm also interested in theoretical things, but honestly the basic reason I'm trading is to make money. Sometimes you can get an interesting idea from a trading style that is not profitable or by reading theories, though.

I know that Karl Dittman (not his real name) sells about a thousand copies of his lame trading strategies a month which is about $ million a year supposedly teaching people to trade. You don't have to be a successful trader to do this just be a successful marketer.

If there was a requirement to be successful to write a book about something we'd have nothing to read.

My 2cents.

There are three types / categories

First :
because the results of the trading already collected a lot of money
second :
because it does not make any money from trading or difficult to produce or rather difficult to produce,,,so much easier to make money from selling
third :
because good karma (which is rare for today /but there are still some )

but anyway,,
suppose that,, two traders who apply the same system /method
can have different results
due to different ways to manage while in the middle of the road
maybe also differences in the exit
resulting outcome is different
the psychology of each person is different in managing


salaam

There are many trading guru types out there with crap systems who scam people every day. There are however some who teach good solid methods. These teachers may or may not be great traders. This is actually quite common in the real world. Many times teachers are not actually that skilled at the activity they teach. You see this most in sports. Many famous golf coaches aren't really that good as players. They may know the basics and have a very good eye for detail but not be physically able to repeat a swing. It doesn't mean they aren't great coaches. Same can be said of other sports too. Can you imagine Pat Riley playing one on one with Shaq. How about Dean Smith posting up against Michael Jordan.

I would say that trading is mentally demanding and even people who know good methods don't always succeed. Some people cannot ever divorce themselves from the money aspect. I don't know how many of the people on this forum have ever taken a trade for $100 per pip but I can tell you its damn hard to watch a twelve or fifteen pip drawdown when you do. Some people just are not wired to handle that type of pressure. It doesn't mean they can't teach a good method.

So how do you separate the good from the bad? Well here are a few clues that I would look for (I have never used a paid mentor so take this for what its worth):

Nobody is selling a good working method for 29/39/59/99 per month.
A good mentoring program would have to be at least a month of intensive full time training in person and then follow up by skype, telephone, or at the very least e-mail for as long as the student needs it.
A good mentor will spend comparitively little time on trading and a lot of time on teaching the student how to find their own style.
A good mentor could teach four different students at the same time and they could all leave with different styles of trading.
A good mentor should have a screening process by which not every student who contacts the mentor is deemed ready for training.
A good mentoring program cannot in my opinion be conveyed in a website, by videos, or by online chat. Would have to be in person in a dedicated office environment.

The prospective student must understand that just because a method is good there is no guarrantee that YOU can trade it. If the mentor can produce a set of rules that can be objectively tested on your own real data then there is no need to prove that they can trade only that they are a good teacher.

because like forexfactory, they are full of shit

i think the problem is related to love of theory game and talking yes you are right i will not take advice from some one that not trade but to be more specific i will take and i take advice from any one that trade any thing like traders in shops and example because trading is an art in its self thank you for the subject i like it
best wishes all

i've read a lot of books and only 2 could be of some use.(surri duddela and elder entries and exits). the books from wiley trading i despise . it's a complete waste of time and money to try and read a technical analysis book which has no charts atached or a few usually very zoomed out charts. this in my opinion is bullshit and a scam. and most books are this way. the trading systems forum even though it's not profitable as a hole it teaches you the basics of system building and also gives you ideeas . even though it can be a bad system maybe you can learn a new way in which you can use an old indicator. you can go from there and build your own system and just ad the filter that you discovered. that's how the proces of inventing stuff works.
steve nison is the perfect example of a guy who never traded in his life and teaches trading. once again a complete waste of time.

too much theory not enough practice.. theory doesn't mean shit until you put that theory to the test

adding,
A good mentor should be always focusing on the psychology side of the trading instead of the actual trading. When the mind is well taught, everything else falls into the place.

BTW, well said, my friend.

Because they can't cut it. Like in many other fields, the teachers are the ones that can't make it themselves.

Do not waste your time and money on any teachers, gurus, lectures or any EAs. If anything is in your price range, it is worthless.

Study the free stuff, if you really need to, and then learn to trade by yourself. Make your own theories, strategies etc. Believe me, no one will sell you anything worthy, because they don't need to sell anything if it is worth something in Forex.

Concentrate on yourself and your own trading. If you can't figure this out by yourself, then don't even bother.

That's a bit of a generalization I think.

I agree that many turn to selling snake oil knowing full well they're not qualified to do so.

But trading in it's nature is quite isolating and I think a lot turn at some stage to give more meaning to the mundaness that goes with trading. Trying to give something back perhaps. I wouldn't go mentor until I've made a big success of trading. I'd be too worried about what paths I may lead people down unknowingly.

Personally I got burned a lot as a youngster which made me very un-trusting of basically everyone, but I don't think you can just straight out paint everyone with the same brush. That would be extremely naive.

In the world of trading,
Just apply this simple rule
every book ever written, every course ever taught, every software ever written, every advice ever given
... FOR A PRICE ... is a lie and / or a scam.

Well... second to that with a bit of experience it's not hard to spot the phonies from the genuine I believe. Unfortunetly the phonies are in large supply and the genuine are very rare.

But anything thatinspire thought can be used as a positive, even if you are learning how NOT to trade or how the "masses" are doing it. This is very handy information actually.

Teacher, Mentor, Gurus etc, must have reached a high or a decent level of success in his/her career in order to be worthy enough to teach and listen to. Professors would never be teaching in university if it was not for his acceptable level of education. Some people make comparison to sport coaches.. sure most coaches were not great players but it does not mean they were not good players playing pro at decent level.. Pat Riley was a all-american and made it to NCAA final at least and played many years in NBA.. sure Tiger woods may not be able to teach or Jimmy Conners can’t even teach his son to hit a single ball, but they don't have too either bcz they made their bones from their skill. But someone who claims to be a worthy teacher to teach to get paid or sells shit must prove credibility, that at some point he/she did it at least for a period of time and reached a certain valid success level.. otherwise only a fool would hair a bum with no proven track record as a chosen teacher.

My advice in nutshell for whatever is worth to whomever..
if you ever look into learning from someone else.. Whether is a Mentor, Author, Guru of some kind or even a OP forums.. make sure at least he/she has had success at some point of his trading career.. or if never or yet experience success, then demand active hands on trading of what is being preached, its simply logical, period.

Some people might get offended or take it personally of my post above for whatever useless reason but I can give a rats ass about that.. and those people know or can checkout that I walk the talk and not just shooting shit.. either walk your talk or show at some point you did walk what you’re talking.

The time and age of talking and sitting behind the curtains is well passed.


Trade well.

I am not sure it is completely correct to say that unsuccessful traders cannot teach.

I mean they may have all the knowledge in the world but just can't control their own inner demons. By the same token a great trader may not be able to articulate what it is and what they do to be successful.

So I think it is more about a trader or authors success in training people to be successful traders rather than their own ability to trade.

Having said that it is always going to be better to have a teacher who can do both. That way they can show you how to do things in the heat of action rather than just give you the theory.

So I guess in summary, my take is that it really depends on you as the trader, how do you need to be taught... is the theory enough or do you need to see it in action from the person teaching you...

Trusting a non trading mentor is like trusting a fan in a fooball game.
It looks easy when others are doing it, but when you get into the playing field
the reality is very different.
Trading is more about who the person is rather than what they know..

Probably, the cause of the success of some authors is not their talent of trading, but their talent of the narrators, who can teach and motivate. I'm sure that for trading you need not only the knowledge and experience, but something in the character. If they don't trade, that doesn't mean they can't do it. It may just mean, they don't want to. And of course they get enough money from books for being free from trading.

I see most courses focus on teaching 'how' to trade (allegedly) but not many (if any at all) teach how to ---build--- a proprietary system.

In fact, are there any courses out there that teach system building? hmm...

I think when it comes to forex authors, there are two kinds primarily. The ones who teach a concept/system/method, the rest who talk about psychology. Focusing on the former, there have been some good authors/traders... Alan Andrews, Bill Wolfe to name a few off my head.

However, considering how forex is now marketed, making it 'easy to make money' the number of BS Gurus teaching their systems/methods far outweigh the legit ones.

Also, in all fairness, writing about a system or a method takes time and effort and that is something no active trader would want to do.. ie: take time out of their trading and write a book for the 'greater good' which kind of explains why most of the methods, atleast from the big names were often taught after they retired.