Moral dilema

If you don't become successful after 2-5 years of learning how to trade Forex. Would you consider educating others for money ? If yes/no than why?
Would it be ethical to teach others how to trade if you are not successful yourself? Do you care about ethics ?

There is an old saying "those who can't do, teach." Thing is, if you can trade, it doesn't really worth teaching, because you can use your time much more efficiently and earn more money by trading for yourself.

There is this psychological thing, which applies to every area in life, not just trading education, that when you ask someone for opinion, or to teach you something, you don't really listen to what he says or does it have any sense whatsoever, but instead to how sure he is about what he says, and how confident he sounds.

Like if you are a newbie and know only a little about trading, I can easily convince you that my Super Oscillator 3000 indicator, or my "Random lines on the chart" system is the truth to trading. Majority of the newbies don't really know any better, so most of them will believe me whatever I'm telling to them, just because my subcommunication is confident. This is the method all marketers and salespeople use, and also the bullshit artists in trading.

Personally I don't plan to teach, but I wouldn't even dare to consider it, unless I don't have a verifiable track record, which goes back to at least a year, and people able to see it, that I'm executing it still in present day. Problem is, it is so easy to manipulate a track record, and also the newbies only look at the winrate and at how smooth the equity curve is. They can't tell that those are fake, so a basic Martingale method is enough.

So to answer the question, it is really fucking unethical, if somebody teaches while he can't trade profitably, but the thing is, there are so many conflicts of interest in this business, probably the scamming will go on forever.

Most of the theorical people are not very good in pratical terms...

So yes... To be a real trader it takes more than theory, it's just like a sports coach, like soccer coach for example...

I was thinking also about sport coaches. And for example why basked ball coaches do not play basked ball themselves? Because they are not able to play basket ball as good. But that does not mean that they are not better coaches that players themselves.

Otherwise, the players would not need a coach.

Of course we cannot literally compare this to forex, because basket ball involves physical movement - coach might not have good body etc, but he might be good at strategies.

In forex - being good at strategies is practically enough.

I might consider educating someone who asks me about it the basics which every trader should know, regardless of whether they're profitable or not, but I wouldn't ask to be paid for it, I think.

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hey max..... these answers would only apply to me ..... (1) no.... (2)forex is risky enough as it is..... (3)no.....(4)yes..... my plan would be to work harder at it to first become successful..... and then with a multi year wide open public explorer go on the road to teach..... that might be the best job in the world.... a tax deductible vacation.....

of course, we can have someone teach us with many words the dangers of skating on very thin ice...... or we could watch someone skate on very thin ice every day for a month..... he'd probably yell out a just single short word that had nothing to do with skating as he hit that ice cold water..... the first time might be funny..... 2nd time little less so..... i'd learn more from that second guy.....

so there is no doubt in my mind you can learn plenty enough from the losing traders here on ff alone to become successful.... they can teach us just by using their actions as a warning of possible outcomes.....h

I actually agree with this. It is much easier to tell others what they should be doing than to actually be able to execute it yourself. The coach is examples is great. Perfect analogy.

Regarding the comparison to basketball coaches - I think we should not forget that some coaches are former players who have stopped playing due to age, rather than inability, and they have the experience they can pass onto younger, active players.

This is not always the case. You can also use education as an example. If your professor has no real industry experience, does that mean he cannot teach his class?

That depends on what they're teaching - the bare theory or the practical application of that theory. If they're teaching the latter I'd want them to have at least some experience on the field, I think.

Nice topic!

Most of the teachings from recent decades' commercial trading courses are for the most part truths mixed with lies. Most cover legitimate traditional concepts like technical analysis, fundamental analysis, psychological managing, risk managing, basic chartings... which are all helpful for start up trading novices. The common problem which is unfortunately the most important one - the trading systems that many teach and claim can make money in the long run, usually don't work.

I would have prefer that these gurus actually be honest about themselves and their abilities, and truly do their best to help their students with what they really know.

1. Focus on teaching the basics and foundation, which is actually a really nice thing for novices, without any questionable trading systems.
2. Teach students how to think and trade like good traders.
3. Guide students to develop good trade plans and their own trading systems.

At least these are some of the things I would do if I were to decide to teach people about trading.

Not that I advocate new traders to go for courses. There are some people who prefer materials to be laid out for them nicely for them, and more importantly they are willing to pay for it. The main issue is to find the honest ones, which is kinda hard but not entirely impossible.

When I will be looking for some course , I want to see that it's works. There is a lot of scam. Show the statement or avoid.

If you seek trading education, ask the education provider to show you the link to his Myfxbook or trade explorer account or other verifiable trading records. If he cannot provide it, he is likely to be a scammer.