Do you Need a Forex Trading Mentor?

In this article, we explore why you might want a forex trading mentor by your side, what their motivations are for sharing their forex trading secrets and most important of all, how to identify warning signs. 

The universe has an abundance of self-styled forex trading mentors who are ready to take traders under their wing and guide them to the holy grail of forex trading strategies. The gullible and naive jump at the opportunity of a short cut, while sceptics dismiss anyone who promises to share their secret sauce. While the internet gives a platform for anyone to brand themselves into anything they desire, thus allowing unscrupulous characters to emerge as investment gurus, it doesn’t mean that’s everyone’s intention, far from it. 

In this article, we explore why you might want a forex trading mentor by your side, what their motivations are for sharing their forex trading secrets and most important of all, how to identify warning signs. 

Motives of Forex Mentors

Many keyboard warriors insist “those who can’t trade, teach”. However, things aren’t always as black and white. Take a football coach, are they all bad at football? No. Usually, they are retired or injured former professionals. While they can’t put what they know into practice, they still have the theoretical know-how to guide other players. Forex mentors could be retired traders and are merely seeking to apply their knowledge to a different gainful activity than trading.

Forex mentors make their money in a variety of ways. Typically they have a paywall for accessing their community and resources. Besides charging a subscription fee, in some cases, mentors can have affiliate deals with the brokers they may recommend to you. Suggesting a good broker is part of their job description, but a conflict of interest can lead to bad advice. There are many ruthless brokers out there who are ready to pay big money for client referrals. Sadly the only way those high referral fees can be feasible is by employing exploitative practices. 

Even though a trading mentor’s primary interest is making money, it doesn’t imply they are inadequate at trading. What many people forget is that trading does not offer a stable income, no matter how experienced you are. Positions require margin, experience drawdown and can stay open for long periods. Many mentors also thrive on the dialogue they have with their members and benefit from teaching and training others. 

How Forex Trading Mentors are Helpful

Unless you work at a hedge fund, trading is an inherently isolated activity. When you trade, you make big decisions on a daily or even hourly basis. Being part of a community or having communication channels with a mentor and other like-minded traders can be a valuable resource for self-improvement and assessing trading opportunities. 

Trading mentors can help in three major areas; education, market research and self-discipline. 

Typically forex mentorship programmes offer video courses, seminars, webinars, e-books and much more. All of this content is for helping you to develop the technical skills required for trading forex. 

Forex mentors aren’t just a guy flinging out trading signals in their WhatsApp group; they should be providing you with evidence-driven, high probability conclusions that offer clear entry and exit points. 

Trading is an emotionally demanding activity. Any drawdown can leave you doubting even the most valid trade ideas. Being able to share your doubts and obtaining reassurance can prevent you from falling victim to your irrational thoughts. 

Forex Mentor Warning Signs

It’s well-recognised that if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. It’s equally as well-known that there is no shortcut to success. That means ignore the forex gurus who offer promises of absolute gains thanks to their ultra-successful top-secret strategy. These voices of arrogance are the ones most likely to catch your attention, but they are the ones that you should ignore. 

A genuine mentor should be modestly confident. A real teacher should be able to explain how they make their trading decisions. If they can’t tell you that, indeed, you won’t learn anything valuable from having a relationship with them. If a mentor doesn’t share their secrets, probably, they don’t have any.

Conclusion

There are a lot of bad actors out there, and they specifically target all areas of the financial services industry. Scammers lure people with shortcuts and promises of success. There is no shortcut to success. Common sense and good instincts are usually good enough for identifying forex bandits. 

That said, there are many benefits to having a forex trading mentor or a membership to a paid trading community. Having peers to consult with who can offer a different perspective or opinion can be incredibly advantageous to employing a successful trading strategy.