Decided to post this, since the tread is still here. Writing it keeps me aware of my greatest weakness in trading and maybe someone will gleam something positive from it.
About 6 years ago I personally attended a OTA Stock Trading Class in Charlotte, NC, Russ Allen was the instructor. I had a close friend who wanted to take the class but due to medical reasons he could not physically make the 4-hour drive by himself; so he offered me free attendance to the class (I pay for my own hotel room and meals) if I could take a week off from work and be the driver. At this point we both had already taken everything that Gary offered, I love the Market, so it was a great opportunity to expand my knowledge.
At the time the cost of this class was about 10 times what Gary charged for Classes 1-5; when we completed the class we were given brochures for classes that take you to the next level which cost a little 10 times the current cost of Gary’s Survival I Class. I now have 10 years of daily without fail or excuse market study, and the opinion I had the day we complete the OTA class has not changed. OTA and Gary teach you a lot about the market and they both teach you their particular type of trading system. In my personal opinion if you can get over being critical about Gary’s teaching methods (Parable type of format) and focus on the lessons he is trying to covey, hands down he does a better job teaching an overview of the market and how to trade the market, regardless of cost; again “in my opinion”
Now the bad news or the bottom line; though it is very important to get an education, it does not matter the system you use to trade the market, the path to success is always the same; YOU are the key to your own success. What?? Gary said that every successful student, 100% would agree that learning to trade successfully was the hardest thing they have ever done. To master the market, you will have to master yourself first, therefore success is truly within. The best advice I can share is for you to learn to accept that you are going to lose money before and yes, after you become successful; if you have the fortitude to make it. Learn to lose properly! Without a proper plan for losing you will never have to concern yourself with success. Backup and read that last sentence again. Another thing that I totally agree with that Gary said “When you can brag about how small your losses are you will be successful”. Personally I could have 5 successful trades and lose more on the sixth trade than I made on the previous successes because I let emotion (fear, greed, disbelief, hope, pride, etc.,) control the trade, so I did not have control of anything, the previous trades were just luck. You are not a trader until you can consistently show a profit after every 8-10 trades averaged out over time.
I am sure there are a few exceptions, but without a personal mentor it will take several years and a lot of discipline to become consistently profitable. Education is needed, but it is not the key to success; success lays within you and that is why nobody can give you some sort of mystical information or system that will make you trade well. Print your trades, study them and find something you did wrong and focus on fixing one weakness at a time, then repeat until you have developed the discipline for success. You will stumble and fall back into the old bad habits and at times not understand how, when or why; just refocus and continue the process of correcting your errors, one at a time. Know and review you trading plan until you can flawlessly recite it while standing in front of 100 people.
Just my two cents worth!
