What to look for in a Forex trading mentor and why you need one.

If you look up “mentorship” on Wikipedia you will find the term defined as, “a developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person—who can be referred to as a protégé, or apprentice — to develop in a specified capacity.” The advantages of learning any skill or trade from a mentor are numerous. Some of these include; a drastically reduced learning curve, faster achievement of long-term goals in the given skill or trade, reduction in time spent doing trial and error, more personal time, greater emphasis on the more important aspects of the given skill or trade, the list of benefits that you reap from employing an experienced, credible, and knowledgeable mentor in any field are almost limitless. That being said, not all mentors are legit, especially in the world of forex trading, so when looking for a quality forex mentor we need to look for specific characteristics that make them credible.

There are a few different ways that we as human beings learn a new skill or acquire more knowledge; one of these is self-education, many people teach themselves how to play an instrument or how to cook. Usually things that people self-educate themselves in are intrinsically satisfying, meaning they provide a person with an internal sense of gratification and achievement. Our natural talents in certain skill sets prime us to self-educate ourselves in skills that are most gratifying to us. Another way human beings learn is through a systematic education, via a public or private school. This type of learning is acquired from taking instruction from someone that is certified to teach material on a specific subject. Once we complete enough course work in a variety of subjects we attain a diploma or college degree that symbolizes our mastery in a particular field of knowledge. However, a college degree is not generally synonymous with a specific industry-related skill.

It is the acquisition of a specific skill set that makes an individual employable, whether its employment with a company or self-employment. Even if you do have a college degree most job-specific skills are acquired via on-the-job training from a person who has the experience to train you in the specific area. A person who takes you under their wing and trains you for a specific skill is considered a mentor. Generally a mentor will train someone based on their own experience in the field, this means that a mentor has already made all of the mistakes any beginner will make and has learned the tough lessons that accompany any worth-while endeavor.
In forex trading, more so than other fields, there are numerous mistakes that most beginners make, and they usually end up making many of the same mistakes over and over. So by getting taught the intricacies of forex trading by someone who has already traveled down the rough and rocky road that all novice traders must take, you can essentially make your journey to forex success a great deal smoother than those that refuse to get mentored by a forex professional. In forex trading almost all of the early mistakes you will make result in you losing money, this is a big difference from most other professions, which is why having a credible and experienced mentor in the world of forex trading is so critical to your success as a trader.

Unless you are a total beginner to forex trading and this is your first day reading about trading strategies than you no doubt have realized that there is a jungle of forex and other trading related information available for you to digest. Some of it is quality information; the great majority of it is someone trying to make a quick buck preying off of less knowledgeable peoples’ hopes at making money in the markets. The amount of trading information and different trading courses for sale by people of questionable credentials can actually seem quite over whelming to someone that is relatively new to the world of forex. So, if we can agree that we definitely will greatly benefit from a mentor in forex, then our next logical step would be to seek out a credible and experienced mentor, preferably someone who practices what they are preaching to you, offers on going support, and is able to easily be contacted whether through email or phone. The bottom line is that someone who is just out to make a quick buck and does not care about their own reputation or the morality of their actions will not have any of these previously mentioned characteristics. So let’s dive into what exactly you should expect from your forex mentor.

The first question we should be asking ourselves when deciding on our forex mentor’s credibility is, does my mentor really trade and what evidence is there of this? The cold hard fact of trading is that it is very hard to consistently profit, whether you are trading forex, stocks, or commodities, trading is one of the most difficult endeavors to properly wrap your mind around. Many so called “market gurus” or “mentors” do not actually trade for themselves, they have long since given up on trading and decided instead to take the low road and sell something to people that they themselves do not believe in. If your forex mentor is truly a trader him or herself, they will have no problem discussing specific trades with you, answering your questions about specific trading setups, or telling you what they’re next move in the market is. The truth is that an actual consistent and profitable trader will take pride in proving to other’s their discipline in the markets.

The next big question we need to ask about our forex mentor is does he practice what he preaches? Does he trade the same exact way he is teaching people to trade? What evidence is there of this? A mentor that provides his students with a trading forum where he posts on-going trade setups and explains trades they their self are making would be evidence of a mentor who walks his talk. Your forex mentor should be able to explain to you any trade they make and it should follow the same strategies that they are teaching you to trade by, otherwise they are just selling you a bunch of hot air. The bottom line here is that any credible and legitimate forex mentor will be trading the same way they are teaching, if their strategy is truly profitable.

The next question we should ask ourselves is what kind of reputation does my forex mentor have on the internet and amongst their current and previous students? As an apprentice of Nial Fuller’s and a current student of his price action strategies I can attest that he is as genuine of a mentor and person you will find in the forex community. I know that countless others who have learned from Nial would agree with me on this point. Nial’s generosity and ability to educate are apparent even before or if you decide to purchase his in-depth price action course. I suggest you go and view his numerous free instructional videos or read any of the plethoras of articles he has written on this site. A genuine and credible forex educator will essentially be selling their self to the public, it is very apparent that Nial has accepted this responsibility, I could not be happier with having him as my mentor.

To conclude, the importance of finding a credible and experienced forex mentor can not really be emphasized enough. There is so much misleading information in the forex world that it really can be a chore just to separate the genuine mentors from the charlatans trying to take your money and run. If your forex mentor meets all of the criteria discussed in this article then they are most likely very legit and will help you get on the road to consistent profits much faster than if you go it alone. Other than Nial Fuller, I have not yet met any forex educator or mentor that even comes close to meeting my strict guidelines for a quality mentor, I am proud to have Nial as my mentor and trading coach.

Larry Kruse, Learn To Trade The Market student.