Learning and Developing as a Trader

In an excellent recent post, John Forman points out that trading education is not just about the divulging of trading systems. Books such as the Market Wizards texts can be useful, he points out, because the "...value to be found in books and other educational resources is not in specific trading systems and like. It’s in how the resource guides us in the development of our own unique way of taking on the markets."

As a trading coach and therapist, I am of value only if I can help traders see their challenges in new and promising ways. Everyone first tries to learn and grow on their own; it's when they become stuck in their progress that they typically reach out. Often, they are stuck because they're locked into a particular way of viewing self and markets. When a new view becomes available, it opens the door to novel ways of thinking and fresh ways of engaging markets.

So it is in trading education. It's not necessary that you learn "secrets from the masters." What *is* necessary is that you learn new ways of viewing market action, formulating trading ideas, and managing the positions that come from those ideas. A good book or course puts you in the head of the writer or teacher: from that perspective can come new insights, new skills.

The best traders I know seek out fresh opinions about markets; they also seek to learn new ways of engaging markets. It is by pushing themselves outside their comfort zones to look at things in new ways that they keep developing--and stay one step ahead of markets.

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Learning How to Trade

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