Question from a Frustrated Trader

Hi Marc,
Honestly I had cold feet and I’m still thinking about it, I’m a bit worried in a way as I’ve attended many courses and still failed to be successful in making money from the markets. I wouldn’t want to attend another course and ending up having the same problem of money down the drain..

I understand that you are probably different from the rest of the courses out there as you have a certain affiliation to Collin Seow whom he himself is a creditable instructor.

I myself have have been ‘toying’ around the stocks and futures and even FX for abut 6-7 years, so in terms of basics in price action, indicators etc I do have some basic knowledge. I also understand the importance of own psychology/money management when trading or investing the markets, having said all these I’m still going nowhere.
Please advise…

Hi Frustrated Trader,

I understand your frustration, and I wouldn’t want you to go for something that you’re not comfortable with. Like I’ve said before, trading is a journey and you have to face the fact that you will not be good at trading for quite some time before you start to get some results. This is the same in all endeavours (i.e. medical, investment, law etc), you just cannot expect to be good by attending a course that’s 24hrs – 48hrs in duration. That said, I sincerely believe that my curriculum will point you in the right direction (that is just my view of course), and can dramatically shorten your learning curve. However, hard work and patience still has to be the core criteria to get good in this particular skillset.

My advice would be for you to instead of going for additional courses (except mine and Collin’s of course ;P joking), to sit down and really think through what is your preferred trading style/timeframe, and which one suits your particular temperament and ability. Many times, we forget to think through the whole process and just expect someone to feed us the ‘magic’ info which we can then suddenly become great at it. Every single individual is different, and no one should expect to trade exactly the same as the other. Until you do some serious thinking, you will only be trapped in an endless loop that I believe will not serve your goals well.

That being said, I believe you will still learn something from a good and genuine trainer and fit-in some missing pieces of your own trading puzzle.

Here’s what I think you should do in terms of the instruments that you are trading. First of all, you should not trade in any margin or leveraged products until you have been consistent in normal equities (i.e. stocks). Hence, until you can consistently make money trading stocks, you should not be dabbling in futures, and especially forex. Why? forex is still not a very regulated product, and most brokers are market makers (they trade against you) and it is not a level playing field. If I buy AAPL, I can see the liquidity in the market; buyers and sellers; in forex, I can’t see anything at all. Futures are slightly better in a sense that there is true liquidity in that particular market, but it is fast moving and leveraged, not suitable for most retail traders. Hence, if you are not profitable in equities, you have no business in trading in any other products which can only accelerate your losses. It is not prudent to believe that you can perform better in an instrument that is 3-5 times faster and at the same time leveraged when you have a hard time making money with equities. Not to sound harsh or anything, but this is the reality of the markets. Focus on making small trades first, and once you start to get consistency, start to bump up your trade size accordingly. The steps are unprofitable -> breakeven -> profitable. Going from unprofitable to breakeven is a HUGE step, and most can’t even make it to the breakeven stage as it requires patience and hard work.
In any case, hope it helps and best of luck!
P.S just my 2 cents worth

Warmest Regards,
Marc

Marc Liu is a trader, investor, and educator. He was a professional gamer competing as part of Team Singapore, and has travelled extensively on sponsorship trips to as far as Europe. As a former head equity dealer in a financial firm, he brings valuable insights and experience to the masses, and focuses on portraying the reality of the markets with a look to trading the markets in a logical way. Marc is a sought after speaker and has taught at private equity firms and is also a contributing columnist.

You may visit his website at: www.sharesedge.com

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