Mentorship

Hello everyone, I’m an independent futures trader, and I’m offering a trading mentorship and/or partnership. I’ve written a tldr below, and a much longer block of text below that. If you are interested, I hope to hear from you soon.

Short Summary:

I’m trying to find someone to daytrade futures with in the mornings (I’m on US Pacific time), but time zone is not important if you are free 6 to 12 AM PST. I will expect no money from you, so you can start learning for free, but it’s best if you have either $25-50 or $150-500. I’ll explain these numbers later. This money will be your personal trading money. It’s not for me. I also will not be funding your account anytime soon. If things go really well somehow due to our arrangement, I may consider it in the future. But don’t expect it. We will trade or speak mostly in the mornings during the time mentioned, and you will have to be very strict to the schedule and focused when it’s time to focus. Outside that, we may just be two friends making money together one day in the hopefully near future. It’s also best if you take care of your other responsibilities and your mental/physical health because this is not an easy job, especially on the human mind. It can be very stressful. People have killed themselves over failing as traders because of the stress of losing money and the toll it can take. It can be as lonely and depressing a journey as any. While all of this is very manageable, it is still a sad reality about this field. Be sure it is something you feel you can handle before you jump into the deep end.

If you are interested, please message me with the following questions or thoughts answered:

Name:
Age:
Current Job/Career path (if you’re a student, what are your plans as of now):
Income/Wealth goals (be very honest with yourself and as unrealistic as you want):

Extracurricular interests (Sports, games, instruments, etc.):

Any trading experience or knowledge?

Main trading-related or general skills or weaknesses. Think of things like using the computer, doing math in your head, accessibility to a computer/fast internet, etc. Do you struggle with any of these things? Are you more naturally analytical and logic-driven? Or perhaps more artistic/right-brained? Do you like the idea of looking at charts for a long time, analyzing numbers and shapes? It can be boring to some people so be honest with yourself. What are your personal strengths/weaknesses when it comes to things like discipline, patience, being responsible, having a routine, etc.? Does anything make you uncomfortable or feel unnatural due to your personality or how you work? Do you struggle focusing? I don’t expect anyone to be perfect, but let me know if you feel you have issues that you’d also like to work on so they do not distract in trading. It’s best to establish those from the beginning, and some will become uncovered with time, but think about these things if you don’t already. It’s good to know yourself and your limits.

Current thoughts about trading? What have you heard about trading and what do you think? What do you think about this opportunity? What about trading excites or scares you, or concerns you with this opportunity in general? What do you think about it as a career? Do you feel like you can or cannot do it personally? Why? Is it simply gambling to you or do you feel like you don’t have the tools to make it? Do you think it’s too hard? Do you not like the idea of daytrading in general (the stress or the difficulty or any other problems you see)? It’s fine if you think negative, it doesn’t mean you can’t succeed.

How do you learn best? Be as specific and descriptive as possible, so I can hopefully find a way that works best for you.

Feel free to add other thoughts as you wish to. I don’t mind reading long text, and I can clarify or answer questions about these things if you have them.

Longer Version and some background

About myself: I was fortunate enough to get mentored by someone who really understands the market. I began to take trading seriously from the first day of speaking to him, and I learned about technical analysis and the general approach that I still use today. I have been spending thousands of hours trading and studying charts since then, and have for the most part figured out my personal strategy. I trade Futures primarily, but I have enough understanding to do options and forex as well. We would be trading strictly futures until certain things change. However, I have yet to achieve the level of trading mastery that I wish to.

Disclaimer:

I’m not some multi-millionaire perfect daytrader. At least, I am not yet. If you’re waiting around for a very successful, wealthy person to offer this kind of thing to you as “proof” that he did it already, you may be waiting a long time. But I understand your hesitation if you have it. The reality is that even though I have a great grasp on what I need to do as a trader, I am still missing something and I want to see if this helps me find it. And that is why I am offering this opportunity to the right individual.

On the positive side, I have been steadily making improvements in my own trading, and gaining a deeper understanding every month. I am finding more and more successful executions and making less mistakes, and every week I feel closer to the level I want to be at. But I have yet to break through what feels like a paper wall at this point, mostly because of flaws that I, and perhaps all of the unsuccessful traders, possess. I still occasionally take a step or two backwards and erase some progress, but I will not give up. I am too close.

These steps back are flaws like occasionally being impatient, overtrading, distrusting my own setup at times, and things like that. Many people who have these “trading demons” either neglect or never totally resolve them, and I am certain that this is why most traders do not make it in the long run. But knowing them is not enough – holding yourself accountable is key. And while I avoid these traps more often now compared to before, I still do not do it enough according to my perfectionist standards. I believe that having someone present, to guide and trade with, will force me to hold myself to a higher standard than if I do it alone. Teaching helps us reinforce the concepts that we have learned, and sometimes speaking about a particular plan or goal can make us focus on that plan better than simply thinking it to ourselves. I have seen this work in the few times that I traded while teaching someone. I was much more patient and precise in those trades. This is my honest motive here and goal for myself, while also giving someone with the right drive the opportunity to set themselves up for life.

Trading Demons

There are probably a dozen of these demons that hold us back as traders in some way.

  1. Getting too patient with a trade that has already reached its potential.
  2. Being impatient with an entry (rushing to get in despite it not being the clear low or high)
  3. Being impatient with an exit, because you’re up or down and changed your mind suddenly (leaving money behind that you knew was yours)
  4. Trading outside your strategy (basically gambling or reaction to something that doesn’t matter)
  5. Overtrading (trading more than your strategy suggests)
  6. Revenge trading (getting burned and trying to “stick it” to the market somehow – you can’t and shouldn’t try to)
  7. Being attached to a bias (refusing to admit that the market may have turned)
  8. Fighting the market due to a bias or trade or any reason (thinking the market can ever be wrong)

And so on. You probably get the idea. I don’t have all of these issues often now (though some can arise at times), but I know what it feels like to do each of them, because I have made those mistakes enough myself.

What I want from you

On to the mentorship/opportunity. I want someone who will be there consistently to learn from me, and hopefully eventually trade with me and make money with me. How we communicate can be established later, but something like Skype/Discord would work best since it’s on the computer and easy to access. Please note, I cannot offer this to you if you are not “free” for the most part. For example, if you have 2 weeks of free time and will then go back to school or return to the career path you were already on and likely abandon it entirely or until another date. I’m not saying you MUST commit on day 1, but it’s best if you already have some interest in considering this as a more permanent part of your life and future. It will also likely take longer than 2 months for these concepts to make enough sense to you. So please be brutally honest with yourself and decide and let me know before we begin so nobody wastes their time. I understand people have obligations, but this is a legitimate income you may have one day, so weigh your options well and make the decision that is ultimately best for yourself in the long term.

My personality and approach

I’m a chill, calm, and high standards, highly motivated guy. Don’t get me wrong. I do like to relax and joke around sometimes. But I will just say that I am highly motivated in this pursuit of successful trading and everything that comes with it. I don’t want to succeed in a mediocre fashion. I don’t believe in “60% win rate.” I don’t believe in “it’s okay if you missed the $2000 profit target, you still made $400 in 30 minutes.” I don’t believe in “it’s okay if you lost a ton of money this week, you still had a positive month.” I want to do better than this. I want to expect the same from you, and I know it’s sometimes unrealistic, but I want us to shoot for the stars. This means you have to take it seriously, be there on time in the morning, focus and treat it like a job, because it could be, if you do it well. There shouldn’t be a “who cares? it’s not real money” attitude if you’re paper trading. There shouldn’t be a “it’s only $100, oh well I made $500 earlier” attitude when taking a bad trade and loss after having a good trade before. It doesn’t mean I’m going to judge you harshly for these things and yell at you or anything like that. Every trader can have a bad day or push it at the wrong time because we are ultimately human and being a machine is hard to sustain. But if you hold yourself to a good standard, it will be easiest for both of us, and that’s how I prefer it to be. Over time, we should eliminate these flaws for the most part. Ideally, you are already interested in trading as a potential career, and willing to make it your career sometime. If you are already of that mindset, everything I’m mentioning will be easier to take seriously and it will probably be fun to you too, as it is to me.

Getting started: hard or easy?

The hard part about this business or career is that it is not natural to most people. I have offered a similar setup, at no charge, to some of my friends, and so far, none of them have managed to stick to the early morning schedule for long. Sometimes time zones get in the way. Some have other obligations like work or class, and some simply don’t commit for lack of drive or whatever you want to call it. For me, being offered free training in a field that you can make money from for the rest of your life, is enough motivation to wake up and focus for a few hours each day. But it’s not natural to everyone, which is just reality. And those people expectedly do not enjoy or would not enjoy this kind of work.

The easy part is that if you are highly motivated and want this like I do, it is quite easy to commit to the routine. If you’re not used to the mornings, you will get used to it because you want this more than you want your more laid-back sleeping schedule. It’s really not hard. But I understand if it takes a week or so to shift from bad habits to good ones. Beyond a week, you probably are not interested enough. It’s all about what you want and how much you are willing to go after it. The hardest things in life come easier to the ones who have that part figured out. When there’s a why, you’ll find the how.

If you made it this far, congratulations, you are probably already ahead a bit. It shows you can focus enough to read a long post. That counts for something, I think.

Final thoughts

Anyway, I hope to hear from some of you. If you have questions I will try to answer them, but let me just say a few things first. I know, I know, enough text already. Sorry it ended up being probably 5 times as long as I anticipated. But at least you can be sure this isn’t some scam or some half-assed trader rambling.

-This is not some invitation to a class where I’m charging people to learn. I don’t know if I will ever offer what I know to just anyone who has some money. I think it is too valuable to sell for $300 as an online course or something, even if 100 people wanted to sign up. Some of these concepts were taught by a very successful trader at a class that costs $10,000 for a 3-day weekend, and dozens of people readily pay to attend his classes. I don’t plan to be that teacher anytime soon, but it’s interesting to think about the amount of money people pay for the right information. This is a field where having that right knowledge and understanding of trading strategy can make you very wealthy, but you probably already know this. And I was mentored by one of the students who spent one day learning with that teacher for a lower rate, for what that’s worth. I fully trust what I’ve learned from him and apply it on a daily basis.

-If it doesn’t work out, no hard feelings. Hopefully you gain something from it anyway. But please, just be honest at all times, and don’t waste my or your time if there’s an issue that cannot be resolved. I do not want to teach you a lot of different concepts for a month and find out you weren’t that interested the entire time. If you simply don’t believe in yourself or this career or have other circumstances that will not permit you to be consistently available for this, you have to figure those things out yourself. Handle your business.

-I am not sensitive to criticism or opposing views. Feel free to share them as long as you have an open mind and listen as well.

-There are no dumb questions once we start, but common sense goes a long way. If your question is easily found online, please consider that first. I don’t want to spend time defining basic terms or anything like that, but if you are a total beginner, I can help you find those answers at least. And if you need things repeated, that’s not an issue. Total beginners are welcome, but be ready to think and read a LOT if you are new to all of this.

If you’d like to contact me directly, please message me via reddit (username gdenko). I am not leaving any other contact information here for now, but I also use discord, or email. Texting is not a viable way to communicate while daytrading. I think we will end up using discord with call or text, because discord allows good organization of a lot of text through its channels.