Hi Lance,
I’ve been trading for a year and love it although I’ve lost a lot of money.
Life is really tough right now and I desperately need some trading income to save our house. I’ve lost my job. My dog has died. My wife and kids hate me. But I think that everything will be fine when I learn to trade properly.
I love your YouTube candlestick videos and think you could help me.
I don’t need to get rich. I have more realistic expectations. Just about a thousand dollars a week should be enough to be comfortable.
Can you help me out with some coaching.
Thanks,
Slightly paraphrased! But this is typical of probably 90% of the coaching requests I receive. And I do receive many.
Let’s excuse the fact that I don’t currently provide coaching and the fact that the writer clearly failed to check my website first to determine what services I do provide (here and here).
If I did provide one-on-one coaching, this application would get a clear and resounding FAIL.
This is NOT what I want to read.
Firstly, if you've just lost your job and need instant trading success for survival… you will NOT be in the right mindset to assume and manage risk in the markets. Your financial situation is likely to get much worse before it gets better.
Secondly, if you're looking for trading to provide solutions to all your problems, you're going to be disappointed. There are reasons your wife hates you, and ignoring her while you focus on the markets is just going to make it worse.
I don't provide coaching right now. I probably will one day. When I do it will be quite exclusive. Only those worthy of help will be accepted. There will be a process to go through to ensure we're a good match.
I imagine anyone else providing coaching would have similar thoughts. In fact, I'd suggest that no reputable coach would sign you up based upon that introductory email. If you did get accepted, it's probably not someone you really want to trust your trading future with.
So before asking anyone to provide you with coaching:
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Sort out your life such that you have survival and stability assured for as long as necessary to achieve trading consistency.
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Have reasonable expectations for how long it takes. See here for starters.
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And review their website to see that they do actually offer that service
What else would I expect to see? I haven't set in place any firm criteria yet as I don't provide coaching, but off the top of my head I imagine any prospective coach would want to see the following along with any application. Again though, check their website as their application process will likely outline their requirements.
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Evidence that you're familiar with my work, and at least basically familiar with my beliefs about trading and my way of approaching the markets. Have you read my books, website or blog?
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Evidence of passion! Tell me why you do this. What does trading means to you. Not money; I want something deeper.
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Evidence of reasonable goals! What are you trying to achieve with your trading?
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Evidence of an ability to work hard towards trading consistency! What time can you provide towards this task? What evidence do you have that you can commit to an endeavour such as this?
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Evidence of a good base-level of theoretical knowledge! Who have you studied with? What was the outcome? What have you learnt? What books have you read? What blogs do you follow?
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Evidence of practical application of your theoretical knowledge! Do you have a trading plan? Do you have routines in place? Send a sample of trades with post-trade reviews (a sample of your last 20 would be awesome). It doesn't matter if the P&L result is negative – I expect it will be in most cases.
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Evidence of the fact you have thoroughly considered the need for coaching! What exactly do you hope to achieve through coaching? What are your expectations?
That's probably a good starting point. As I said though, check first online for any specific application requirements. But if nothing is listed then I'd consider at least that as a minimum requirement. This is not to say that you provide it all in one document or as an attachment. You don't want to overwhelm them. But perhaps consider links to online copies of all the above items, in the event they are interested in considering you further.
Just to be clear though: I'm not providing one-on-one coaching right now. Maybe in the future. When that happens, you'll find out first through the newsletter.
Best of luck,
Lance Beggs