Finding The Right Mentors
"We like to say that we don't get to choose our parents, that they were given by chance — yet we can truly choose whose children we'd like to be."
— Seneca, On The Brevity of Life
When we compare this to trading, it immediately makes me think of the mentor that I found and it was a game changer for me.
Back in May 2017 I went on a one day course at the Village hotel in Coventry, which was run by a guy called Steve Howe and he became my mentor. I learnt so much from him and it totally changed the way that I thought about trading; from my set up, right through to the psychology, lateral thinking, attention to risk management; I could go on and on! His course was called "It's A Mug's Game" (which was also his Twitter handle) and I remember fondly of how he explained where the name came from. When he started out on his trading journey, pretty much all his friends and family said "Ooh you don't want to be gambling Steve... It's a mug's game!" Although it was trading, it was gambling as far as anyone who didn't understand what he was doing was concerned! Unfortunately Steve's health took a turn for the worst and he gave up teaching a couple of years ago, but I will always be eternally grateful to him.
From that day back in May 2017, I haven't looked back. It was just after I did his course that I started to develop my horse racing strategy, based on the teachings and methods of Steve and the stats/data provided from Proform racing. To me this was a match made in heaven and at the time was a total shift in my direction as I flipped Back to lay to Lay to back, at a time when most people were on B2l, so it was definitely going against popular opinion!
The point that I am trying to make here is that if you find the right mentor, it will help you immensely on your trading journey.
Nowadays, I have a trading buddy @Mark Cooper and we bounce ideas off each other, chatting daily about our trades and strategies.
I would recommend this too, to help you on your journey as a trader.
Trading can be a lonely business, so it's great to have that bond with someone and you can support each other too of course.