Hi Bella,

                When I started out to go day trading, I feel as though I have wasted allot of money and time on so-called “education”. I can tell you that I have spent over 10k in it. A friend recommended (********) to me and I took their course. They made it seem so easy with patterns and MAs. It is sad that there is no way of telling who the real deal is and who the fakes are. I feel now that being able to read the tape is a must. Right now it is one step forward and two steps back. Now I know the only way to tell if a supply or demand area will hold; is to be able to read the tape and see who is there. If I could do it all over again, I would go with SMB training. Too much BS out there….  BTW how is the new book coming along? I am just a trader trying to figure my way into become a success.

@mikebellafiore

I have been thinking about this email all weekend.  If I wasn’t so busy on a deal I would have written a blog post.
Let me take a hack here.

Most students and teachers think that just showing trade set ups is all that is needed. So students take trader education and think they will soon if not immediately start making money. Heck most educators think this as well. Not true.

First you have to determine if you really like trading.  This is true of anything you wish to be good at.  Seems to make sense you do if you are willing to pay for a course. But not necessarily and a good course should weed out those not most interested.  You would be surprised at how many think they love trading, do it for 6 months, and then they do not want to do the work.  Said another way, they do not love trading.

Second you must learn what type of trading is best for you.  And this is steep climb.  What product?  Equities, options, futures, FX, auto trading?  Let’s say you settle on equities.  Well what type of equities trading? Here are just some styles:

Momentum
Scalping
Swing trading
Technical analysis high beta trading
Slow moving intraday set ups
Fading
Relative Strength
Arb
Auto trading or quant trading

If you took a course on swing trading but are best suited for momentum trading then that course will not lead to outsized trading gains. You do best at what matches your talents with your interests.

But let’s say you picked the right course.  Let’s say you learned momentum trading and this is your best trading niche.  Now comes the hardest part.  This is something a good educator can only help with.  They can show you the training you need to do to get better at.  They can motivate you to do the work.  Guess what that hardest part is?

And there are a ton of underperforming traders out there that do not get this.  They blame and complain and expend misguided negative energy.  And most in the media totally don’t understand this.  And in fact most firms never do.  Guesses?

The next very important step, which is mostly up to you, is…………..
Can you execute?

So you need that trading course to provide the domain knowledge.  At worst a good class will save you tens of thousands in unnecessary trading losses paying for an education in market fundamentals.  You may notice that our slogan at SMBU is: How good can you be?  It is not like some advertise: enter your email to become a millionaire.  I get so irritated when I see nonsense like that.  But after you take that right course for you and pick the right product for you there is so much more work to be done.

Trading is such a weird professional sport. If you passion is to play for the New York Yankees you cannot just walk unto the field.  Well you could but then you would be arrested.  Trading is different however.  If trading is your passion you can walk onto our professional field.  In fact, we want you to walk onto our field like the desire for easy money at a poker game.  Opening up a live pro trading account is as simple as a few bucks and filling out some forms.  But just because you have access to play doesn’t mean you can play.

So maybe you picked the wrong course.  Maybe the classes were crap like most stuff out there.  But maybe you picked the right one and now it’s up to you to focus on the one thing a coach can never shield you from: Can you execute?

Good luck.  Keep working on your trading game.

Bella

One Good Trade