Sports, Forex Trading & Mentorship

Those familiar with my blog will know I’m a big sports fan (you can read a recent post on sports and trading here). Now I cannot say I’m a hard core fan of one sports team, as I have a few and enjoy some. But more importantly, I’m a fan of sports, particularly professionals. These are the top in their profession, and every time I see them, I learn something.
They have trained for thousands of hours. They work on every aspect of their game. The best work tirelessly to take things to the next level, and yet consistently practice the basics.

I appreciate the wisdom they show to us, their athleticism, and their mindset of success.
Now along those lines, what do Tiger Woods, Peyton Manning, and Georges St. Pierre have in common besides what I listed above?
They all work with coaches and mentors. Tiger has one coach he works with, Peyton has several, and Georges can have up to 20! Yep, the best in their field who are paid millions yearly to do what they do, work with coaches.
No champion or elite athlete reaches their top performance levels without coaching and mentoring.
NOTE: For a couple of good books on elite performers, training and mentorship, check out these books by Coyle and Colvin.
Now the next natural question to be asked is, ‘why do you think trading is any different?‘
It’s not, and there is a reason for this. Woods has spent his entire life perfecting his golf skills, yet works with a coach daily. Peyton is setting records this year at age 37, yet trains with several coaches. Georges is a record setting UFC champion with 4 different black belts. He too has coaches.

Hopefully this is clarifying why you should be working with a mentor as well.
I recently heard the most ridiculous argument that everything you need to learn about forex trading you could on the net. How ridiculous! If that were the case, why would banks spend hundreds of thousands each year training their traders? Why would Top hedge fund traders working with $250m (million) books+ have coaches and mentors they work with? It should be painfully obvious why.
I myself work with several people. There are two I work with specifically on my trading mindset and am about to add a third. I have a programmer with a graduate degree in financial modeling I consult with for risk models and money management strategies. I pay these people a lot of money, but there is a specific reason I work with them. Simply put – they enhance my performance, help me see things I am missing, and provide support along the way.
How to Find A Trading Mentor
If I had to break it down simply how to find a trading mentor, I would suggest looking at a few things;
1) Does their teaching style make sense to you and what they are saying clarify things?
2) Can they simplify things without making them to basic or freshman?
3) Do they respond quickly to all your questions and seem supportive?
4) Do they offer insights beyond trade setups, such as building a successful mindset, and obtaining the proper skill set?
If they offer the four above, and you have a good feeling about them, then that is someone to work with. Now whether you choose me or not, is less important to me personally. What is more important is finding the right person for you.
Regardless of who that inidividual is, find someone to coach, mentor and train you as it will definitely accelerate your learning curve, and increase your chance for success. There is a difference between being interested and being passionate about trading. Look behind all elite performers across all fields, and you will almost always find a mentor.
One more thing I’d like to mention before going that Tiger, Peyton and Georges all have in common.  They all train incessantly and are constantly working on their game.