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This was published 6 years ago
Everyone wants to make money in the stock market, so you might be interested in the cynical replies of a group of stockbrokers when one of us asked, "What's the best way to lose $10,000 in the stock market?"
They included: Try to double $10,000. Open a CFD account with $5000. Click on an ad that says, "You too can trade forex". Go to a free options seminar. Trade on "inside information". Buy a stock that just fell 25 per cent in a day. Buy a stock that just jumped 25 per cent in a day. "Set and forget" with the emphasis on "forget". Don't take losses. Take profits. And finally, this old chestnut – go on a course called, "Learn how to trade and make money!".
Learning how to be a trader is like joining the gym – without purpose, you won’t stick at it.Credit:iStock
Let's focus on that a minute.
It seems the global financial crisis so dented the concept of "set and forget" and so fed private client dissatisfaction with financial advice that rather than kill the appetite for shares the huge fall in the market simply propelled a lot of people to "take control" and "do it yourself", and the demand for knowledge grew with it.
I attended a $2000 course once to find out what all the fuss was about. I had forgotten the true meaning of the word "lecture". It was excruciatingly slow for a half-educated man and very basic. If you were half smart you could have absorbed the entire content by reading one chapter of a simple book, but it took two days to learn about two moving averages and two immature candle patterns.
It takes ages to explain technical analysis to a large group and I had forgotten that when you put a lot of people in a room you move at the speed of the slowest common denominator.
There are no quick fixes, but that's what most courses appear to offer: a place to input your credit card number for instant sharemarket gratification. So let me give you some reality, a guide to the things you might like to consider before forking out for guaranteed trading success.
1. Trading success cannot be "delivered", packaged, achieved with a credit card or achieved in quick time. You may think you are buying a solution but you are not. You are buying an introduction to a lot of work.
2. Without "purpose" you will not last as a trader. It is like joining a gym: you'll likely try it for a month and stop. Enter the trading marathon – and it is a marathon – without enthusiasm, interest, passion and a purpose and you will join the many ranks of people who have wasted their money and time. You need purpose, and that means having a very specific goal to inspire you. Without that, can you seriously make trading a part of your life?
3. You need risk capital. To make that clear, you need capital you can risk. Come to the trading game out of financial necessity, with capital you can't afford to risk, and your "loss aversion" will doom you to failure.
4. Most people come into trading with a get-rich-quick expectation. That's a guaranteed way to get poor quick. Trading is about exploiting a small, small edge over a long, long period. That takes maturity, discipline, method and patience. Do you have that?
5. Some courses have a hidden agenda: selling you a software package, selling you a data feed, upselling you to another product, snagging you as a customer of their trading platform. I attended one course where the "educator's" motivation was to earn a clip in perpetuity out of every client he put into the platform. This ulterior motive is why there are so many "free" seminars. Because they're a forum for hot leads, and that's how they can treat you: as someone to upsell to.
6. Paying more does not mean you get more. There is no standard pricing. Some prices are dictated by the size of the balls of the people selling it to you, not the product.
7. The bar to become a successful stock market teacher, it seems, is a lot lower than the bar to become a successful stock market trader, or they would surely be doing it.
8. The more people you put in a room the longer it takes. Many courses take an extraordinarily long time to cover basic principles, principles that could be read in a book.
9. There is a huge difference between "learning to trade" and "technical analysis". Many courses sell technical analysis alone, as if it's what everybody is doing, which is not necessarily what you need as an introduction. What you need to learn is to trade. It's very different.
But do not be disheartened. There are some really good products and trading educators out there. If you are serious about trading, it can be done, and you need to seek out those who can teach it honestly, who offer education for your money.
But before you buy anything, ask yourself some simple questions. What am I buying? What will I get? What are they really selling? Am I really interested? Could I read it in a book? Do I really have the time? Do I really have the need? Do I really want to be a trader all day every day? Because while I love the game, if you want to succeed at it, that's what it takes.
Marcus Padley is a stockbroker and the author of stock market newsletter Marcus Today. For a free trial go to marcustoday.com.au.
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