In this article we will see what are the steps that a beginner must go through to learn how to trade.
Trading is a highly professional job, just like that of a lawyer, doctor or engineer. We can see how this professional figure is highly sought after within the banking and financial sector, so much so that many profiles, usually of a high caliber, are in great demand in the main financial hubs such as for example London, New York and Amsterdam.
This job also has many specializations, such as for example Quant traders, i.e. quantitative traders who essentially use mathematics and statistics as the main tools for their investment decisions, or discretionary traders, or prop traders, who use their own method operative that has proved to be profitable over time and that best fits on one’s person, a discretionary approach.
Two different approaches that have in common a certain preparation, a certain experience and a lot of time spent on graphs and on excel sheets to understand how to profit from the financial markets. There are also specializations in the temporal sphere, i.e. we have traders who operate more in the long term, traders who operate in the very short term and other traders who structure trading systems that go beyond human reaction capabilities, i.e. what we call High Frequency Traders. As we can see, we have a variety of professional figures, in some cases highly paid due to their degree of experience. But then why do we see many who seem to reduce this job to being “relatively easy”, i.e. that you can learn it in a short time and without enormous effort? Let’s see together how this job is learned.
Recognize that it’s a job
Many seem to make it easy, that is, they see some videos on YouTube, search for information on the internet for free or take the course that promises to learn this job in a short time (such as "In a week"). Well, let’s stop here and analyze what is on offer: free information, simplified and in a short time. In practice, what is proposed is in complete contradiction with the concept of "development of professionalism".
I think a true professional would feel offended when their professionalism is trivialized in this way. Even to be an engineer we have free information on the internet, we can watch informative videos on the subject, certainly this would not make us engineers, especially if we are not followed by a structure or a "mentor ”, those who lately seem to belittle their work by relying on short learning times or the presumed ease of work.
Work, like any other activity, is never easy but it becomes easy with experience. Let’s say that a good mentor, or teacher, instructor, guides his pupil/student towards an optimization of the experience and the student must obviously be willing to follow all the advice of his mentor. In practice we must have two conditions, namely a reference figure who actually does not make false promises and a student who has a humble approach to the subject he is learning. If the student is not humble, that is, he does not have patience and is unaware of the path he has to face, he will find himself in a handful of flies after a short time.
As far as trading is concerned, taking courses is certainly a training accelerator but at the same time you need to choose your mentor well, your training path which must be in line with the profession or the job you are going to do. False promises, ease of execution and results in a short time are in clear contradiction with the work of the trader, a job that needs time to be learned, just like most of the jobs many professionals do.
The essential element of patience
This element characterizes the learning process of all disciplines, both sports and academic, including professions of all levels, we are talking about patience. Patience is not strictly linked to time, but to “hurry to obtain tangible results”, something very unlikely in any profession. Let’s say that patience and humility go hand in hand, i.e. a person who is not very humble is usually hasty in learning processes and when he sees that he does not get results, he denigrates the activity carried out in a totally disempowering way.
Basically, "if I can’t do it right away, it means it doesn’t work", such an immature logic that is so unprofitable in every area, especially in trading which is an extreme activity in terms of results, meaning "you are or are not profitable" . RUnningto achieve results leads to certain defeat in every area. The high professionalism required by the profession requires humility, i.e. the awareness of the fact that it takes time to learn. Taking a trading course is always a good thing, as long as it is not promoted with false promises or with low learning time. Only with this learning approach will you have the opportunity to learn this trade.
The role of impulsivity
We never hear people say “be an engineer and get rich”, or “be a lawyer and get rich”, yet with trading we hear “be a trader and get rich”. Surely trading, if approached in a certain way will make it "easier" to get rich compared to other professions that are relatively further away from money, this is because the trader’s role is to directly manage money by exchanging it with financial assets.
Precisely this slogan makes trading seen as a turning point, a job that can change people’s lives. Indeed it is, but with an impulsive approach to the learning process the results will not come. In this regard, we repeat that only a correct approach and serious training will be able to obtain results and if these results are not obtained, one will at least have become aware of how this trade is carried out.
Original article published on Money.it Italy 2023-03-02 08:57:00. Original title: Trading, come imparare veramente questo lavoro?
