How to Find a Forex Trading Mentor (And What to Look for in Them)

Just like any other skill, learning to trade on the Forex market may be a daunting task at times.

If you don’t get the foundations of the market right at the beginning, you’ll likely have a tough time grasping advanced trading concepts down the road.

Many beginners in the market quit trading in the first year, either because they blew their account several times or they didn’t approach the market the right way.

That’s why seeking help from a Forex trading mentor can help develop your trading career.

Learn more, take our premium course: Trading for Beginners

What’s a Forex Trading Mentor?

A Forex trading mentor should be an experienced trader with the necessary knowledge and know-how to successfully trade the markets. A trading mentor can significantly improve your trading performance.

I remember the days when I started to trade, focusing too much on short timeframes and applying a large number of technical indicators which provided contradictory trading signals.

If I had had a trading mentor they would have immediately spotted all the mistakes I was making.

My journey to becoming a successful trader would have likely taken less time.

What to Look for in a Trading Mentor?

Forex trading is different from other business endeavours you may take.

Early in your trading career, almost all mistakes you make result in losing money. Experienced Forex educators can make the journey to success a great deal smoother than refusing professional advice and taking the road on your own.

An outstanding Forex trading mentor needs to practice themselves what they teach you. As a professional in their field they should motivate you to become a better trader and be available for ongoing support. On top of that, they should respect your individual psychological traits and cultivate your own trading style.

Did you know?

According to statistics, 90% of beginners in the market lose 90% of their trading capital in the first 90 days of trading.

Follow this checklist to choose the correct mentor:

1. A Mentor Should Trade for Themselves

It’s a prerequisite that a mentor actually practices the skills that they teach you. A Forex trading mentor should preferably be a full-time trader with extensive market experience, someone who trades their own money or manages other people’s money and follows the market on a regular basis.

The truth is that trading is a skill like any other – it might take months, or even years, to master trading

A mentor who is actually trading on the market knows all the difficulties that a newbie may be facing, such as trading on short-term timeframes, buying high and selling low and overleveraging. If a mentor explains to you the foundations of trading early in your learning process, it will be much easier for you to grasp advanced trading concepts down the road.

There are many scams in the market that try to take the money from people with less trading knowledge and promising success in a matter of weeks. The truth is that trading is a skill like any other – it might take months, or even years, to master trading and become consistently profitable.

Finding a trading mentor who is actually trading themselves is the first prerequisite you need to pay attention to.

2. A Mentor Should Be Successful in What They Teach

There are two ways to become a successful trader:

Learn on your own, spending a lot of time and trading capital to become consistently profitable (bear in mind that only 5-10% of traders have what it takes to become successful on their own – the remaining 90% are losing money!).
To have a Forex trading mentor who is already successful in the market and wants to share with you their trading wisdom

Naturally, you want to learn from a mentor who is actually successful in what they’re doing. Do you really want a mentor who is losing money on the market? I doubt so.

Given the overwhelming amount of trading-related websites that promise “quick success”, it might be difficult to filter the honest offers from the deceptive ones. Look for a mentor who is a professional in the field and has a proven track-record of success.

3. A Mentor Should Be Motivational and Inspirational

Besides being a professional trader, a Forex trading mentor should be able to motivate and inspire you to become a better version of yourself.

Finding a trading setup, managing an open trade and paying attention to risk management is art as much as it is a skill.

Beginners may often feel overwhelmed by the amount of information in the Forex market, or they simply may not have the discipline and patience to wait for a trade setup to confirm on longer timeframes.

A top trading mentor should motivate you to keep learning and to always have the end goal in mind – becoming a successful trader on your own.

4. A Trading Mentor Should Respect Your Trading Style

This is a very important point – your trading mentor should respect your personal trading style and fine-tune their mentoring approach according to your psychological traits.

Not all traders are born the same. Some traders like fast-paced trading environments with many intraday trading opportunities, while others may prefer a more relaxed approach in which trades are taken once a week.

In addition, some traders have more time to spend in front of the trading screen, while others prefer to analyse the market early in the morning/late in the evening to find a setup. Some traders are risk-takers, while others are risk-averse. Whatever your trading style is, a good mentor should be able to identify and nurture it.

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5. A Trading Educator Should Provide Ongoing Support

Besides all the points mentioned above, a great trading mentor should always be available to answer specific questions you might have – and there will be plenty of them.

Whether by e-mail, phone, or an instant messaging app, your mentor should be reachable when you need help. Once you grasp the foundations of trading and start taking positions on your own, you should also be able to send potential (or taken) trades to them to evaluate your progress.

You’ll be surprised how much you can still learn in the post-mentoring process.

Learn more, take our premium course with expert support: Trading for Beginners

How to Find a Mentor for Forex Trading?

Even if you’re totally new to trading, chances are you’ve realised that there is a great amount of self-proclaimed Forex “professionals” and trading courses on the internet.

The majority of them are only looking to take your money without providing valuable information in return, so it might be quite hard to find an honest educator who will teach you what it takes to become successful in trading.

A great place to start in the jungle of Forex-related websites is with our premium Trading for Beginners course. In addition our community section aims to help students become better traders.

There are market broadcasts run several times a day by a panel of technical experts to help both beginners in the market and experienced traders to find trade setups and to reinforce the approach taught with our trading courses.

Why start tomorrow when you can start today?