Day Traders Guide | Trading Sim

Day Trading Coach – Everything You Need to Know

Written by Al Hill | Sep 24, 2018

Day trading coach is a mentor or a coach that can help you to achieve your trading goals. A day trading coach is no different from a regular sports coach or a life coach. You would want to make use of a coach if you are serious about improving something.

A coach is generally seen as someone who can guide you toward your goal. For example, if your goal was to improve your fitness, you would hire a fitness coach. Similarly, a trading coach helps you to improve your trading. When you hire a fitness coach, the first thing you evaluate is to see how fit they are. Isn’t it?

So when you look for a day trading coach, you would also like to see if they are worth what they say.

These days, just about anyone with a good sales pitch can claim to be a trading coach. The industry of mentoring or coaching is booming. This brings a lot of bad apples to the market. Navigating your way through the murky waters is essential.

There are numerous instances about how gullible traders were disappointed by the so called trading coaches. Having to part with large sums of money, the trading coaches did not have anything new to show. This is especially true for those who are a “flash in the pan” artists.

A few good winning trades is all it takes to build a buzz around them. Remember, trading is a long term game, a marathon, not a sprint. As such you want to hire someone to coach you for the marathon.

As a trader who wants to improve their trading, you need to make sure you hire the right day trading coach.

In this article, we look at the characteristics of a day trading coach. We also cover the aspect of what you should look for when searching for a day trading coach.

By the end of this article, you should be able to understand who a day trading coach is, what they do and how to evaluate a day trading coach.

But before we begin, let’s start with the most basic of questions. Why do you need a day trading coach?

Obviously, it is not mandatory for everyone who wants to better themselves as a day trader to hire a day trading coach. Right?

 
Why do you need a day trading coach?

 

The answer to this question is as simple as asking why do you need a swimming or a sports coach. There are a number of reasons behind this. The answers can also vary from one person to another. Some do not need a coach because they are just casual swimmers.

Some need a coach because they are training for the Olympics. A few don’t need a coach because they are self determined to evaluate themselves and improve on a daily basis.

Some people feel that need of having a day trading coach or a mentor, others do perfectly fine without a coach. As you can see, it basically comes down to one’s individual choice and will.

Having a day trading coach of course comes with advantages. For one, having someone to mentor you can help to increase your confidence. Psychologically, this can be a boost to your trading as well. An unbiased third party critic can show you things that you might normally miss.

Trading, as you know also involves a lot of human emotions and behavior. If you think trading is purely about supply and demand, then this paper should help change your view.

The research paper takes into account the psychological factors such a emotions and moods which affect trading. The study focuses on the currency markets and the impact of human behavior in the markets.

Markets are irrational, because of human behavior. This study looks at the investor irrationality and the herd behavior.

A day trading coach therefore is useful in a number of ways. They can help bring some order to the chaos.

  • They can help you to identify your strengths and weaknesses
  • A day trading coach is able to look at your trading system and point out areas of improvement
  • The coach can help you to bring more discipline while you are trading
  • They can also help to keep your emotions in check especially when you hit a losing streak

As you can see, there are many advantages to having a day trading coach or a trading mentor.

But this now begs the question if it is essential to have one in the first place?

Do you need a day trading coach?

The answer depends on an individual’s need. For example, some people can dedicate a good amount of time and efforts into learning on their own. Others are not that disciplined enough. It is ok to ask for help!

In such cases, having a trading mentor who has the experience can help you to develop your trading skills.

Whether you want to have a day trading coach or not, is a question that you need to ask yourself. For traders who believe that they need extra help, seeking a mentor is the way to go.

But now comes the question on how you evaluate a potential day trading coach.

We cover this in the next section.

Evaluating a day trading coach?

Evaluating a day trading coach takes time and perseverance. A quick google search can reveal many self proclaimed gurus of trading. But beware! The road is filled with frauds and good sales pitches.

Many times traders fall prey to fancy marketing only to realize half way through that they never got their money’s worth. Anyone with a website can claim to become a guru. And you know how difficult it can be to claim a refund if you are dissatisfied.

On a broad scale, a day trading coach should help you in the following areas.

Help you develop a winning attitude

Very rarely do new traders proactively seek help from winning traders initially. Most traders come to day trading coaches after taking a number of lumps in the stock market. This can be for a number of reasons.

For one, new traders often have the mindset that they can trade and become successful on their own. However, it takes a few losing trades to realize that there is more to trading than just following a strategy.

Sooner or later, the day trader ends up blowing up their accounts.

Since these day traders come with broken spirits, the first step for a trading coach lies in rebuilding the trader’s confidence.

Attempting to trade when upset or depressed is a guaranteed way to lose money.  Emotions play a big role in trading.

Having the right mindset is therefore of utmost important. Easier said than done!

Any trader who has traded would know how difficult it is to control their emotions. A day trading coach will assist in developing this right mindset by giving you a number of exercises.

These activities will range from positive thinking, to reading self-empowering books.  This all sounds a bit silly, but just changing your mindset will improve your bottom line results.

Helping you build a trading plan

The day trading coach will also assist in creating a trading plan for you.  A day trading plan is critical to your trading success. A day trading plan keeps you focused and prevents you from over trading.

It also tells you when to stop trading. By constantly analyzing your trades through the trade plan, a day trader can help to improve your trading confidence as well.

The trading coach ideally reviews your trading system. After a brief interview to assess your strengths and weaknesses the day trader can assist in creating a plan that works specifically for you.

Access to live trading room

Some trading coaches provide courses and interviews to assist the trader, but the best coaches will show you in real-time how to make money.

While simulation trading will assist in testing your day trading strategies, you must learn from a seasoned veteran.  Your trading coach should provide access to their trading room and or allow you to sit next to them during a trading day.

Studying yourself and developing plans are great, but unless you see it for yourself, you will on some level still wonder if becoming a winning day trader is possible.

Remember!! Anyone can talk wisely in hindsight. The difference is in finding someone who can explain to you what is happening in real time. And a day trading coach doesn’t have to be a crystal ball reader. They also make mistakes. But they control their mistakes or losing trades while ensuring to let the trades ride out when they are right.

Where to look for a day trading coach?

There are many plans to look for a day trading coach. The trick is in finding the right one.  While starting out with a Google search is the first place, try hanging out at trading forums too.

You will be surprised to find that many trading coaches don’t actually market themselves as one. Finding a mentor or a day trading coach through a trading forum is also to your advantage.

If you spend a good amount of time following a person’s posts on a forum, you can form a fair idea. If you think that the person adds value and knows what they talk about, calling them out to mentor you can work at times. After all, it is a huge ego boost and who doesn’t like it?

On a more general level you could also research into potential day trading coaches. Instead of blindly falling prey to their sales pitch, you could also research. For example, check out their social median activity.

See what they write about. Have they been in the market for long enough a time? Verify their trading performance to ensure they are legitimate.

The price for hiring a day trading coach can vary based on the type of service that is offered. In many cases, it is quite likely that you will be asked to buy services that you might require in the first place.

Therefore, always make a note of what you expect from a day trading coach and search accordingly.

It is also in your best interests to evaluate the day trading coach initially before committing to a long term plan. Chances are that although the day trading coach is good, they might not suit your personality.

Also keeping an eye out on social media for the mentor you want to hire. This will give you good insight on whether they are influencers.

Watch out for the traps

Now that you know what to look for in your search of a day trading coach, the next step is to watch out for the traps. The Internet is filled with lots of fraud. Given that day trading is such a lucrative industry, it is easy for con artists to lure you.

There are many instances about how day trading systems or trading signals are sold. While there is a lot of hype that forms around these products, sooner or later traders actually end up losing money.

There is nothing surprising of note that greed plays a big role. Sometimes, day traders can get blinded by the lure to get rich that they throw caution to the air.

As a day trader who is serious about trading, perhaps a good starting point is to keep your emotions in check. This is especially true when you are on the lookout for a day trading coach. It is easy to say, but at times it can be difficult to keep your emotions in check.

You can easily fall prey to day trading coaches who convince you how great they are. You might even be shown some trading history that will compel you to at least try them out. But beware of such traps! Sooner than later you will end up parting with your money with nothing to show in return.

When you are searching for a day trading coach, give your research a lot of time. Get to know the person who is offering the service better. Don’t fall prey to the marketing gimmicks and sales pitches.

It is like trading in a way. Being patient and having a watchful eye can go a long way.

Day trading coach – In conclusion

In conclusion of this article, we can summarize the topics that we discussed. For starters, you as a trader need to know whether you really a day trading coach. Perhaps the first step is to begin by evaluating yourself.

Not everyone needs a day trading coach and it is quite possible that you might be one of such traders too. Secondly, evaluate what is going wrong with your trading at the moment.

This can be a great way to start disciplining yourself. Always looking back on your trades to see what went wrong is a great way to learn. There are numerous tools available these days that can help you achieve just that.

Keeping a journal can also help you and in a way prepare you in your search for a day trading coach.

The most important point is that at the end of the day, you as a day trader should help yourself. If you don’t have the will to consistently improve yourself, hiring a day trading coach is a futile experiment.

Therefore, do not fall for the myth that having a day trading coach will immediately improve your trading. At the end of the day, you are your best day trading coach.