In a couple of hours I’m leaving for Boston for a one day training session with someone who trains traders in a particular methodology. Before getting interested in this approach some 9 months back I took as my working assumption the idea that all trading coaches were bandits. But this was before I accidentally found out about one of his students’ results…
So why would a trader choose to coach? I’ve sometimes asked myself a similar question with my chess coaching, would I do it if money wasn’t an issue? There are certainly some arguments for doing so, not least of which is the contact with other people. As trading is an even lonelier profession than chess there’s a case for having students for some social interaction and the development of ideas.
Of course it goes without saying that there will be many charlatans in this field plus some other well meaning incompetents. So as the Armenian proverb goes one should measure the cloth seven times before cutting it once.
One way or another, you’ll learn something.
By: rickmatz on June 14, 2009
at 1:07 am
Nigel,
Only one thought about investing. My advice is never to buy anything on faith or margin. Beware those you trust your money with. A fire is not the only way to get burned.
Don
By: kindredspiritks on June 20, 2009
at 5:04 am
Don,
Sage words indeed in days when the likes of Nicola Horlick had some 21 million of her portfolio invested with one Bernie Madoff! I believe that as strong chess players we have some useful perspectives to offer on this and here are a couple of my own:
a) Play the game for yourself rather than selecting a proxy, you’re going to be more motivated.
b) Never play someone else’s moves (or investment strategies) unless you’ve studied them deeply enough to make them your own.
c) Don’t rule out more unusual approaches simply because this doesn’t have the same level of respectability that, say, investing with Bernie Madoff used to have. Indeed originality is going to be a major plus in investment decisions as when everyone agrees that something offers good value, the price is likely to be too high.
Nigel
By: Nigel Davies on June 20, 2009
at 5:29 am