A good trading education is hard to find

By Dr. John Keppler
A good trading education is essential for anyone seeking to become a successful trader or active investor. Whether you are an outright beginner, a new trader, or a trader with some experience, choosing the right trading education is an important step on the path to profitable trading. Most profitable traders have, at some point in their careers, had a coach or a mentor to help them succeed.

The only traders who will survive in the market are the ones who invest wisely in their education. Many traders are simply penny wise and dollar foolish in this regard. They try to save money by not spending on education, but continue to trade and lose far more than they would have ever spent on training.

As a professional educator, as well as a trader who has spent a fortune and more than a decade researching and evaluating trading educational programs, I speak from experience and can truly understand the reluctance and apprehension of many traders to spend any of their hard-earned cash on education.

Unfortunately, there are many charlatans in the trading education business — an unbelievable number of so-called trading experts and gurus with no educational background whatsoever. They demand large sums of money for their programs but fail to deliver a solid market education. Many of them simply don’t know how to teach; they don’t understand the most fundamental elements required of an educational program.

To educate someone, you must build a solid foundation of knowledge before you place a structure on it. You cannot teach someone algebra before they have learned how to add and subtract, for example. The reason many of our high school students struggle with math is because there are so few good elementary math teachers. Despite an abundance of teachers with impressive math and science degrees, only a small fraction of them actually know how to teach the subject.

For the complete article, see the October 2010 issue of Active Trader magazine. Click here to subscribe.



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