[bobnat]

Just a thought. Mentors are great for shaving off time of the learning curve. If you can find a good one, then it's worth the money. The problem is knowing if they're good or not.

But learning the mechanics of trading really isn't all that difficult. It's time consuming, no doubt, but it's not rocket science.

Once you get the mechanics down, you're then left facing the biggest problem you'll ever have in trading. Yourself and your history. This is the point where you need a true professional that'll return your investment in them in spades.

I'm talking about a shrink. We all have some really deep rooted problems whether we want to admit to it or not. Well, these problems are what can bankrupt you faster than anything, faster than a system in a prolonged drawdown without a proportional decrease in risk.

I can also highly recommend Gary Craig and his EFT system. It's truly amazing and worth the time and effort.
Actually, I recommend doing the EFT stuff first and if you find you've got a deeply rooted, highly intractable problem, then go see a shrink.

You new guys make think I'm off my rocker, but once you've been trading for awhile you'll be amazed at the demons that lurk within. They have a tendency to come out and bitch slap you when you least expect it. They don't give a hoot about your system, your plans, your goals, etc. They're just there to remind you that you're not whole yet, that you've got a whole lot more work to do besides master Fibs and trendlines.

Here's a link to Gary's EFT site.

http://www.emofree.com/default.htm?

Let me give you a very recent example of this. I was down going into October. I had a great month, an incredible month actually. I ended the month up 18%. Then my wife told me she was pregnant. We've been trying for years and now it's finally happened. I was speechless for two days. I'm 46 and not sure if I really wanted this. Then I traded the day after the election. Got stopped out first two trades, then got back in. I got to the point where I was up 2% for the day. I didn't take it. I ended up losing 1% for the day. I didn't trade that Friday.

Then the following Monday I was doing my analysis. I never trade on Mondays, but I always work. Don't ask me why, but I opened a trade. Then another. Got stopped out, no problem. I waited, got my reversal signals and got in. Within an hour I was up 1% for the day. I remember thinking, "You don't even trade on Mondays, get back to even and get out." But did I? No, I lost 8.5% that day. I've never ever come close to losing that much in a week, never mind a day!! I was in shock, totally bewildered over what had just happened.

The next day I told my wife what had happened. Now I have to add that the day of the US election, the gov't here announced the death of Sheikh Zayed, the ruler of the country. The university was shut down and my wife had the next 18 days off from work. I had pulled away from my shock over becoming a father, keeping to myself. She left me alone, knowing I needed time to deal with this.

Well, my trading plan calls for me to shut down trading for two weeks if I lose 10% in a week. I figured 8.5% was close enough considering I did it all in a day, so I shut down. The wife and I then went away for a few days. Over the next two weeks I spent all my time with her and I've come to embrace the fact I'm going to be a father. Now I've regained my balance in my life and it's back to work this week.

It took me a week to figure out that I deliberately sabotaged myself that Monday. My sub-conscious knew I needed to deal with this life changing issue, yet I was trying to ignore it. So I put myself into a situation where I had to take time off from trading. It's amazing when I think about it now. The lesson learned is not to ignore those deep thoughts and feelings and to ensure that your life is always in balance. That day my system never failed me. I did the post-mortem on all my trades a week later. My system made money. It was my mind that lost it.

Just a cautionary tale to remind us all that learning the mechanics is only a small part of trading.

Nat