Over the past few months I have had a significant increase of people contacting me inquiring my mentoring services that I offer for trading. Many who have contacted me have very little trading experience. One of the first questions I ask each person is why they want to become a trader. The answer is most always the same with the response, I hear you can make a lot of money trading. This case is true, but most fail to look at the risk involved with the business of trading.

There is substantial risk, especially for people thinking they can become a successful trader in a short period of time. To become a trader takes time, no different than any other profession. In order for one to succeed, it is necessary to get education to save money and time. Whether you are a carpenter, electrician, plumber, lawyer, or a doctor. Any profession you obtain requires hard work and dedication. It was necessary to familiarize your field, and you had to work on developing skills in order in becoming a master at what you researched.

I often wonder why so many people think trading is so easy compared to other professions and careers. Have we been habituated into thinking we dont need to work hard? If you are ever up late in the evening or up very early in the morning watching TV, and surf through the channels, you will see we are in the age of info commercials on television. Selling is an easy fix for everything from easy weight loss, easy work out routines with exercise equipment, building fortunes in real estate with no money down and many other get rich quick schemes.

Even promoting how to trade stocks and the futures markets for a living. All of these advertisings have one main factor in common. They all make everything we want look so easy to acquire. Learning appears effortless. The advertisers all know how to push the hot buttons and make the sale. The majority will find out after they receive these so called great products. These people will learn that the false features that looked so good on TV, are not reality. One must set goals for themselves, and work hard in order to achieve them. The truth is that there are no short cuts in life, and things that we want must be worked for. Money is never made easily.

A process that I use for people who associate with me about my mentoring services is a simple questioning of ones life accomplishments and failures. This method can save them a great deal of time and money. The goal of the exercise to make one think about themselves so they can become a confident trader.

Are you a person that has a list of personal successes in your current profession?
Have you been a person who has always strived to be your best at what you do in everything you attempt in your profession?
Do others in your profession and business community look up to you?
Do you work at completing a job without looking at a clock? If working on projects and things are not working as expected, are you flexible enough to try another angle to get the job done?
In general do you have a positive outlook on life?
Do you have a passion and a burning desire to succeed?
Can you come up with three other reasons outside of making money for a reason you want to become a trader?
Do you have any other income to live on right now?
Are you really able to risk the money you are thinking to trade with and more importantly can you afford to lose it?
Would it change your life style if you lost all the money?
Do you have the support of your spouse if married? The final and two most important questions are, do you believe in yourself? and do you believe you can be successful as a trader if given the proper education?

If you consider these questions, and if you are honest with yourself, you will have a good idea about your choice of pursuing the challenging career of being a professional trader. For most people being honest with oneself can save a lot of money. Trading is one of the hardest professions to master! Therefore, you must master yourself before you can master the markets. Refer back to the September 2003 issue for a look at the article titled Are you the 1 out of 10 Trading in the zone