SOME FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS -
I have listed some FAQS that I do often get asked usually by the students who are more new to trading.
Q: WHY DO YOU TEACH IF YOU ARE A GOOD TRADER MAKING MONEY?
A: I was taught by other professional traders who I once asked this question to and quickly realized that they actually loved teaching and in doing so has made them an even better trader. Once I started trading I have always found other traders both new and experienced coming to me asking for advice. I thought it was amusing in the beginning that anyone would want my opinion but quickly found that I was actually quite good at giving trading advice to help others get more out of their own trading and was then eventually approached to coach individual traders on a regular basis. I advise all traders to teach what they know once they become competent. All of my students within my training/trading room recognize the great value in passing on what they know and enjoy coaching all the new students that I take on. Pass on your skills whether for money or free and by helping others you also help yourself!
Q: CAN I MAKE LOTS OF MONEY TRADING?
A: I get asked this question a lot and I tell everyone that YES, it’s possible but it would mean taking unnecessary risks. All professional traders know that it takes time to build a trading account and you have to learn to manage your risk correctly. Realistically you can build a decent account over a few years by compounding the % return, whilst risking a very small amount each time. The people who tell you that you can make £££% per month, year etc are not being honest and either do not understand how the financial markets work or are selling a false dream to you. Anyone claiming it’s easy to build a lot of wealth fast should be avoided! There are various ways of further increasing your wealth by using compounding techniques that I do discuss with my students if they wish to make a career out of it by using other peoples funds once they have achieved success in there trading.
Q: I DON'T HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE AT ALL AND AM COMPLETELY NEW TO TRADING, CAN YOU HELP ME?
A: Yes what we teach is for people of all levels and we start from the beginning in order to make sure things are understood correctly. Even a lot of student who have years of experience and are struggling to be consistent with their trading usually have a very bad understanding of how the markets really work so correcting this is vital. I have found that those who are new to trading
generally have no previously badly learned habits that need correcting. Those new to trading generally have a clean foundation to build upon, and from my experience tend to quickly grasp trading concepts much faster. Of course, everyone is an individual and picks things up at different speeds no matter how much or how little they previously knew. I personally love new students as I can take them from knowing very little or absolutely nothing and clearly seeing their skills develop. We all have to start somewhere and where you are right now is the best place to start!
Q: I DON'T HAVE MUCH MONEY TO TRADE WITH, HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?
A: This part should never ever worry you in the beginning as I strongly advise you to not use any real money whilst you are learning. This can be accomplished on a demo account which works exactly the same as a real live account with live prices. This is used for you to get used to the feel of trading and using the skills that I teach whilst protecting you from losing any money. Eventually you can fund a small account of a few hundred pounds/Euros/dollars and start trading very small amounts until you are more confident, comfortable and gain more experience. This is a much better more common sense approach and one that all professional traders would strongly advise.
Q: AM I ABLE TO TRADE WITH A FULL-TIME JOB OR OTHER COMMITMENTS?
A: Yes, absolutely. The markets are 24hours a day and there is always a window of time to trade from. All my students in the past came from all walks of life with some being full time traders to others who already have successful careers and even students. The great thing about what I teach is that it is super flexible and can be used to trade any asset class (stocks, forex, commodities etc), in any market condition and on any time frame although the higher ones are far more reliable, accurate and profitable which I explain in more depth during the workshop training day. A lot of people love to trade end of day charts and check the markets a few times per day which can easily be done around other commitments and is far more suitable for most people, this is what I advise. This is also how the vast majority of professional traders make money in the markets. Very few of them will be glued to a screen all day, and take a more relaxed leisurely approach to trading.
Q: I HAVE HEARD ABOUT TECHNICAL/FUNDAMENTAL ANALYSIS AND ALSO HOW THE NEWS CAN MOVE THE MARKETS. DO YOU TEACH ALL OF THIS?
A: Good question and a subject that I go into much more detail during the workshop. Learning to read Price Action is the ability to be able to clearly “see” what is going on right now in the markets. There is a saying that the “price is the only truth” and that all the decisions that are made are “within the current price”. Myself along with the many pro traders that I work with now and in the past are massive fans of the technical side of reading the markets which is kept very straight forward and is highly accurate. The problem with focusing solely on the fundamentals like the news is that it is highly misleading and good news does not mean price goes up and bad news does not necessarily mean it will go down and therefore tends to influence popular public opinion and give a lot of false signals due to this manipulation. The news never moves price, its peoples reaction to it that does and this can never be accurately assessed before a news release. There are certain fundamental, news events that are taken into account but I am very sensible about this and don’t buy into the rumors. Even some of the top best richest investors in the world don’t pay attention to the news as they know the market is adjusted before the news even comes out. I will explain a very easy approach to this during training.
Q: DO YOU TEACH ABOUT ALL THE VARIOUS INDICATORS, EXPERT ADVISERS OR OFFER ROBOTS?
A: OK, what I am about to say is an extremely important topic that you need to fully understand from the beginning in order to progress as a trader. More and more people are becoming wise to the fact that indicators are unreliable and are of no real help whatsoever. These indicators are lagging which means they are old data and do not provide any solid indication as to what the market is really saying. Ask any pro or experienced trader that is successful in the markets and they will tell you that they are junk and should be avoided at all costs. You can more accurately learn to read the markets and make better decisions with clear charts just showing Price Action Candlesticks. My trading results went through the roof once I stopped using these and my decisions became much more simple, clearer and precise immediately. Robots are another huge waste of money and time and do not work! They can never adapt as the markets are dynamic which means they are changing and need to be approached in such a way that is flexible. These robots can never do this and the people selling them are the worst scammers going. This has to be the biggest well known con and if you look across the internet and do some investigation you will see its common knowledge that you will never be successful using them. Learning to use your own brain to trade the markets is the only way that you will succeed in this business!
Q: WHAT MARKETS DO YOU TRADE?
A: What I teach is very flexible and can be used to trade any market you like although I strongly advise you to trade the currency markets which is also known as Forex, FX, Foreign Exchange. This is a HUGE market where around 5 TRILLION Dollars worth of currency is trader each day, so there is plenty of activity in this market and it offers the very best opportunities of making money with such high liquidity. This is the most popular market and is traded all over the world. This is the market I love and am most passionate about trading along with several commodities like Gold, Silver, and Oil. I do occasionally trade other markets also. The Forex market is the only market that you will ever need. I watch many different pairs/crosses per day. Once you have your charts setup correctly it only takes a few minutes each time to quickly flick through the charts. I teach my students how to easily do this during the training workshop.
Q: HOW MANY STUDENTS DO YOU TAKE ON EACH TIME?
A: We as a team are taking on no more than 1 STUDENT PER MONTH on average, with 2 being the maximum. Some months we take on no students at all. We prefer to keep our trading room not too busy with new traders, also its more manageable for my other important students since they are also involved in the mentoring of the newer additions to the room. Please note, we receive a lot of inquiries every month and are not desperate to take on students. We are not about numbers but more about finding good quality students who have what it takes to learn these valuable price action skills and can benefit from our training/coaching, and also just as importantly, be an asset to our training/trading room where they are able to interact with the others and be a part of a disciplined team of professionals at all trading levels. A fair few of the guys in the trading room have been with me for many years now and enjoy having new students around as it keeps them on their toes so to speak and gives them an opportunity to develop their skills further by advising and mentoring others. This is a win win situation for everyone!
Q: CAN YOU TEACH ME ONLINE ONLY SINCE I LIVE SO FAR AWAY?
A: Yes. In the past as a group we have always taught everyone face to face in person, where I personally invest TWO or more days with the new student. This has been great fun where I have not only helped them develop there trading skills but have also made some great friends. Since 2020 due to the global pandemic we have had a massive request regarding ONLINE coaching due to the travel restrictions most of us were under. Since this time we have given training online successfully and will continue to do so for those that either cannot travel or do not wish to take time away from their homes. For more information please see the ONLINE TRAINING page for further details
Q: DO YOU TRADE/TEACH CRYPTO CURRENCIES? (BITCOIN)
A: This is a question I get asked quite often thanks to all the hype going around regarding people making millions starting with a few £s. IF you have honestly taken a good look at the most hyped cryto currencies you will see that its driven by sentiment only and people have just been buying this up higher and higher. I am not a fan whatsoever of this kind of trading which has no strategy involved as its just a complete gamble to trade in this way. The main assets I trade as said above are currencies, which is the single biggest market and that will not change anytime soon no matter what the hype is regarding crypto currencies. I am open to trading any asset class providing I can make money buying/selling and not just holding on hoping. Boom or Bust! Getting in at the start would have been nice yes but this is not the reality for most and in successful trading we aim to take bites out of the markets in both directions on a consistent basis. If you wish to trade cryto successfully on an exchange you will still need a strategy, one that identifies good entries/exits, sound money/risk management skills and how to build an account consistently and professionally. At smart forex trading we focus on these vitally important parts of trading and treat it exactly like a business and not just a bit of fun! Our training, both the one to one and the ongoing coaching within the trading room alongside the many other past/present students is vital to gaining these skills at a pace that suits the individual. With these skills you can then trade anything that is offered with any broker. Bare in mind currencies are king and gives more than enough opportunities to trade and grow your fund. All of the pros and students around me now will also confidently tell you this.
Q: DO YOU TEACH BINARY OPTIONS?
A: Nope. I most certainly cannot recommend you get involved with this kind of gambling as that is what it amounts to. This is not
something any serious trader does. This does not give you a good mathematical edge due to it being time decay, where you have
a small window of time before the trade expires. This is just like flipping a coin and even if you do actually get the overall direction right in the long term, in the short term it may pull back against you, stopping you out once it expires within minutes. Also from the feedback I have gotten from people who have traded this through the various offshore brokers it has been awful where they have not been able to get their deposits back. This has to be on a par with roulette at a casino. Your odds of making money consistently is low to zero, where the huge edge belongs to the broker (casino). Again, this is NOT a sound way of trading the markets at all and you need to approach this business in the right professional way. What we teach are the necessary skills to be successful long term in this business where we stack the odds of success heavily in our favor!
Q: DO YOU OFFER A SIGNAL/TRADE COPYING SERVICE?
A: OK, there is one thing that you need to fully take on board right now and it will separate you instantly from the masses who
never become professional traders and that is, "You need to learn to rely on your own skills to find and take trades as quickly as possible!" I fully understand when someone is new to trading they do need extra help in finding and understanding how trading setups need to be tackled but our aim is to get the student to stand on their own feet as quickly as possible! The guys who go the signal service route rarely get out of it and never take responsibility for their own actions/trading! "Taking responsibility" is key and it is what we are all about in our trading group and everyone of my students/pros within the training/trading room fully understands this. YES, there are trades being posted up and these can be copied but we make it "Perfectly clear" from the outset that we DO NOT dish out trades to people who are just sitting back idle not getting involved. Everyone within our online training/trading room (after the 2 full days training you will also have full access to this) is motivated, disciplined and contributes to the group in some way. The analogy of "Feeding a man a fish, he eats for a day - Teaching a man to fish, he can feed himself for life" holds true here. There are literally thousand of guys out there across the many forums that are offering these so called signal/trade copying services and I have rarely ever heard of anyone who is consistent with their results where the people following them have constantly lost money. These services are a terrible investment of your time and money and are not the route anyone would go if they are genuinely serious about becoming a consistent winning trader and freeing themselves up from having to "rely" on someone else to feed them. This is possibly the worst situation I can imagine. You need to be in control of your future trading/investing and having a team around you who can get you to this stage as quickly as possible is the only way to go!
Q: WHY IS ONE TO ONE TRAINING THE BEST WAY TO LEARN?
A: OK this is something that should be obvious but after all the years I have been in this business and the countless people I have seen come and go. I have never met anyone who has achieved success teaching themselves. Also the amount of struggling traders I have met who have told me that they have had training with the various commercially run forex/trading courses where they are in a group with other students and have learned very little real workable tools to help them with their trading. Trading is a skill that needs to be taken seriously and everyone takes things in at a different pace. In person One to One is the only real correct way to learn such a technical skill and anything less is a bad investment or your time and money. I am constantly astonished at how very little many of these guys actually know even after taking 3-5 day courses and paying crazy amounts of money doing so. What I can tell them within 1-2 hours is of far more value than what they had learned previously. Another shocker is that most of these people taking up training had never even met with the teachers/coaches running these courses and have never spoken with any of their past/present students who have gone through the training themselves. They just paid all that money upfront without even meeting with anyone and turned up on the day. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard and its disappointing that more and more people out there are continuously falling for this. Firstly there is no substitute for One to One training! Group learning is ineffective and largely a waste of time and money when learning such a skill as trading. Secondly, meet with the guy/s who are going to train you. Speak with them and spend a little time together asking questions. IF training is due to go on for sometime then wouldn't it be nice to get to know them first? Lastly, get an introduction to some of their students. These are the guys you will be involved with if they have an online trading/training room. You can ask them questions about their journey as traders and the education they received. These points should be the normal course of action any serious person would take. No matter who you have training with please bare these in mind. I was coached at some point and all the guys I have around me now, students and pros alike have all had the same training One to One and have allied themselves with others who had the necessary skills to learn from. All of my student are in touch with One another from the beginning. One to One training and ongoing coaching alongside other skilled people is what will accelerate your learning very fast. There is nothing like it and anything less is not worth considering.
Q: DO YOU REALLY OFFER ONGOING TRAINING/COACHING AFTER THE 2 FULL DAYS TRAINING?
A: Yes absolutely. This is a major part of learning to trade and having the ongoing mentoring is vital in order to develop the skills a trader needs. Everyone is different of course and picks things up at differing speeds but all my students around me now past and present agree that having a training/trading room for ongoing coaching and being involved with one another is the best thing they have ever done as traders. All of my students are in touch with one another and are a really great bunch of people who come from all walks of life. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to have trained them and enjoy regular meetups with many of them. We are a little community and no matter where we move to in the world we will always be in touch. Everyone gets on well and all have the same passion about trading. So, don't worry about the ongoing help, as long as you are making a sincere effort to learn this skill then you will get all the help you need.
Q: WHAT SORT OF % PROFITS ARE ATTAINABLE IN FOREX? I'VE SEEN SO MANY COURSES SAYING YOU CAN MAKE 20-30% PER MONTH. WHAT'S YOUR OPINION ON THIS?
A: OK, This is following on from question no'2 regarding what is attainable. This has to be One of the most misunderstood aspects of investing/trading where its easy to become bamboozled, seduced by people touting such incredible returns that mostly sound too good to be true. A lot of courses, investment funds make such claims as a way to attract those that are naive and desperate. They know human nature and how greedy people are who can easily be fooled by such claims.
The truth is those that are touting figures of incomes like 10-25% per month are over inflating their real returns. YES, it is true that you can have a very good month and can attain such figures so there is some truth in it, but those stating such figures are generally gambling, risking too much per trade to attain such percentages, Which is not sustainable over the long run. Eventually having large losses and draw downs.
Some of the best funds, professional traders that I know of are easily gaining 2-5% per month consistently. Some are having months where they are pulling in 10% plus. Aiming for 30-60% per year is very good and more realistic. There are certain compounding techniques that can substantially increase this but realistically if you are exercising good strict money/risk management you will steadily be aiming somewhere between 30-60% and be able to grow your fund over time. Occasionally having a great month will grow your fund much faster but don't rely on it. Trading is about being consistent with your strategy and pulling small percentages out of the markets regularly and growing your fund over time.
The take away from this is, "DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE" Those touting ridiculous figures are either not telling you the real truth or gambling recklessly in which sooner or later they will go bust!
Q: THE FEES THAT YOU CHARGE. ARE THEY GOOD VALUE FOR MONEY AS I HAVE SEEN CHEAPER/MORE EXPENSIVE
COURSES. WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
A: Over the past few years I gotten to hear so many personal stories from inquirers/students regarding there experience of learning to trade which starts with them taking up One of the various courses that are being advertised. The amount of times I have heard someone has paid an astonishing amount of money for training up to and above £10k just for what amounts to 5 days “online” training where they never even spoke/met with the training instructor before hand! I find this to be the most insane thing I have ever heard. Seemingly smart, educated people hand over large amounts of money in advance for something that is online and they ask no questions. The other extreme are those that only pay a few £100 and get pretty much nothing other than a few hours online and no ongoing training and feel hard done by. Sad to say, it appears a lot of those seeking training are seriously lacking in common sense and have not grasped how education truly works!
Most courses today are run by big commercial companies that have a high turn over of students. They offer various paid courses that always lead onto a BIGGER UP-SELL once you have “graduated”. Their quest to get further funds from new traders is ongoing, misleading and even aggressive. These costs range from a few £100 for a small online course to £3-5,000 for a bigger course that either consists of 20 hours online training or a week long class room study alongside 10-20 other students. All these courses have to be paid for in full way before training. Paying on the day you start is not an option for the vast majority as they want to work out there figures ahead of time. You will rarely get a chance to chat/meet with your tutor before training. That is not even an option in many cases. I find it utterly shocking when a student tells me he/she paid 10-20k on a 12 month course that was a few days class room study then online lessons, with further fees if they wish to “meet” with their tutor, all along being pushed to upgrade to a bigger better course. I find it hard to take students seriously once they tell me that and I question their sanity and ability to learn to trade.
My average student who has been looking to learn to trade has usually paid out between 3-5k and had a series of lessons online which amounted to no more than a few webinars and information they could have gained from free YouTube videos. Others have just paid a small amount and done a basic course which was not bad and gave them a taste to take it more seriously. Those were indeed the luckier ones and got away lightly. “Dodged a bullet” as One of my students put it!
For what I charge and offer I know its amazing value. Just you and me, One to One training, in person, shoulder to shoulder, sitting side by side over TWO FULL days (more days if needed at no extra cost) Then a minimum of 6 MONTHS coaching there after in an online training room alongside all my other students, traders. There are no further courses or up sells.. That's it! Some of my students remain as part of my team well beyond 6 months with some who have been with me for several years. This is a pleasure having a team around me of dedicated people who inspire others who are new to trading so I love to keep them around. As a group we also like to chat with and where possible meet with students before training to get to know them a bit better before we take them on. None of the advertised courses will have time to offer this as they simply do not care as they want to get you in the door as fast as possible and out the other end en masse! Also I do not believe in taking full payment upfront before the training day like most of the other online courses but just take a deposit to secure training which can be re arranged if need be.
So all I will say is for anyone out there who only looks at the price of something, please take the time to go and do some thorough research into exactly what you are paying for and what is actually truly being offered. Speak with the tutor/mentor whose is going to be teaching you. Above all, make sure you take your training seriously and always aim to have this in person, One to One with the person who is going to train/coach you! Online should be the absolute last option if for example you are living overseas and are unable to travel.
I know that there are millions more questions that many people could ask but the ones above do seem to be the most common ones. Any further questions that are of concern to yourself, please drop me a line and I will be happy to advise you.
REMEMBER THIS – All the good traders out there had to start somewhere and everyone is different and picks things up at different speeds. I also was once struggling to understand how the markets work and was quite fortunate to be able to get some solid help and advice from people who were prepared to coach and teach me how they did it. I know many never get that opportunity and they just give up eventually. If you really do have the passion and drive to learn this skill and are prepared to put in the time and effort needed then you will achieve this. I can provide the skills and encouragement that you will need but you must provide the passion and desire to succeed.
Please be sure to check out the Training + Coaching Course that I am offering.