The trader’s goal is to “last”

Joe Ross has surely seen more than I have on the markets.

His fame and his mature age make him one of the best known traders in the world.

The other day I was surfing on Facebook, I was looking for some well-known name

in the trading world, and you know what? Joe Ross is on Facebook.

What do I do?

I send him a Friend request.

The next day I receive his confirmation: I am a friend of Joe Ross on Facebook!

But that’s another story. What I want to tell you here is a phrase that a trader told

me some days ago: “the trader's goal is to last”.

This trader did courses with me and then after 3 years of study finally started

operating with real money.

In 3 years he had not even opened an account.

He studied all sorts of books and collected all the information he could find on the

web.

I remember the hours spent coaching him, discussing all the details of optionstrategies

and even the most useless and hidden curiosities of trading.

I sincerely thought that for him trading was a fascinating subject to study with an

academic approach.

Even if rare, his was not the first case I saw of a person who, after having attended

a course and traded virtually, did not start operating in real money after having

passed the critical limit of 6 months. By this time more or less everyone starts

trading, even the most risk averse, with the desire of challenging their own goals.

Well this person, who is now a friend of mine, comes into my office for a talk, after I

had not heard from him for a while,.

We meet and we discuss the latest trading news and what do I find out?

He started trading.

With an account of $100, you will think.

Absolutely not.

His first account was $100.000 and his profit in the first 3 months $30.000.

I have always told people to start trading virtually, with paper money, and then to

open a small account and then, goal by goal, to increase the managed amount.

In any case, starting is very important, once you feel ready, to get a feeling for the

market.

He did virtual trading for more than 2 years, he carefully consolidated his knowledge

and he started without losing 1 dollar.

His first quarter has been a very good one for a beginner, not only because he has

proved that he can manage risk emotionally, but also by because he has gone on

the market with a such a significant amount of money for his first options account.

I strongly recommend not opening such a big account, during the first few months of

operations, but his story has been a lesson for me.

Just thinking of the number of books about trading he suggested I read, in only one

evening, his study time has not been too long or too short.

I also told him I would read them but I do not think he believed me, as I did not write

down one title or author he told me about.

This has been a period for him when he gained awareness of the risk and he

worked out his identity as a trader.

The job was so well done that when he started, he started with the confidence that

only a trader with at least 1 year’s experience on the markets could have had.

When you work with different people, you understand that what you can teach them

is simply the beginning.

After a while, you will definitely learn far more from each of them.

Posted in: