Keep It Simple
I think I’m blessed. Well, if I’m not, then I’d have to be realistic and brag about my ability to pick up a book and soak it up like a sponge. But the truth is, I am eternally grateful to the Man for blessing me with this gift of learning. And not just a gift for learning, mind you … but also the ability of applying what I have learned into practice. And then learning from that practice to better the system and find improvements and improvisations. And then writing it all out so that others may understand and re-apply it and then teaching it at a level that all can benefit from.
This was something I took for granted for the longest time. I ignorantly assumed that just about anyone could do this. Until I started teaching. After my first few tutorials in my apartment, I came to the hard realization that not everyone is built the same way. At this point in time, you might be wondering how anyone could be so dumb. Truth is, I was.
I had to simplify what I was teaching. At least I thought that it would solve the problem. And even after that, the problem of having dumbstruck students in my home persisted. Something else was wrong and it would be almost a whole year before I discovered what it was.
The first thing I discovered was that my students could be broken down into three types of people; the kind that will gobble a book and know it all, the kind that only understand illustrations or visual examples and the kind that have to put their hands into the fire to feel the heat. I had to come up with a teaching style that would suit all three types and still be comprehensive.
Coming from the media business, graphics were my strength. So illustrations were not a problem. Writing in simpler terms took a bit of work but I got there non-the-less. The final piece of this solution was to make the lessons more hands-on and practical. Thus, the mechanics of the Tutorial were born.
The second discovery was in my delivery of the lesson. I had been speaking in terms which I could understand and assumed others would not have difficulty understanding. This was until I learned about “chunking down” – the practice of speaking in terms that even a child will comprehend – that I realized that I had been extremely “high chunk” which was why my students were often dumbfounded. The remedy to this discovery is still in progress but I can say that I have made leaps and bounds in getting down on my chunks. More interactive and experiential learning systems were put into my tutorial to ensure that the students were given ample opportunity to sound off their queries should they get stumped again. This style of learning helps students process information faster and more efficiently.
The third and final discovery was the time in which students needed to process all the information, practice what they learned and understand their purpose. For this, keeping it simple, sticking only to basic and making the lessons more hands-on than academic proved to be a winner. And to aid the students in their learning curve, they were given a week between lessons to complete certain assignments, practice and compare notes with their class mates. Communication became a crucial factor so I made myself available should questions arise during the week. Through the use of on-line forums, email and discussion groups, information was easily and quickly disseminated to give the students uninterrupted progression instead of having to wait a week for their answers. Students were also encouraged to address their class mates’ questions if they knew the answer – a good way to improve on their learning, simply by challenging themselves to teach.
Getting back to simplifying the lessons …
I soon made the biggest discovery of why my students loved what and how I taught. By going back to basics, I was about the only person around who was teaching from the very ground up. Where most seminars claim to be able to accommodate absolute beginners, they actually move very quickly into strategies without completely covering all the basics. Graduates of such seminars often become “stock-centric” or strategy based in their trading mentality. Nothing wrong in that unless you consider that the stock does not make the market and that the market will move the stock!
Strategy based traders then become reliant on certain market conditions or certain stock behaviors in order to get profitable trades. Nothing wrong in that unless you consider that the market and the stocks in it are so dynamic that no handful of strategies are going to cover all the dynamic conditions the market will throw at you. And it surely will.
In a nutshell, having a handful of strategies to take on the market would be akin to having only an M16, a few grenades and maybe an anti-tank weapon to go fight a war; what kind of war? what kind of terrain? how many enemies? what armament do they posses? are they logistically prepared?
To trade with strategies, you need the whole army, all the weapons, ammunition, supplies and intelligence that you can lay your hands on. Using the wrong strategy or a limited knowledge of strategies is no different from using the wrong weapon to engage the enemy – like ramming a square peg into a round whole.
Thus, by teaching basics and getting my students to understand the business of the financial markets, it made it very easy for me to teach how each instrument works and when to maximize the effectiveness of each instrument, be it forex, futures, equities or options. Think of it as having a backbone before putting on the organs and muscles and flesh – no backbone, no life.
Then came the question that wanna-be students ask, “which instrument is the easiest to learn?”
I do trade forex along with equities and futures. Thus to tell you that one is easier to learn or do than the other, would be depriving you of an honest view of what you should learn. What I can say is that it is very necessary to learn about the markets, all its instruments and securities. Its only then that you will find the instrument that you will be comfortable with and trade it efficiently.
This predicament is not unique and the reason so many people get killed in this business is because of the education system available here. Many jump into what they believe is something they will be able to do; like forex, because its “easier” … or Options, because its more “suitable”. Its only upon getting killed that they realize that they didn’t know enough even after being “educated”.
Trading is never only about the system, the technique, the security or the instrument. Its about knowing what you’re doing in the environment in which you are doing it. To say otherwise would be ignorant and you will surely fail in this business.
“Know the enemy, know yourself; your victory will never be endangered.
Know the ground, understand its nature; your victory will then be total.” -Sun Tzu
Learn the business first then pick the instrument. Never limit yourself by believing that this or that instrument is better or easier or quicker to learn. Learn everything and then pick what best suits you.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to visit Pattern Trader Tools, leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.