Skip to content

Guest Post: 21 Ways to Tell You're Dealing with an Amateur

 

1. They refer to the market as “The Forex” (if you do this we beg:  get it out of your vocabulary ASAP)

2. Set up a spreadsheet showing how much money they make if they just pull “only” 5% a day, start planning around it

3. Non-farm payrolls cause hyper-anxiety and visits to live webinars held by people trying to sell them $3,000 products

4. Their 25 over 68 EMA strategy has failed but claim their new Stochastic MACD crossover is a sure-fire winner

5. They think a swap refers to 2 people exchanging trading strategies

6. Their previous 5 $100 expert advisors didn't work out but their new $1,000 one is “going to kill”

7. Their retail broker's website is a “leading source” of market analysis

8. 10 pips of drawdown costs them 65% of their account margin

9. They think they are ready to “go pro” after reading a forum post about market liquidity

10. Quit their jobs with $5,000 of capital in the trading account

11. Think the “Right Hand Side” refers to right-handed dealers

12. Think that market moves against them are all their retail broker's fault

13. “If I put on enough positions, I'm sure to get out of this trade, right?”

14. Proud owners of products that contain the words “Secret” “Fantasy” “Oracle” or any other loose grip catchphrase

15. Brag to their friends about what a killing they made in the market (thinking: “if only it wasn't a demo”)

16. Pass through every indicator on the planet, always thinking “one of these is going to make me a fortune”

17. Think their broker is too nosy for wanting all of their personal info (it's just regulation, people)

18. Pile on positions ahead of a news release because they heard the banks always “line up” because they know the data that's getting released

19. Subscribe to ‘signals' but can't quite understand how the company has done so well in the past but now that they're in….

20. “Macro-what? You no speaka my language.”

21. Subscribe to any website that is run by people who think that a picture of a man in a suit talking on a phone is a “classy” way to sell their message

Thanks: D.P.