Learning to Trade: It Takes Many Impressions to Learn One Lesson
I’m not sure where I first heard the expression: “you have to eat a hero sandwhich one bite at a time”. but the older I get, the more sense it makes. I do know that in order to learn something it’s not enough to hear it, or even hear it then see it, and still not enough to hear it, see it, and then have it demonstrated. You need all those impressions plus doing it yourself, once, twice, thrice….twenty times. Yes, it takes the average person, under normal circumstances, at least twenty impressions to create a lasting memory. When I learned this, from a grade school teacher last year, it was an epiphany. No wonder I kept getting asked the same questions over and over again by clients! The methods I was usng to convey my knowledge and that of my past mentors, was, in the eyes of my clients, one dimensional. I can’t just tell people something once or twice and then expect them to understand it, and execute it.
The implications for our training material — trading courses — for trading-u.com were obvious. It’s not enough to explain overviews, set-ups and triggers, or even demonstate a manual back-test for them, and explain the criteria and resaoning of each decision along the way. Instead we need to include spreadheets of the same back-tests with the same dates and prices and explanations on the spreadsheets so our clients can go back on thier own charts and line up the date and price and see exactly why that closing price was a signal.
Now if we could just teach people to listen…
That’s a whole ‘nother post….
Jay Norris
jnorris@brewerinvestmentgroup.com
www.trading-u.com
DISCLAIMER: Forex (off-exchange foreign currency futures and options or FX) trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for every investor. Risks include the potential that changing political/economic conditions may substantially affect the price/liquidity of a currency. Investors may lose all or more than their original investments.