The Great Debate now begins!

About 6 years ago, I had a business meeting with a gentleman at his home in a Sydney suburb. We got onto the topic of trading and he took me to his office to show me his bookcase, packed full of folders of the different trading systems he had purchased over the years. He told me he had spent close on $100,000 on these systems and used none of them to actually trade, however he felt that money had been well spent as he had received an amazing education from the content of these systems.

I cannot tell you the number of people I have met since then that have told me very similar stories and they have all spent various sums of money on these trading systems they do not use to live trade with. They have all supported his comments that the education they have received was worth every cent.
Have you purchased a trading system, spent a reasonable sum of money on this and now find it is sitting on your bookshelf like a well earned trophy? If yes, you can see you are certainly not alone.

I am sure you have heard that you should always invest in yourself and become educated in the things you are wanting to do – trading is no different.

Back to my ‘great debate’.

What is the main difference between Trading yourself or enlisting an Auto Trading System?

My answer is quite short and simple really.
I believe the difference is TIME.
How much is your Time worth to you? I know my time seems to be in very short supply and so I feel my time is precious. Do you feel the same?

Back to my ‘great debate’.

I have done the years of education, training, practise – you name it, I have done it. Can I trade myself? Yes, I can and I have. I have learnt about forex trading, commodity trading, trading ETFs and about many different options trades that I can place. I have learnt how to use trading platforms and the different ways each requires me to place the trade. I have learnt how to calculate the risk on a trade and on my account. I have studied extensively to be very aware of how mindset plays a huge part in the success in your trading……. all this education and I have spent years helping and supporting other new traders to learn all this and more.

An old saying pops into mind now – “I wish I knew what I know now many years ago!”

Fact is, we cannot put an ‘old head on young shoulders’, so we need to go through the learning curve to gain the information we need to make informed decisions – educated decisions.

All the learning I have done, all the seminars I have paid to attend and the systems I have purchased have all been worth it. I have been educated by this process and education needs to be paid for. Here’s an example to consider. If I didn’t buy a Trading system I would think the only way to learn to trade would be to read as many books as I could, do as much research online as possible and maybe find some charts to look at on a page something like http://finance.yahoo.com/ or similar such finance sites. Then I would think I would need to search the internet for a platform to place my trades on, then I guess it is trial and error until I got this trading ‘thing’ somewhat correct. I have met a good number of people who gained their trading education in this very method AND they say it cost them dearly, financially, emotionally and in their relationships often.

So where am I at these days? Am I totally turned off trading altogether? No Way!
I do have a different view of it though.

Everything comes at a cost of some sort. You have to decide what cost you are prepared to pay.

To Trade Yourself will take time from your day, time away from your partner, family and friends and time away from doing the things you want to do or really ‘need’ to be doing (like sleeping perhaps!) If you want to do intra-day trading, you are sentencing yourself to late nights and early mornings sitting at your computer, watching and waiting for that elusive signal that says “take this trade.” You can sit there for hours, not able to leave that computer and not see that signal – move away for a while and you may miss that signal.
I met a couple that did this sort of trading. The husband traded from 8pm till midnight, while the wife slept – then they changed places. The wife traded from midnight to 4am while the husband slept. Gosh, that is not my idea of a marriage – well I guess they wouldn’t argue much though. They told me they did make what they considered ‘good money’ from trading this way, but they paid a very high personal price for that result.

What other options are there if I still want to trade?

What about Auto Trading? But wait, don’t you have to pay to be able to have these systems trade for you? Yes you do and again, lets look at the costs. Is your time worth sharing some of the possible profits with an expert who is trading for you? My decision was, “Yes it is!”

I decided it is definitely worth paying for someone who is a trading expert to trade on my behalf. So this is the direction I am now taking. Am I upset at the money I have spent on previous systems? No. To the contrary, I am pleased that I am now educated and I know what these ‘experts’ are talking about. I now understand the ‘language’ used in the trading arena by the people that trade as a way of making their living. These people love trading and they ‘want’ to spend their time trading, so of course, I should pay them for the extra knowledge they have that I don’t have AND I pay them so I can have my time back.

Do I hear a BUT? But, there are so many auto systems – how do I know which one works or will get the returns I am hoping for – how will I know they are a reputable company?
I went through all these questions and more.

My answer – take your time. Do your due diligence. Talk to people, read comments on the internet, watch a system for a time before getting out your wallet to send them your money. Read the fine print. Really, you don’t want to have your money locked away so you can’t get access to it should you need to or just want to. Ask the company questions. You are now educated so ask educated questions about risk management, percentage of your funds that will be in the market at any time and what returns the system might bring to you.
In my mind, if a system is charging a monthly fee, well I think I want to see them make a fair bit more than that fee as a return on my funds so the trading system is paying for itself.
(I do understand that with trading the system is most likely going to have the odd backward month or 2, however I would expect the overall general result to be positive)

Do you agree?

So where to from here? I believe I have found a system that will do just that – more than cover the monthly fees (and start up costs) plus bring me a reasonable return on my funds in my trading account. I have been watching an Auto Trading System for a while now and I have been very pleased with these guys (and gals). They have answered my questions (and I ask a lot of questions) and they have continued to provide good returns. My funds are not locked away and I can cease my account when I choose – just why would I if I am actually making money?

So while they are trading and making money for me…….. I have my time back to do the other things in my life that I want and need to – and yes I can sleep!

What is this system?
Well I am still watching them, so keep tuned to my blog and I give you their details soon. Then, I don’t want you to take my word for anything, I want you to ask your questions, follow them, track their results, read about them……. then you can make your own educated decisions as to whether this is a system you are interested in.