PROS & CONS OF TRADING COMMUNITIES
Quick disclaimer: opinions expressed in this post are my own, you don’t have to agree with them.
It’s been weeks since I have written anything on the blog and today I wanted to discuss something that I really care about: trading communities. What are the pros & cons in joining them and my personal experience in all these years.
2022 is my fifth year I’m into trading, even though the first year I was just trying to gather data/knowledge on YouTube and basically gambling with crypto projects. Anyway, ever since there’s always been a common denominator in my journey: trading communities (or groups). I tried every type of them: good old forums, Telegram chats, Slack rooms, Discord servers and even Reddit pages – some with thousands of users and some with less than a dozen. And honestly: some of them may be crap – but I can’t say I haven’t learned something from every single stage of my journey.
PROS
TO LEARN NEW TRADING STRATEGIES
This is the first reason why anyone would join a community. Free or paid doesn’t change the scope, but in your development process as a trader you want to explore and absorb all kinds of trading strategies that you will encounter until finally you find something that resonates with your skills and personality.
I’ve been in several paid groups and mentorships and I can assure you that all the money I throw in education was well spent. If you are serious about your trading game and want to build a career out of it, then I think that paying for tuition it’s the minimum you can do to progress. Personally I can’t think of any other job or career where you need to invest in education before becoming successful. Just make sure the “mentors” you decide to pay have some credibility: like a track record, payouts statements or similar rewards. There are a lot of scammers out there and so many fake gurus that are possibly even detrimental for your progression.
COMPANIONSHIP
Trading it’s a solo game. Even if you’re doing it on a trading desk beside other people, ultimately the decisions are made by yourself. It might be harsh: but that’s the truth. It’s you against the market (or yourself to be more precise). So being surrounded (virtually or physically) by other traders can help a lot. When you network with traders who have similar levels of motivation, commitment and ability as well as compatible trading style in the markets you can establish the framework in which learning follows from shared ideas and experiences.
How many times have you heard that patience is key and you need to wait for the perfect setup before taking any trades? Well, imo I’d rather wait while discussing ideas with other traders than watching YouTube nonsense or getting distracted by something else.
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
After you become somehow more “experienced” and you finally find what works for you (in terms of strategies and instruments), it’s always nice to hear and read what other traders see in price action. You can be the most focused trader in the world but I’m pretty sure that you’re gonna miss out on something at some point. Maybe a HTF candle close or some incoming news that you forgot to check, etc. Being surrounded by people means more awareness. That’s just nature: like wolves in a pack. Strength in numbers.
INSPIRATION
Along my journey I had the luck to encounter many skilled and experienced traders that shared their stories with me and that opened my mind so much to the difficulties of the process as well as the rewards. Almost anyone that begins to trade thinks in terms of Lambos and paradise islands. But we all know after some time that is far from the truth.
I remember listening to Mayne and his years of struggle how much it helped me in putting things in perspective for the future. He’s been the first person that introduced me to Smart Money Concepts and it’s thanks to him that I discovered ICT and joined his mentorship. Another person who helped immensely it’s CoinTrader96. We pretty much started the journey at the same time if I recall correctly, but the guy’s always been a step ahead of me in terms of execution and seeing him legitimately achieving 4-5 figs daily PnL has been a blessing of what’s possible in this game. Inspirational indeed.
Btw, I met both guys irl and they’re exquisite people. I can say we’re friends now and that’s another perk from my trading career, meeting new interesting people that may become your friends someday.
CONS
COSTS
I know I said in my 1st point that tuition costs are justified but I’m well aware that many people can’t afford the monthly fee of paid groups or mentorships. Someone has responsibilities (like family to take care of, or uni bills) and someone may be from an undeveloped country where 100$ a month is a lot x a group fee. Well, there’s good news for you: you don’t need to pay in order to get into a community. There’s enough free material online to learn and to build a profitable strategy. I remember the first times I posted my charts on Twitter and got DMs about people inviting me in their groups. Yes, it’s that easy when you share valuable ideas.
If you trade FOREX like I do, there are at least a few dozen Telegram channels of people (like me) posting for free their analysis and trades. If you’re willing to put in the work: save their charts, study them, reverse engineer their tech and you got all the intel you need.
DISTRACTION
Sometimes groups can be distracting. Especially the ones with too many members where many people try to lead or show off how good they’re. I’ve been in awful groups where I had to mute entire sections to not read the bs some kids were saying – not only about price action but risk management, PnL and double digits daily Rs, lol. This kind of behavior can be damaging especially for novice traders that believe in everything they read. This extract below from Brain Hacks For Traders (awesome and simple book to read btw) is a correct description of the issue as well as possible solution.
OUTSOURCING BIAS
This point is super tricky. Because I know I said I like to read other people’s perspective in price action but I’m not gonna lie: many times I removed a trade because some trader I respect saw things differently than me (eg: long instead of short), just to see the trade bang few mins later. Or maybe copying someone’s setup, taking a loss and then blaming him/her for the bad read. This is so common and normal. It’s just part of the game. With experience you should be able to detach yourself from other traders’ views and ultimately execute on your own ideas. Take responsibility for your actions. It’s a solo game (as we said).
CONCLUSIONS
As everything in life: there are always benefits and disadvantages in trying something new like joining a community. It’s up to us to be able to recognize the true value of something. As per myself: I’m a pretty selective person, I know what I like and I can feel when something is sketchy or legit. My advice is to evaluate everything, weight if pros are bigger than cons then stay or else leave that group and move on. No regrets. In the end this whole trading game it’s really a journey and as every journey there are stages of your personal development.
I founded my own community a while back, called FLØW. It’s a FREE Discord server where I invite traders I respect and have pretty similar styles and techniques to the ones I apply (clean PA no indicators and SMC). We share ideas, resources, setups and some entertaining chat too. If you’re familiar with my strategy after viewing my trades on X or in my Telegram channel then feel free to DM me on Discord and I may grant you access. I don’t allow everyone in, because it’s not a learning group, I want to share my time with like minded traders that have at least some experience and are willing to put in the work to succeed. If you think you have these characteristics then msg me and we’ll discuss.
