#trading2 – More training, TheTradingCafe, diving in….

I purposely left my other post up because it’s still a big part of my journey. I started with Anna Coulling’s teaching and VPA, which I will certainly come back to at some point, or at least incorporate into my new course/modules I am currently working through.

I stumbled across TheTradingCafe a few years ago. At the time, I was just beginning to invest and didn’t think of looking elsewhere for guidance. However, I ended up returning to it, and I’m glad I did. It’s not that it’s ‘better’ than what I was doing, but it simply included a few more basics that I felt I was missing.

I am just a normal guy; I work in IT and have done for a long time, and I have an interest in trading. I have no real trading experience. I’m not a social media influencer selling rubbish; I’m just an ordinary person. Well… that’s what my wife thinks anyway!

To begin, the community is free to join, and the wealth of content inside it is enough to give you a solid introduction to trading in general, even down to the TradingView platform, which over time, you will wonder how you managed without!

The platform boasts a structured learning environment and community feel, which is perfect for getting a grounding. You can not only interact with other students but also receive feedback on what you’re doing (to an extent).

TheTradingCafe offers a few additional paid courses in addition to the free ones. I will cover more on them in a bit, but for now, out of the box, this is what you get just for joining the platform, for free:

It’s enough to get to grips with the software, have a basic understanding of some strategies, and a feel for what you need to start doing to enter this world, which, going back to the start of this, is what I was missing.

On the community’s sidelines, they offer a PDF costing around £10, Six Figures From Scratch (note, you get this if you join the QuickWin anyway, so if you’re planning to join as I did, don’t pay for it twice!), and you also receive some bonus material. This provides you with in-text versions of some of the strategies discussed within the community. One thing I will point out is that trading is an art, not a science, something I am really starting to understand. You can have all the guides in the world, but unless you also have a basic understanding of psychology, your mental state under pressure, or money management, you will fail… all covered in these texts.

They go on about this quite a bit in the cafe, and it took me a while to understand why. Trading is all about risk management; not only are you trying to take money out of the market, but you’re also trying to manage your own fears about losing it, making more, and dealing with the greed factor – plenty to contend with throughout your own journey. It’s where this platform offers you more to work with.

The CEO of the platform is basically a guidance coach, not just with trading but in life. He helps you understand on a very simplified level how to manage the markets, how to manage yourself and your money alongside it, because that’s what it’s all about overall, money management.

Once you have joined and had a good explore, you will eventually be offered to join the paid programmes. There are two: QuickWin and Legacy. I’ll try to give a brief overview of what they both are at a high level. Just a quick tip: they get thousands of scammers, algo bots, and general bots trying to join every day to promote some auto-win tools. So, when you apply, make sure you are honest and open in your responses. I’ve seen people get annoyed or frustrated when their accounts are removed for using poor language or sounding like a bot. Take your time to get in, be helpful, and stay genuine!

Quick Win Programme:

What the quick win is a teaser, if you like; it gives you partial access to enhanced courses on the platform, above the free ones you get just for joining. As I mentioned, the initial free courses might be just what you’re looking for, and then you can continue. However, the extended videos and content provide that little extra structure and also prevent you from getting bored while doing it!

The two main things you gain from the QW programme are…

1. Projects – When I am learning something, the best way to retain the information is to try it out. It’s one of the biggest mistakes I made in my early trading days. It’s easy to read something and then move on and skip it, but unless you actually apply it, you will forget it. What they do is provide you with a structured Learn and Do approach, and your assigned advisor will keep giving you boosts along the way, which is nice but not necessary. What’s valuable is the other students in the programme who can review your work, offer guidance and feedback, and also benefit from yours. You can really make a difference by looking at others’ work and offering feedback as well.
   
   
2. Advisor – It’s good to have a contact, someone to turn to if you need guidance. The bits you learn will no doubt cause confusion and questions, but the advisors are there not only to help steer you in the right direction, but they will also tell you where to submit your questions to the traders you are learning from. Yes, you actually get feedback if you ask the right way… it’s not instant, but every day you have access to live sessions and the chance to note down your questions. If you miss the session, you can just watch it back when it’s convenient for you.
   

Here’s some snippits of my submitted projects just as a taster how it works:

If you’re thinking about diving into the QW programme anyway, you can access it here. It will give you all the information you need to get stuck in, and it’s well worth the gamble, especially if you’ve been throwing money at freebies that haven’t been rewarding or some crazy free algo bot promising returns.

Don’t do it, go back to the basics and find a proper structure.

Legacy Programme:

This is the upsell. So far, you’ve already completed the free courses and the QuickWin programme, but the Legacy is your cemented journey for trading. It’s the next step after you have finished the QW, but you need to be invited to access it. I’m sure they will try to offer it to anyone they can, and who can blame them? It’s a business after all, and people need to be paid.

The idea is that there are dedicated resources that students can speak to over Zoom at certain points; they can’t just open it up fully, so you can understand why they do it. Currently, they have around 1000 students on the platform. Considering there are about 80,000 in the free café, you can see how it’s limited and why.

What you will find when doing the previous modules in the QuickWin is to favour a favourite style that you enjoy. Some of them work for some people and not for others, and each strategy has its own way of functioning. I like this because I did favour one over the others, which some others didn’t, and to me, that is the beauty. Even taking bits from other modules can be applied in some of the other strategies as well.

So, what this one offers is an extension on the modules you learn in the QW. It starts to go more in-depth on the strategies you learn from all of the above, plus more. It opens up that interaction directly with the teachers as well, and this is the benefit. You will soon start to see the returns from what you learn, and it’s a no-brainer to continue it. We get extra confluence videos on what you’re learning, how to expand that knowledge further, and it also provides you with that extra structure. You also get the updates to courses instantly and anything else they add…

NOTE: They have just released their first AI knowledgebase bot, which Legacy students can use to get quicker responses to questions. It has collated all previous transcripts from questions and answers and integrated them into the responses. It’s just a faster way to allow students to get answers to questions on strategies that have already been addressed… so things like that are great.

Wrapup:

As you can see, I have gone on a bit and still kept this at a high level. There is much more I could elaborate on, but my plan is to use the blog as my personal diary and document how this will unfold. I’m ready to fully commit to this and essentially retire from working in IT. (I’m in my 40s and ready to move on; I’ve been doing it for 25 years.) Trading will enable me to do that, and this place has given me the motivation.

Loads of text, screenshots and musings, but have a look at it. As I said, it’s free to start with and there is really nothing to lose by getting on their platform and seeing what it’s all about.

I’ll start to go through the strategies themselves, what they are about and some of the bits I am working on as well, just to give you a real-world taste of what’s possible. Also, if you need any help, just pop me an email at the top of the blog, and I’ll happily respond when I can.

• The Trading Dad