Look, I’ve taught students from all walks of life. Old, young, analytical, numerate, and qualitative and artistic. Some find it easier than others, but the key commonality between those that succeed is that they have passion and drive for what they’re doing. If you come to the markets and you’re enthusiastic and you’re driven and you’ve got a vision for success and you’re willing to put in the work and energy to learn, and you don’t expect to be millionaire by next week, then yeah, absolutely you can learn to trade. But the people who come and just aren’t willing to really master it, aren’t willing to put in the effort and follow the program and complete it, no, they’re not going to be successful. So, my best advice is don’t be that person.

If you want to learn to trade, if you’ve got a vision for your life, with making money from the stock market and then growing your wealth independent from your job, then learn to do it properly. Commit the time and energy and grow this skill, grow this knowledge and understanding in you, because it’s only by doing that that you’re going to succeed and if you’re not willing to do that, don’t start. Don’t trade. Don’t put any money at risk in the market because if you’re not going to do it properly, you will lose. Because this is a competition. Make no mistake. The financial markets are a competition, and if you come in unprepared, you will lose money. But the great thing is if you have a system, a systematic way of making money, you can succeed. I mean, for the last decade or more, I’ve made money consistently and built financial independence and all of that because I have a set of rules or sets of rules that are profitable and they really work.

So yeah, anyone can learn to trade, but you’ve got to have the passion for it and you’ve got to invest the time. A brain surgeon doesn’t learn to do brain surgery overnight. They spend years studying, and whatever career you’re in, you didn’t learn to do that overnight either. People have this tendency of underestimating how much time it took them to master the things they’re currently doing. I even thought about my career. I was like, you know, it wasn’t that big a deal. But it was. I put in energy and effort and time and I mastered the principles of business strategy and finance and all of that, and it took years until I was successful and started growing my career, and I did the same thing with trading. It took me years.

But the great thing is, if you’ve got a program and a mentor and someone to follow, learning trading doesn’t have to take years. You can do it in a matter of months, but don’t expect to read one book and be a millionaire overnight, because that’s just not the way the markets work. Because it’s competition. You have to prepare yourself. Prepare yourself in my view by understanding your own psychology and your objectives and the lifestyle you want, and learning the principles of profitable trading and trading systems and developing systems that work for you, your personality and lifestyle, and testing them to make sure they’re profitable over time and consistent and give you confidence in them. In following those systems, that’s how you succeed.

So, people come to me and say, “Look, I’ve got $5,000 and I want to learn to trade. Can I quit my job?” I say no you can’t, because you can’t support yourself on a $5,000 account. It’s just not practical. But what you can do is start, and if you got the passion and the drive and a little bit of money to invest, then start. Start going through the program. Learn how to trade, do it properly, and then grow your account by applying discipline and commitment and following the rules, the trading rules that you develop. Do that, and in five or ten years’ time, you won’t even recognize where you are. You’ll turn around and go, “Whoa. That was the best journey ever,” because it was for me. It will be for you too.