From analyst to senior trader4 stages, the way a trading desk trains.
Private Mentoring takes you through 4 stages, the same way a trading desk brings new people up. Each stage adds one layer: understanding, execution, your own view and then new tools.
Why the stages exist
You don’t learn to trade by jumping straight into trades. A trading desk brings new people up in steps: first they learn how the market works, then they execute under supervision, and only later do they make their own calls.
Private Mentoring follows the same path in 4 clearly defined stages. Each stage builds on the last, and the method stays the same throughout. It goes deeper as you move up.
No trades yet. Learn how economies, central banks and market stories move prices.
Trade the shared weekly outlook with set entry rules. Journal every trade and send it for review.
Build your own outlook from economic data, positioning and sentiment, still plugged into feedback.
Add a day trading strategy, 2 longer-term investment strategies and responsible position sizing.
Stage 1: the Analyst Program
In the first stage you don’t place trades yet. You learn how economies work, how central banks make decisions, and how the stories in the market move prices. The themes are the big ones: interest rate cycles, inflation, the job market and risk sentiment, which is whether traders are feeling brave or nervous.
You also learn to see how currencies move on what the market is pricing in, rather than on what the calendar says alone. The goal is context: to stop seeing charts on their own and start seeing the bigger picture. Without that context, any entry system rests on guesswork, which is why this stage comes first.
Stage 2: the Associate Trader Program
Now you execute, but not blindly. You get a shared weekly outlook, the team’s view on which currencies should rise or fall, with the reasoning and the sentiment view behind it. You place trades that follow it, and you time your entries with the momentum and reversal systems, which give you set rules.
You keep a journal, track your results and send your trades in for review. The point of this stage is to get your execution right before you worry about finding the direction yourself, and to build confidence under real conditions.
Stages 3 and 4: junior and senior trader
In the Junior Trader Program the training wheels come off. You build your own outlook from scratch, combining economic data, how the market is positioned, risk sentiment and the stories developing in the market. You form your own bias and back it with conviction, while you are still plugged into feedback that keeps your thinking sharp.
In the Senior Trader Program your foundation is solid, so you add new tools. A day trading strategy for moves within a single day, in line with your bias. 2 longer-term investment strategies built on macro-driven positions. And how to grow your position size responsibly, including how to manage winners, when to hold longer because your conviction is strong, and how to spot trades where the possible reward is far bigger than the risk.
The direction of travel
Look at the direction across the 4 stages. You go from following a view to building one, from copying setups to filtering them, and from reacting to leading. It is the same method the whole way, used at a deeper level each time.
That is why the rule is simple: get the stage you are in right before you move on. A good view with poor entries still loses money, and bigger positions make every weakness more expensive.
Where you are now
Your work is in analyst territory: the economy, central banks and the stories the market trades. Entries can wait.
Execution is the gap. Follow one outlook with fixed entry rules, and journal and review every trade.
Practise building your own weekly outlook, and compare it with others before you trade it.
In short
- Private Mentoring has 4 stages, modelled on how a trading desk brings people up: analyst, associate trader, junior trader and senior trader.
- You learn the economy before you trade, execute a shared outlook before you build your own, and add new tools only on a solid base.
- The method stays the same and goes deeper at each stage, so get the stage you are in right before you move on.
Key terms
- Central bank
- The institution that sets a country’s key interest rate and controls the money supply, like the Fed, the ECB or the Bank of England.
- Risk-on and risk-off
- Risk-on: investors feel confident and buy stocks and higher-yielding currencies. Risk-off: they get nervous and move into safe havens.
- Positioning
- How traders are already invested. When everyone is on the same side, there is no one left to push price further.
- Trading journal
- A record of every trade with the reason, the numbers and a review. The basis for improving with facts instead of feelings.
- Position size
- How big your trade is. It should follow from how much of the account you are willing to lose and where your stop is.
- Risk to reward
- How much you can win compared with how much you risk. At 1:2 you aim to make 2 for every 1 you risk.