Why You Can’t Learn to Trade With an Online Course

Photo by Kind and Curious on Unsplash

The internet is chock-a-block with information about trading. There are videos, articles, free courses, paid courses, communities and various other resources. You could say, there’s everything a budding trader could possibly need.

In that case, why do so many traders continue to fail?

Of course, we could put it down to personal factors. The old maxim about trading success being “80% psychological and 20% skill” is an easy excuse. But I believe the problem is much more fundamental and applies to learning any complex skill online.

The problem with online learning

The e-learning market surpassed $250 billion in 2020, according to Global Market Insights. More people each year are turning to the internet to learn new skills. Trading is no different.

At The Duomo Initiative, we used to offer an online course for people learning to trade. Then, a few years ago, we discovered that a course alone was just not enough. There was an important missing piece…

Feedback.

Feedback is an absolutely critical part of learning a skill. Not only does it play a major role in deliberate practice, but it also helps inform learners of the direction they need to go in.

However, this presents a challenge for an online learning environment.

When a trader learns by taking a course, they reach a point where they know all the concepts and techniques but remain stuck at a plateau. They know something is not working for them, but they have no way of knowing what needs to be fixed.

We solved this issue for our members a few years ago by creating a community. Traders could now push past plateaus by having a member of our team look at their work and tell them what they need to do to improve. This has worked incredibly well as it allows traders to learn with a more one-to-one tailored approach, rather than ‘one size fits all’.

Unfortunately, the problem doesn’t end there.

We have a small team and a relatively small community, so at the moment we’re stretched but coping. In future, we will start to experience some growing pains, as the needs of our…