{"id":6951,"date":"2013-04-02T05:18:41","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T12:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tradingheroes.com\/?p=6951"},"modified":"2025-07-30T00:34:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T07:34:53","slug":"how-to-connect-with-trading-mentors-and-friends-online-via-twitter-facebook-blogs-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tradingheroes.com\/how-to-connect-with-trading-mentors-and-friends-online-via-twitter-facebook-blogs-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Connect With Trading Mentors And Friends Online Via Twitter, Facebook, Blogs And More"},"content":{"rendered":"

I received an email from Bryan last week, asking how to go about connecting with trading mentors and other traders online.\u00a0 Great question!<\/p>\n

So I started typing up a response, but as soon as I finished the first two sentences, I realized that the email would be a really (really) long and I was better off creating a blog post.<\/p>\n

I've actually been thinking of writing this post for awhile now and I'm glad that Bryan provided the encouragement for me to finally do it. \u00a0 In this post, you will learn the ins and outs of connecting with people online and how to use the major social networks to form meaningful relationships to help improve your trading and enrich your life.<\/p>\n

Why You Should Connect<\/h2>\n

\"Bridge<\/p>\n

“No man is an island,
\nEntire of itself.
\nEach is a piece of the continent,
\nA part of the main.”<\/p>\n

– John Donne<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By nature, trading is a very solitary endeavor and it is difficult to find people in your everyday life who are serious about trading.\u00a0 Sure, a lot of people go through their “trading phase” on their way through other opportunities such as no-money-down real estate, network marketing and travel clubs.\u00a0 I call opportunities in which you only care about the money (but do not love), Green Fairies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finding serious traders takes some work, but your trading success depends on it.\u00a0 You might even be able to find a mentor (or two) online.\u00a0 Lynette Allen<\/a> was able to find several people who were willing to help her out and ultimately led to her trading full time.<\/p>\n

Although succeeding on your own can be done, it is significantly more difficult.\u00a0 One example of someone who succeeded without a mentor is Adam Jowett from Australia<\/a>.\u00a0 He mentions in the interview that it would have helped to have a mentor.<\/p>\n

Connecting with other traders not only gives you access to different trading strategies, but it also provides moral support and inspiration, which I believe are more important than any trading system.<\/p>\n

No man is an island.<\/p>\n

Find some of my favorite FX people to follow on Twitter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Overall Principles<\/h2>\n

Somehow people think that online friendships are different from offline friendships because you have never met the person before.\u00a0 It is true that they are different types of friendships, but I feel that online friendships can be just as deep, if not deeper than offline friendships.<\/p>\n

The main reason is that if you connect online, you are communicating with the other person because you have a common interest.\u00a0 In person, you may hang out with someone just because you work with them or you are their neighbor, but not necessarily because you share any interests.<\/p>\n

Through personal experience and from hearing from others who have a lot of online friends, you can become really good friends with a person just through Twitter, for example.\u00a0 And most of the time, you will find that the person is almost exactly the same offline as they are online.<\/p>\n

So value the connections that you make online just as you would any other offline friendship.\u00a0 Treat people online the same way that you would treat them in real life.<\/p>\n

To put it more bluntly…Don't Be A Douchebag (DBAD).<\/p>\n

Twitter<\/h2>\n

Let me start with Twitter because it can be the hardest to grasp if you have never used it before.\u00a0 If you don't get it, don't worry…hardly anyone gets it on the first two tries.\u00a0 It actually took me three tries to finally figure it out.<\/p>\n

But once you understand how it works, I feel that it is the most powerful connection platform in the world.\u00a0 Think of it as online, public text messaging.\u00a0 These text messages are called Tweets and are limited to 140 characters…short and sweet.<\/p>\n

When you follow someone, you see their Tweets in your stream.\u00a0 You can then share their Tweet with the people who follow you, you can reply to their Tweet or you can just read the Tweet and do nothing.<\/p>\n

To get people to follow you, send out Tweets that are useful or funny.\u00a0 If you don't care about having followers, then just follow others.\u00a0 But the more people that follow you, the better.\u00a0 That gives you more opportunities to connect with other traders.<\/p>\n

Even if you are not interested in Twitter, read through this section because a lot of the concepts will be referenced in later sections.\u00a0 That also gives me time to try to convince you to use it.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Why would you want to use Twitter?\u00a0 Two primary reasons…<\/p>\n