Why I’m Avoiding Stock Trading Gurus as a Beginner Trader

Fake Trading Gurus are Everywhere

After creating this website, it didn’t take me long to discover the trading bros and trading gurus on YouTube and Instagram.

These are generally younger men claiming to have achieved astounding returns on the stock market. Most of these gurus copy and paste each other’s cookie cutter content to attract the attention of novice traders who are looking to learn quickly. Unfortunately, many of these gurus sell courses and products to naive people with get-rich-quick promises.

Having a YouTube channel myself with over 100,000 subscribers, I’m familiar with the way people use YouTube to sell products and services. Unfortunately, I’m also aware of how people use social media dishonestly to pretend to be something they are not, and how convincing a large audience you are something you are not can be extremely profitable!

The Fake Gurus are Being Exposed

Thankfully, a number of channels and websites have popped up to expose these fake gurus. YouTube channels like “Imanidiot Trading” pick apart these frauds piece by piece, uncovering their lies, showing the inconsistencies in their stories, and exposing their misleading behavior.

After only a short investigation, it is difficult to discover that many of the largest “trading influencers” aren’t actually profitable traders, but rather scumbags who are getting rich selling courses to new traders they dupe into believing they know what they’re talking about.

Pushing Through the Noise to My Own Strategy

As someone who is just beginning to take trading seriously, I found I was a bit overwhelmed by all the noise. It’s hard to know who I can trust and who is legitimate.

As a result, I’ve decided to avoid stock trading influencers altogether. I’m going to be patient and diligent enough to form my own opinions about the market, rather than chasing the trend lines, moving averages, and candlesticks of the gurus.

Instead of buying a course that covers options, shorts, day-trading, swing-trading, dividends, and how to get funded, I’m just going to trade regular old stocks from well known companies with my own money.

Every guru wants to convince me that I need to dive in to every market strategy and that I need their course to enlighten me, but I think I’ll reject their suggestions. I think I’ll start off simple, build a strong foundation of knowledge around the basics, and then move my way up from there.