Who Should You Really Learn Trading From?

When most people start looking for trading education, they run into a familiar set of characters:

• Former floor traders or old-school market makers

• Brokers who spent years in the financial industry

• Retail traders posting screenshots of big wins

• Career changers who reinvent themselves as trading “mentors” online

At first glance, these sources seem credible. After all, they’ve been in or around the markets. But are they really the best people to learn trading from today? Let’s break down why not.

Floor Traders & Old Market Makers

There’s a certain mystique around the old floor traders — the ones who worked the pits, shouting orders and signaling with their hands. But what were they actually doing?

Most of the time, they weren’t really “trading” in the sense of taking directional risk or running strategies. Their job was to stay in between the bid and the offer, capturing the spread. That kind of trading isn’t accessible to retail traders — it only works if you’re a designated market maker.

And here’s the critical part: that edge is gone. Traditional market making is now fully electronic, controlled by algorithms operating at speeds no human can match. The manual advantages floor traders once had don’t exist anymore, and the lessons from that era don’t transfer to today’s electronic markets.

Brokers

Brokers understand how orders move, how clients behave, and how money flows through the system. But their job has always been about execution and commissions, not about managing risk or building a strategy.

Learning trading from a broker is like learning to cook from a waiter: they know the menu, but they don’t prepare the meal.

Retail Traders Flashing Gains Online

Social media is full of traders posting profit screenshots or YouTube highlight reels. But here’s the catch:

• You’re only seeing the wins (survivorship bias).

• There’s no context on risk or consistency.

• Many make more from selling courses or getting views than from trading itself.

It’s entertainment, not education.

Career-Changers Turned Mentors

Some people reinvent themselves as trading coaches after leaving unrelated careers. While they might be charismatic or good at marketing, they often teach simplified tricks or untested systems.

If a “mentor” isn’t actively trading with a proven, repeatable edge, then they’re really just telling stories — not showing you how to succeed.

The Bottom Line

It’s easy to be impressed by market veterans, flashy profits, or persuasive mentors. But if you want to build real skill in trading, you need education that’s grounded in today’s market structure, risk management, and statistical methods — not nostalgia, hype, or highlight reels.