Interesting article:
Do courses, coaches, trainers, mentors, website owners, and call services just want to take your money? : Sidekicker Trading Blog
Interesting, thanks for posting. Unfortunately I think that this is one of those debates that will come around from time to time and will never lead to a concrete answer. Most areas of life have 'em!
I thought it was interesting to post. Like you say it is debatable as obviously there are some good apples in the basket amongst the many rotten ones. Most people think of the relative worth to themselves rather than how much money the service is making as a total and why they would be doing that.
Quite. The other issue is that generally in life people with a bad opinion of something shout more loudly about it than people with a good opinion - most unhappy customers in a shop will complain, whereas most happy customers won’t express their joy at the good service received - so it becomes increasingly difficult to interpret any internet feedback.
Funny because my impression of people using trading services has been the complete opposite, they shout loudly when it’s good and when it’s bad they think they are doing something wrong or it is impossible and move on.
Point taken, I was thinking more about the training courses, system providers end of things. The internet is littered with person A posting something along the lines of ‘I can buy this system for $x, does it work?’ and then a host of others describing the vendor as a snake oil salesman etc. But yes, I take your point, you’re just being subtler and more specific than I was - apologies for the ambiguity.
Yes i think also people find it is much easier to market than it is to trade.There is website i wont name it but two of the traders proclaim exactly what that article quoted “I love to help people” and one of the traders calls himself “The modern day robinhood” I think what they find there is big money to be made in marketing there sites and creating a e-mail lists to sell with a kickback on hits.When i first got into Forex i inquired into there traderoom never joined it .But i saw that the time he spent on marketing himself and pushing other peoples sites became a full time bussiness he also wised up as time went on asking for membership 12 months in advance.There intentions might be to help you but there success i think is more in marketing than trading?
I’ll make no bones about it, I created my site to raise trading capital, I was virtually penniless and I’d designed my simulator for my own purpose and it worked so the two just went hand in hand, and when I have my first million I’ll be able to sit down and say I started off with nothing, absolutely nothing, and that will be one of the most satisfying moments of my life, and I promise you it’ll be from trading and not from my website.
But what I hate about most ‘courses’ is that they just won’t tell you what they will teach you or what is basis of their methodology, I know of one course which isn’t that cheap that gives you a 14 day money back guarantee, but for those 14 days your only learning the basics, and while you’re waiting for the gem, your 14 days have gone.
It seems there are a few good expensive courses out there I think ST will second that, but you could just as easy get something half decent or a total dud for £2k.
I always give away my strategies for free, freely available here on BabyPips, so you can try before you buy, there are tools and personal mentoring available to help, but you can implement the strategies with what’s on here and I give as much help as I can on here too, no wonder it don’t pay me much 
The thing is with Forex it’s a lot down to you, you can learn to be profitable from free information on the internet, the biggest problem is sorting out the wheat from the chaff, so even if you had a pro trader sitting next to you for a week for £10k it will still be down to you the week after.
Hi PPF - I would second that, yes. I took one of the expensive courses, and consider it comfortably the best financial investment I have made for the open-ended potential it has given me. However, as ever, you make some very good points: it is very difficult to tell before committing the money whether the course will be any good, and also this sort of learning has to suit the individual. Some people like organized, structured ‘classroom style’ learning, others don’t. Some are happy that they will continue to execute the strategy effectively once, as you say, the pro is not sitting next to them, others walk out the door at the end of the course and lose their confidence almost instantly (I have a coach who helps guard against this!). So there is no hard and fast guarantee, like any investment.
My wife and I have been investing in various things over the years, mostly in property, generally profitably but with the odd misstep. We treat it as a business, with the odd deal that does not work out being one of the running costs. Much like losing trades not affecting confidence in the overall profitability of trading. So we sent me on a Forex course as an investment, conscious that there were no guarantees. We went into it prepared for it not to work out, for many reasons - the course might not have been any good, I might have had no natural aptitude, we had no idea. I have no background in finance/trading of any kind, had never even owned a share previously, although my wife’s career is tangentally related.
I agree with your point that it is frustrating that course providers are generally secretive about the content of the course - it made our investment in the training feel much more like a gamble that paid off, to an extent. Although, to be honest, I was such a rookie that even had they outlined in detail ahead of time what methodology etc they would be using, it would have meant little to me!!
You final para says it all, though - even a good course just provides a map, the principal job of work to get something sustainable from it rests with the individual concerned.
Yours is a good story - that first million will, indeed, be a sweet one. As will the second!
ST
And yes, you’re right - the marketing is the easy part. These days it is very easy to produce a smart website and look very slick and polished, without having the product to back it up. I have bought property overseas, I always try to recce the ground before committing any money. Sometimes the photographs, website etc that I have seen ahead of time are a very accurate representation of the situation on the ground, other times they bear no relation. So you are right that marketing is the easy part, but that obviously does not mean that there is never a quality product behind that. There is just an element of luck in, as PPF says, separating the wheat from the chaff.
ST
Thanks for this post! It is an older one but still very relevant! And while the original article is no longer available (?) your comments are gold.
I am looking around for a course - a “next step” after Pipschool. Many of the websites just look dodgy - like infomercial site- or as you mention, they don’t list the topics covered. Some that do list the topics sound exactly like Pipschool! Why is the price leap from the Forex intro courses to the more advanced courses I would consider taking so extreme? from $99-$300 USD to $10,000+!!
I really appreciate your last comment about separating the wheat from the chaff. There is an amazing amount of free information available on the web. Another problem for beginners is also knowing exactly what it is you need to learn… where to start… It takes a lot of motivation, practice, and searching. This forum is an excellent place to be - it’s helping me figure out what I need to learn and the people have directed me to some invaluable information. Keeping the motivation and the direction is the more difficult part.
PPFX - Have you made the first million?
ST and PPFX - Thank you for the insights…
I’ve been involved in business for over 40 years and for over 40 years I’ve listened and watched people trying to find the quickest easiest way to do something and mostly without putting in the work. They want to spend $20 to make 2 million, or they want to lose weight without dieting or exercising and in 30 days. It’s easier to post a question in the forum then to search the question themselves.
Marketing is no easier than trading the forex or anything else worth doing. It’s also just like every other business 80/20, 90/10 or whatever the latest number is betwweeen failure and success. It takes money management, plan, patience, discipline and last of all time. For anyone who thinks all you do is spend $25 to make a website learn some minor search engine and magically you have people flopping to your site and you’ll be making nothing buy money you are as mistaken has the person who buys one of those courses that tell how to take a hundred and turn it into a million in 12 months. Before you can get value from anything, you have to have a basic understanding of whatever you’re trying to accomplish. For example if you went through even half the baby pips school let a lone the entire course you would have enough of an understanding to be able to pick between the courses that are worth it and the ones that are not. You have to break it down. What are you trying to accomplish with the course you’re buying or want to buy. You need to make your plan before you spend. How do you know what course, coach or mentor is good cheap or poor expensive when you don’t have a basic understanding of the subject you’re trying to find out about. Day trading is different than swing or position trading, so if you don’t have atleast an understanding of them how would you be able to choose the best course , coach or mentor to get you the most value.