Risk management is very important but I don’t include risk management as an important part of a course, because I see that as common sense and mathematics, which I wouldn’t pay a premium to have it bundled in a course. We all know that $200 is greater than $50 and that it would be foolish to risk $200 to earn $50. Risk Management information is readily available for free and isn’t exactly a secret, even if many people fail to practice it effectively due to a lack of self-discipline.
Courses can teach risk management throughout the entire course but if they don’t show you how to confirm your trade setup or show you how to tell when it is the right time to enter, they are putting you at more risk of taking low probability trades and entering trades too early.
Market Structure is probably the most glossed over part of courses that I have seen. Most courses provide a definition of market structure that determines an uptrend, downtrend, and range but fail to elaborate on the market structure rules of engagement.
Price action seems to be treated similar to market structure as more of definitions of candlesticks, candle patterns, and chart patterns, without diving deep into the interpretation and the underlying mechanics of price action.
When I’m paying for something, I don’t like cheap filler. I don’t want to pay for a course that is filled with re-hashed free content or blatantly obvious concepts.
The part that most people overlook is the ability of the teacher to communicate and effectively convey information. Being a good trader doesn’t automatically make for being a good teacher. Some traders kill the market but are unable to form a complete or coherent sentence. Without having formal training as an instructor they are usually not able to adapt their lessons to the variety of learning styles they will encounter. They tend to forget that the information presented doesn’t need to make sense to them, it needs to make sense to the student. I recognize this short coming from being an instructor for the past decade and having to understand andragogy and pedagogy.
These are the 7 importance components that I look for: