Trading Courses

Beginner Questions
1

Hi all,

First off, I’m not sure that there’s a way I can ask this question without getting people’s backs up. It is honestly not my intention, I’m an simply an amateur trader who genuinely enjoys learning new skills, and I am excited to have potentially found an alternative method of earning to help futureproof myself and my family.

I’m prepared to put in whatever time, effort and dedication it takes, but I feel in a bit of a catch 22 of not knowing what I don’t know. For this reason, I’ve been considering investing in an online course for a while now, but there is one question that puts doubt in my mind…

Why do traders who profess to have such valuable knowledge and to have attained so much personal success from said knowledge, put in the effort to write these “comprehensive” courses and charge what is probably pocket money in relative terms for this information?

I could completely understand giving the information out for free to simply help others, and I could equally understand seeking to make a decent amount of money from selling courses in place of trading. But if there is the possibility for a practically infinite amount of wealth from their skill/knowledge, why take the time to promote selling a course in addition?

Don’t get me wrong, it does make sense from a business perspective to have multiple sources of income but there’s just something that makes me skeptical, and I’m asking the question to gain alternative perspectives so I can do my best to ensure I invest my money wisely in something that will actually be beneficial.

I hope no one takes this as bashing people who sell courses, I have no doubt that there are legitimate mentors out there, but in 2020 there are also likely to be a lot of cowboys too and it’s sad that these need to be weeded out.

Thank you

2 Likes
2

Legitimate mentors are very few.
Books are much cheaper than courses, so invest 100-300 on books, book writers are more credible than course sellers and coaches.
A good course for algorithmic trading is the one from Kevin Davey, a true trader and trading champion.

3

Learning takes time. Mentors, the good ones, have already been through many of those issues. They’ve already paid for that experience, in time and money and blown accounts. Guys and gals who watched the markets for 10 or 20 years will know their way around. They’ll know what to look in charts and news and data releases.

And just maybe, it’s easier to get paid selling to 100 or 1000 people at once on foundations courses or a single strategy or way of trading, rather than sitting in front of charts all day, for weeks and months, to earn X%.

There’s got to be money in it.

4

Books are very inmportant

1 Like
5

if books or videos content were enough we wouldn’t need teachers to teach us how to drive. While good teachers are few and good content is a rare as gold in a sea of repeated information for trading, it’s not easy to find that gold in both book or teacher form. Only 2 books I require my students to read that is The Disciplined Trader and Master The Markets both free ebooks.

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7

@pkitten

I think your question is a valid one. I have asked myself the same many times. And there have been multiple threads on here about this many times too.

There appears to be scepticism when it comes to course providers. I think there are some very legitimate concerns at the legitimacy of some of them.

I have heard of many that, while not exactly a con, a far from perfect.

It does appear to be true that there are those who cannot trade their way out of paper bag, and so turn to courses or system vendoring to make a living - possibly a great living.

But I’m going to play devil’s advocate here.

I think many are selling courses because they simply love the markets. And, once you have a certain level of financial success, it’s not about you so much anymore as helping others.

Granted, some charge an arm and a leg but there is nothing wrong with charging a fee for knowledge that was hard-earned.

As consumers, we tend to only value things of high value, so if these courses were given away maybe the student would not value it and appreciate what is being taught.

Then there is the other fact, that may be the course seller is doing it for their only personal growth reasons. They say you only truly learn when you teach someone else.

Maybe these guys have mastered trading, but now want to master the coaching side of the business.

I do agree, that in this internet age of instant streaming access, forex affiliate type programs, and with many people just desperate to make ends meet it is the perfect scenario for hucksters and charlatans,

But it is not always the case, from what I am told there are some truly great teachers out there,

I myself, have my own trading blog, where I try (and probably fail) to help beginners with their trading. To be honest I did it more for me than them though.

I have a lot of time on my hands these days, and I don’t feel I need to learn much more about trading per se. But I have many non-trading goals, one of which was to always run my own blog - but not being very knowledgeable about much else outside of trading, writing about it seemed a no brainer.

I guess a similar thing could be said for many of these course vendors - they just want something new to do.

In closing, just as one final plug for my blog, I did recently write this post if you’re interested.

2 Likes
8

@eclipz3

I looked over your site seems interesting.

I just wanted to ask - and don’t feel offended here

How do you justify the price of your course?

It is most definitely out of the price range of most on here.

Like I said, not being funny just want to know what exactly is unique - you do seem to have an approach different from the generic nonsense out there.

Is it a class room environment, are you charging so much to get rid of many of the time wasters?

Is it aimed for those already in the industry?

Just genuinely intrigued.

9

First off, not offended, in-fact i am glad you asked!

The course was created for those that can’t for whatever reason take the mentorship or if I get too busy or stop. Which is always 1 on 1. Each 1 hour mentorship is $200 USD per hour. And it takes about 8-10 sessions to get a full and good understanding of SMA. So students end up paying the same $2000 USD but just from $200 at a time per session. It’s also a extra tool for qualified students as I give the course for free after 8 sessions. $2000 is the average size of account that you blown-up anyways.

The price of the course was actually chosen not by me but the students who took the mentorship and reviewed the course as it was created later on. Sure you could find a basic general course for couple hundred or less. But a good course will cost you about $2000-$5000 or more, the price charge is the lower end of the higher quality courses even though our content students say is superior to almost everything else out there, because it is so different and is based on critical thinking maybe? Trading has been purposely over-complicated.

Plus to top it off we actually guarantee which nobody really does either but I know people are blown away by what we teach and they haven’t found it anywhere else. VSA alone is a lost-art and we are an evolution of that. There is nobody else who teaches our content because it is our own creation/innovation, that is why I decided to teach in the first place. Also its more than another course, it’s the solution to go to after you have tried everything else and still are losing. The final stop. SMA is like a specialist that walks into a trading business and fixes what is broken or adds the missing pieces. What is the value of increasing a business profitability by 38%? 200%? 800%?

What is unique is we specialize in reading the Smart-Money, only 2% of traders do that and most not well. We don’t follow even support or resistance traditionally or fundamentals, we look at where big players get in and out and use their playbook to our advantage, we have specialized in that since 2009 in Forex.

Yes we haven’t had a refund request in the last 10 years for mentorship. Our prices do give us better quality clients, serious learners. And with our guarantee, we don’t want to get taken advantage of either. We have found it easier to train brand new traders than existing ones because they don’t have to unlearn anything or haven’t yet developed damaged psychology from losing that is difficult to break out from.

Hope this answers a few of your questions.

10

This is my view, I’ve only ever purchased one course cost me £200, it was by a well known advocate on trading and was based on trading trends.
Not saying it was a waste of money, however the binder was glossy, the information inside was ok, a couple of tips on how to trade SMA’s.
To be honest I could have found much more from purchasing a few books at a lot less cost, going on the internet and gathering free information.
And the purpose of the “course” to get me to spend around £145 a month on his “tipping” service.
My feelings if your successful and earning a living from trading, and I mean a living, then why are you selling courses why not share your knowledge and expertise free, or a nominal sum to cover expenses, but that’s my opinion.

1 Like
11

EXACT! :smiley:

If I have to spend a significant amount of money I want the proof that you have a strategy that really works, not just repeating me some basics that i can find for free.

2 Likes
12

It is extremely important for the trader to understand that training is worth it in any case. These are experience, knowledge and skills. And this is not superfluous.

13

Thanks for sharing!