why are there so called paid forex education on the net? can i follow any of them? do you have any recommendations, guys? where should i start?
Why are there pay courses/education for forex? Because “there is gold in them thar hills!” On another thread a poster noted that one system (not education) was selling for $1,000 and there was a supposed cap on the system of only offering 750 of these get rich quick packages. Well, my math may be wrong but 750 X $1,000 = $750,000.
Not a bad living.
As far as actual education and “legitimate” courses, I have often seen enrollments going for $4,000. In a world of billions of people it is not that hard to entice 1,000 people to take a chance if one is good enough at marketing. 1,000 X $4,000 = More Than My Brain Can Begin To Comprehend.
Funny thing is, I have never seen or heard of anything in any course that is not available for free. So, you must ask yourself, is the instructor, mentor, guru or whatever REALLY so kind and generous that he is taking time away from his profitable methods of trading to teach others out of the kindness of his heart (for a modest fee to cover his time and expenses, of course) and because of his love of helping others or is it that the all-knowing guru has done a bit of basic math and decided that teaching readily available information is almost infinitely more pofitable than the trading method he is teaching?
Those that actually love teaching or helping others or whatever – and have profitable methods – do so for free. There are some doing it on this site every single day. They don’t need to charge money for their lessons because they actually make money in the markets. They have other motivations for teaching their methods. Maybe they just want to stick it to the man. I have no idea what motivates them to be honest but I am glad they do what they do.
My recommendation is this: Learn to use Google. Learn to use Youtube. Learn to use BabyPips. There is no new information. It is all out there. Find it. Practice it. Employ it. Profit from it.
If it turns out that you cannot profit from it, then, if you feel the need, teach it for a modest fee and become incredibly wealthy.
No doubt I will be accused of talking my book here (pun intended 
), but there is value in properly prepared and presented paid materials. A good book, for example, can be consumed and turned into knowledge more effectively and rapidly than trying to find the real, meaningful, and trustworthy information sifting through forums, websites, and YouTube videos. It’s a cost-benefit analysis. Your time has value. It makes sense to use as little of it as possible and get the most of that time you can. I don’t just speak as an author here. I speak as a massive consumer of information as well.
And I have wasted precious time and money on books that were worthless (no offense intended, I haven’t read yours!). The reader must still sift through mountains of information to determine what is useful or even presented in a manner that is useful. Many years ago, while still a trading novice, I bought a book by Tom Demark, who is considered to be a top notch trader by many. After reading through the book I was convinced he was a top notch trader – probably because I didn’t understand a thing he said at the time but it sounded good. I later bought another book by another author who wrote his book on what Demark actually said in the first book!
I eventually found most of what was in both books to be of limited value. Now everything in both books is available for free on the internet (although scattered around in a million different places so I do concede that point to you).
The point I guess I am trying to make is that practically anything and everything a new trader needs to know is available for free on the internet, including entire courses, methods, seminars and yes, even what is in books. Paying the outrageous sums that many “experts” charge is ridiculous. If they are expert traders then, to me, a red flag goes up when they suddenly decide to spend their time concentrating on courses and memberships for thousands of dollars per student. It doesn’t take enrolling too many new students a week to earn more than they ever earned in trading, especially since they are “experts” at trading.
For someone who is new, BabyPips provides a wealth of free information. For someone who is a bit more seasoned then they can at least be a bit more discerning about what may or may not be a scam or an even greater waste of time and money. But if they are at that point, they probably don’t need the multi-thousand dollar a year enrollments anyway. Just a good book!
Also, the OP was asking about paid “education” or courses on the internet. There is a big difference between $29.99 for a good book and $2,999.99 for a course that may be of limited value.
While I think it’s perfectly fair for someone be compensated for their time and effort, I’m totally with you on being extremely dubious about spending big money on courses (or trading systems). Most of the money is being spent by those who don’t even know what sort of education they need, so are sucked in by the marketing pitch. As you say, the more seasoned individual has a better understanding of their needs and can avoid not just the dodgy stuff, but also stuff that may be a perfectly reasonable investment for someone else, just not for them.
But how to get seasoned. That’s the real crux of newbie trader education, isn’t it? How can they develop the foundational information they need to then make proper decisions in which direction they need to go for more specialized further education? And how can it be done without them having to spend hour upon hour searching the web, plowing through forum posts, etc. and trying to sort out what’s good from the loads of crap?
I agree with this to some extent, but only if the person or company selling the service (eg book) has a [B]proven[/B] track record. Would you buy a book written by a useless, failed chess player or one from a record breaking chess player …
I guess, then, there might also be a follow on argument that if the course saves a lot of wasted/unfocussed research time, then assuming that the stuff taught on the course is sound, there is a benefit to the attendee in saving that time. In other words, if a course takes dozens of hours, but flailing around in the dark trying to find the same stuff through trial an error takes thousands of hours, then there is a benefit in that even if much of the course content is also out there in the open source arena.
Forex is a huge market and the fact is that one can earn a lot of bucks in a very less time and comfortably in forex rather than investing that much capital in other business and covering that and now due to internet forex trading online has become more popular that is why those experienced one’s are asking for a huge buck to teach the beginner about forex as the beginner is eager to earn in this market.
If having a proven track record were the criteria for teaching someone something then we’d have very few teachers in any field. You might as well toss out your whole primary and secondary school education. How many of those 20-something newly minted teachers and grizzled long-time veterans ever really did what they were teaching. Were the teachers who taught you how to write essays published authors? Doubt it. Were your history teachers there taking part in the events of the past. Nope. Are your science teachers holders of patents for their research? Don’t think so.
You’re equating performance ability and knowledge, which are not the same thing. It does take the latter to do the former, but the lack of the former does not imply the lack of the latter. Teaching (at least well) requires teaching skills. Performing requires performance skills. Not the same.
I’ve spent many years coaching volleyball. I was never going to be a high caliber player for a number of reasons, but I’d be willing to bet I could coach circles around the vast majority of top performing volleyball players. Why? Because I know much more about the strategies and tactics of the game, communicating with athletes, and finding ways to get the most out of both them and the teams they play on. I’ve educated myself, both formally and informally, and accrued considerable experience.
My point exactly. A lot of folks fail to consider the investment aspect of their education, and thus don’t value it properly. If you invested 100 hours to learn X, but could have spent $20 and invested 10 hours, unless you value your time very cheaply, you’ve overpaid for your investment.
Good valid points, I’ll give you that. For your teachers analogy, they need here in the UK to do three years of intensive TTA training to be qualified to teach followed by 2 years of experience. Doesn’t make them a guaranteed brilliant teacher. In forex, there is no qualification. Ultimately you judge someone on their ability and success. Would you buy a book from a trader who loses money consistently or from one who successfully started a multi million pound hedge fund? Would you want a forex mentor who gambles or one who has a solid approach? All I am saying is that paying for forex education should be done on the proviso that whoever is going to teach is credible and proven.
True. But at least we know they have gone through the training to teach and supposedly have some modicum of ability (as defined by the government) to do so. They are not considered experts in some particular subject matter, just in the ability to present information.
Would you buy a book from a trader who loses money consistently or from one who successfully started a multi million pound hedge fund?
Depends. Does the consistent loser know the markets and why he’s losing? If so, he could be of MASSIVELY more value to me than the guy running the hedge fund.
The latter may be successful, but may not be able to teach worth a lick. Consider the absolutely brilliant researcher who is totally useless in the classroom. Many of us have had experience with the sort, or know people who have.
Also, that fund manager probably doesn’t trade his fund the same way I would trade my own account anyway. It’s like the Warren Buffett thing. People fawn all over him because of his track record, but his investment strategies are useless to all but the tiniest fraction of other people.
I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree here. Which is why humans are unique, what works for one person may not work for another.
Personally, on forex ed courses, tend to be suspicious of the whole lot, but yes there are a few good courses out there and they do not come cheap. So do the math, one professional course, 40 slots, registration per user @$4000 and you can see why there are so many edu courses on forex today…
Paying for it will only add unnecessary pressure, it is up to you anyway.
I know, we have all been there and done that - still remember my first paid webinar class, a lot of $$$ and very little to show for it until I learnt the ropes the hard way…
There are a few areas of life where people will never come to a common consensus. Paying for Forex education is one of them!
One thing I learned is that you’re not just buying a teacher’s education, you’re also buying their beliefs. As a newbie, you probably don’t know what kind of trader you are. If you buy an incompatible course / mentorship, you may be setting yourself up to fail and it’s not really your fault. Probably the best education would be as generic as possible, and that’s usually free or very cheap (e.g. babypips school, a trading book).
Obviously I’ll have to disagree with that 
Merry Christmas ST