Best course Going??

It seems there are many different courses buy many differnt Company's and traders....

For those that have paid for courses and been to more than 1, which has been the best or well worth the money..?

eg:Gann, Darren winters, Greg secker, Alpesh patel, optics....etc

Thirteen said:

if any of these dudes could trade, why would they want to make their living teaching?

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(i) For a change;
(ii) To combat loneliness;
(iii) Because they're good at it;
(iv) Because they enjoy it;
(v) Because they get talked into holding courses by marketing companies who want to take a huge cut of the fees generated;
(vi) To develop and build up a teaching business which, unlike their trading activites, can be sold on to someone else as a running business;
(vii) To ensure they have some official earned income to declare, on which they pay income tax, thus ensuring that the Revenue will never be able to tax them on spread-betting profits;
(viii) To raise money for their favourite charity;
(ix) For the same sort of "self-esteem" reasons that make people labour over excellent books which will never show any realistic financial profits;
(x) Because it can be better paid than trading (if you can get 60 people together for a £2,500 one-day course).

I'm sure there are many other possible reasons, as well - perhaps even nearly as many as there are teachers. But some of those were among my reasons, about 10 years ago, for teaching something I could have been "doing exclusively" instead of just "doing mostly" and teaching occasionally.

For the record (and I suspect like several others at this site), I wouldn't be trading at all if it hadn't been for a course getting me started.

Teachers / Traders

Great post Roberto, I agree completely and I'm speaking as the 'student' and not as the 'teacher'. That said, Thirteen does have a point and it's one that is made frequently on these boards. The answer then, IMO, is to somehow separate the good teachers from the not so good to the down right awful. Here are my suggestions to help ensure that wannabe traders get hooked up with the best and most appropriate teachers / courses for their needs.

Before going on ANY course, try to determine the sort of trader you think you want to be; i.e. intraday, swing or position trader? What instruments do you want to trade and how do you want to trade them - FX, futures or stocks; spreadbet, CFD or direct access etc.?

Having done the above, look at ALL the teachers, coaches and courses available that might help you in your quest and discard the rest. This process is largely one of filtering out those teachers / courses that aren't appropriate to YOU. (E.g. if you decide you want to trade U.K equities E.O.D., then there's little point on having a 1-2-1 with Mr. Charts). Of the teachers / courses left, discard any that are too expensive - this is subjective, I know - and whose methodologies are not currently practised by the vendor.

You should now have a shortlist. Check out these boards for any posts by the teachers / course vendors - do you like what you read? See if T2W members have written reviews about them. (A note of caution here; expect to read some negative reviews). Contact the people on your shortlist and ask detailed questions about their offerings. Discard any that don't reply promptly with helpful answers. Ask for at least 2 references and follow them up.

If, having done all the above, you may end up with on or two candidates who may be able to help you on your quest to become a better / profitable trader. A final word of warning . . . just because you then decide to fork out 500 quid for a 1-2-1 with a top notch trader, DON'T think for one minute that you will be as good as s/he is the next time you trade and be earning the kind of money they do. Teachers / courses aren't the holy grail; they're an aid, a signpost or a crutch. Good luck!

Tim.

Very good and helpful post ... and more productive than mine

timsk said:

Thirteen does have a point and it's one that is made frequently on these boards.

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Yes, he does. My reply was _slightly_ tongue-in-cheek simply because that point is made so often on these boards that one could be forgiven for thinking that most of the people here honestly believe that there's _no_ such thing at all as an honest course that's good value and worth doing (which is obviously complete nonsense, and irritating nonsense too). Still, sadly, I think probably the majority of courses out there don't fall into that category, and to that extent 13 is right.

Roberto,
Re. 13's post - I'm with you 100%.
Re. your own post - it's the flip side of the coin that is rarely expressed, especially with such clarity and brevity.
Tim.

I agree with Timsk,

having originally done a Darren Winters course I found that I did not gain or learn anything useful for me.

I then went on a spreadbettingtowin course with Sandy Jadeja.

This changed the way I trade completely and has made me a better trader in that I have a solid trading plan and trade EOD. Yes I have losing trades but I am making very good profitable trades and have less stress doing this.

My trading partner done the Optionetics course which is US based and when we compare side by side our techniques, he spends far more time in selection where mine takes a few minutes and comparitively I have been more profitable. This does not mean I have found the holy grail but just that I have something that works for me.

Does anyone have any information on the followng systems
The star trader baised Oxford St London
The Nexus system
We Trade4Profit
All information would be welcome
thanks everyone
tc

And Another Thing . . .

This is something of a generalisation I know but, broadly speaking, teachers / course vendors fall in to one of two categories:
1. Those that try to teach students the nuts 'n' bolts of trading in order that the student then has a solid foundation upon which to build and develop strategies of their own.
2. Those who teach a system which, in theory anyway, will yield profits if it is applied with due care and discipline.
It is possible for someone to go on a course described in No. 1, learn the basics about trading and reinforce this knowledge with hours of additional study and still not make a bean. Someone else could attend course No. 2; know next to nothing about trading but apply the system taught and make a profit. Like many people, I started out in camp No. 2 (only I didn't make any money ) and 'progressed' to camp No. 1.
So, what do you want? Do you just want a vehicle which generates additional income or do you want to learn how to play the game? Answer this question at the very start of your quest and save yourself a lot of time and, quite possibly, a lot of dosh as well.
Tim.

Some extra info on StarTrader and Nexus

Info for tcksee:
Generally I recommend searching t2w forums and the web for this but briefly:
1. The Star Trader system : by all accounts/posts here and other bulleting boards an exceedingly expensive basic charting package with some dubious marketing and refund methods and unverifiable claims from an Australian company doing something that TC2000 or Sharescope can do for you for a fraction fo the cost.
2. The Nexus system: Which one are you referring to? I use a "Nexus" system but doubt if its the same one.

Hope this helps.

best course

ketank said:

It seems there are many different courses buy many differnt Company's and traders....

For those that have paid for courses and been to more than 1, which has been the best or well worth the money..?

eg:Gann, Darren winters, Greg secker, Alpesh patel, optics....etc

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despite some of the people bad mouthing Sandy Jadeja (on this forum) I would recommend Sandy's course without reservation. He makes a complicated subject simple. Having read some of the postings here I definitely think that the reason some people find they can't make money is that they simply don't want to put the effort in to really learn what they have been taught. Sandy gives it to you on a silver plate ...... all you have to do is put in a bit of study and the results will come (they definitely are working for me).

Trading imho is a bit like learning to drive, about 20% theory and 80% practical. As such it would be very difficult to teach in a lecture style. Most people, I would have thought, b4 they shell out a lot of $$ will have read a few trading books, and provided they have read decent ones, will have covered most of the course content of a "nuts and bolts of trading" seminar. Subsequently they will only really get a lot of milage out of it if they didn't understand what they read and the seminar corrects this. but that is juat my own opinion.

Guys,

To anyone thinking of paying for a course, think carefully. There are a lot of scammers out there who are basically good at marketing and their courses are nothing more than money generators for themselves. NO ONE can MAKE YOU a good trader. You have to put the time and effort in and learn to trade.

Just my 2 cents worth.

I always look for a track record and speak with current subscribers.

If they don't have a track record, why not?
If they don't allow you to speak with current subscribers, why not?