Hello!
I wrote this comment/review almost one year ago:
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/educational-resources/164668-lord-anton-kreil-31.html#post2850624
I would like to add and follow-up to what I wrote back then. Now, I have way more experience, I have read the thread and quite a few people wrote to me after my review. I'm sorry for not being active on this forum and it might look like I was just a paid bot/fraud/fake. But my review was totally honest. I will be more active on this forum from now on, in addition to already being active on Twitter and other forums.
First off, I would like to say that before doing the PTM, before writing that review, I was a beginner with limited experience. Basically, I had just been an investor (mutual funds, some stocks) before that but I had no idea of how finance works at all and I only knew basic stuff. Even today, I'm still learning A LOT... But my knowledge has definitely grown immensely.
I wrote about the positive and negative things about the PTM course. Now I can also add my review on the PTFM.
From my old comment, I will add my updated thoughts on the positives and negatives (taking the PTFM into account):
The positives:
1. Good information about macroeconomics.
I still agree on this. The PTM had good info on macroeconomics, but I feel that the PTFM is a bit more advanced and structured. It sometimes feels like the PTFM was an "update" on the PTM. At first, it felt like I was doing a recap of the things I learned from the PTM while I was doing the PTFM but in a more calm, personal and structured manner. While doing a recap of the same stuff in the PTFM, some of the content is the same from the PTM, some is not. However, in the PTFM, Anton records the video from his computer most of the times, showing slides and spreadsheets while talking about the content instead of you just listening to a lecture like in the PTM. Only a few videos is from the old PTM lecture recording. I think the PTFM is more personal and one-to-one. I think the PTFM is much better because it is more structured, more personal and there's not so much "noise". What I mean by not so much "noise" is that he's much better down-to-the-point in the PTFM presentation. Actually, I think the PTFM is better than the PTM in terms of information.
2. Good structure of the videos, he talks about the lesson in the beginning of the video, then there's the presentation and at the end of every video there is a conclusion/summary.
The same structure is in the PTFM, he talks about the lesson in the beginning and makes a conclusion at the end. However, you are listening most of the times to a recording from his computer which he shares his desktop and shows slides and spreadsheets. The PTFM is way better structured than the PTM.
3. He's giving you a good and well-structured platform to build upon and grow, for beginners too.
Absolutely. I think that this applies to the PTFM as well. If you are a beginner, this is really great. It is even great for more advanced traders as well that has just been relying on TA, TA, TA... and never any FA. In both these courses, Anton teaches you a systematic process which combines the best of FA and the best of TA. About 80% is FA and 20% is TA. TA is mostly used for timing and risk management.
4. You get taught a lot about using excel, I never used excel before but I have learned to use it quite good because of it.
Same applies to PTFM, but in the PTFM there is much more work on Excel.
5. The course is based on the principle of obtaining free information on the internet.
The exact same thing goes for the PTFM.
6. Some humor and fun examples in the presentation, yet serious.
Not so much in the PTFM, but I think that's actually great because I'm paying for a serious education and not for a comedy show of any kind. The PTFM feels way more serious.
7. You get taught principles that you can apply not only on trading but on your personal life too.
Not so much in the PTFM, just to an extent, but again that's not the point of buying this education.
8. No conflict of interest, he doesn't have any personal agenda or try to sell you something more in the course.
Same for the PTFM. In both the PTM and PTFM, he teaches you his structured way of trading and it's up to yourself what you're gonna do with it after the courses. He teaches you to have a self-starter mentality and not a "give me more money and I will make you a millionaire" Tim Sykes kinda crap. Actually, his business model and system is brilliant, and he's open about everything. He has no conflict of interest or any personal agenda. He already tells you what you will get and what more there is, before buying this content. If you want mentoring, there is mentoring after the course and you can join the Institute. This is not necessary to complete your training. It's really up to you if you want to take the new information you have learned and how you want to apply it. If you take mentoring, there is just more personalized guidance and you get to learn more things from the Institute mentors.
9. He's got background as a real successful professional trader, so he's credible.
Same goes for all other mentors in the Institute. They got real experience and credentials as professional traders. They have actually worked as real regulated professional traders in Investment Banks, Hedge Funds etc. They have proof of it to back it up. This is really important because there are so many people claiming they are something on the internet but they have no formal education or experience to back themselves up with. Would you rather listen to someone who has actually studied in a University, been hired, taught and worked in an investment bank as a real trader, or to someone writing on a forum that he has "read online and in books" about how investment banking works so he's got expert opinions about it? Some people online say that their experience is "tens years of real trading" etc.. Yeah, but even if you would believe in that without anything to back things up, what if those ten years are just tens years of utter crap? Can they prove to you that they really have that experience? Can they show you their track record? Because that is actually all that counts in the end. We are all here to make money and facts don't care about your feelings. Also, obviously Anton Kreil and the other mentors are rich, even before the Institute and education was created. That is their track record, the number that pops up when they stick their card into the ATM. Can other "trading gurus" and "trolls with experience" online, show a copy of their bank statement and net worth? If they are so successful as they claim to be, they should be able to show it too. But there is just so much bull**** online and people claiming to be someone they are not.
10. No "get rich fast" speech, more like "the more work you put in, the better the returns".
Same in the PTFM. Anton doesn't teach you a "make 1000 USD into 1000000 USD fast" scheme. He teaches you how to trade using a systematic process, with his way of trading, to get constant returns and get rich slowly over time. It is ALL up to you. He teaches you to have a self-starter mentality and he's not spoon-feeding you with anything or a complete set-up so you just have to push a button and you'll have an algorithm that will make you money every day. You have to do A LOT of work, but the more work you do, the better odds of you making money! Also, he's not teaching you that only HIS way of trading is the right one. It is simply just the way he trades, that works for him. The other mentors in the Institute has different ways of trading than Anton, but the thing they have in common is that they always have a systematic process and infrastructure. They just tweak their system to their own personality and liking.
The negatives:
1. The material could be improved, seems kinda put together low budget / amateur like.
The PTFM is way better, but still I think that it looks kinda amateur like and there are some spelling mistakes etc... I think they could have looked at their content and actually cleaned & brightened it up a lot to make the presentation look more professional. However, the content, which is most important, is still great.
2. One argument about his day trader example is flawed, because in his example it would mean that you bought your position at the open of the day and held it until the close. His other examples are better when he talks about robots using algorithms, central bank interventions etc. and he shows how market volatility has been decreasing for a long time.
In the PTFM, he applies the same argument for forex but besides his example, actually his point is to try and move the beginners and people away from daytrading because the majority of people just get smashed by fighting intraday robots and algorithms today. That is just a simple fact. The 90/90/90 rule is real and people lose a lot of money. The volatility, especially in Forex which is worse, is just not there today as it used to be. He's not saying that TA is just bullcrap and daytraders are retards who never make money. He's saying that the vast majority do not make money doing it and the odds are way better in long-term to have a larger time frame than fighting just fighting robots using algorithms. Think about it for a second. There are real reasons why these IB/HF let robots and algorithms trade intraday for them and they just observe it. If human traders were so much better than the robots, obviously they would have hired the best daytraders to work for them and make more money. But just look at how all the daytraders in firms have been totally squashed until today. How do people not get it? There are real reasons why IB/HF choose robots over humans in daytrading. They know that they make more money using the robots today and they let human traders focus on larger time frames where they can be more creative in trading, which is an edge that humans have over systematic robots. But as always, there will always be jerks online which try to convince people that daytrading using TA works perfectly and is the best... But if it works so well for them, why do they feel like they have to defend themselves and argue? Why spoil their successful secret and strategies and give it away to others? Why not just laugh at it, continue with their daytrading TA strategies and continue to get rich? After all, this is not the red cross. People are here to make money and that's the only thing that counts. I think there will always be a huge fight and argue on whether TA works or if FA works etc. It's just stupid to get into it. Make up your own mind and find out what suits you best but just stay real. That's all.
3. No way of asking questions about the material if you need help, you need to google it which can take a while if you don't know where to look.
Actually, I noticed that the Institute now offers a service for a fee which if you have any questions you can write them all down and you send it to the Institute which they will go through them and send you the answers back one time. I think it's actually bad that this service is not included from the beginning. If you pay so much money for a real education you expect to get great customer support and to ask any questions you might have about the content.
4. His material about stock views is really too small, with valuating stocks he's just talking about P/E ratios and this made me quite disappointed and this is the biggest negative thing I believe, from a beginner perspective it's really not enough and from an experienced trader I guess it's laughable.
Actually, specifically his teaching about the P/E ratio in the video is really good and I've applied it to my own trading. It changed my way of viewing P/E ratios. After the course, I've seen an example in reality that he points out in the video with a stock. Actually, maybe quite a few.
5. Focusing too much on macroeconomics and not as much on microeconomics.
However, besides the P/E ratio, the PTM really lacks microeconomics and the bottom-up analysis. It also lacks more depth in trading commodities and bonds... I think the PTM is purely focused on equity and the PTFM on Forex. I wish that they had gone more into depth in commodities, bonds etc.
6. Some excel spreadsheets looks quite amateur like or put together too fast, I think they could had made it look way better.
The PTFM got great spreadsheets but still they could be way better and look more professional even if it wouldn't change the real usage or content. It would had just look more professional, that's all.
7. Sometimes a bit difficult for a complete beginner with no experience in finance or economics.
Actually, the PTFM is more advanced for a beginner than the PTM. There is way more advanced information to digest, especially for a newbie.
8. For that price I would expect to get good support a long the course but received none.
Same for PTFM. But I guess that they were so much spammed with questions that they felt they had to offer the question service. But I think it should be for free and not for a fee. Think about it. If you buy a product, you should be entitled to customer service. If you go to a university, what if the teacher told you to pay a small fee for every question you asked? It's absurd, really. If you look for example at Lex Van Dam's course, they got great customer support and you can ask as many questions as you like! That's great customer service. For the price of 1mth or lifetime access to the PTM or PTFM, it's just ridiculous to pay that amount of money and not receive any customer support at all except if you pay for it. But still, you have to pay a fee for a ONE TIME use. You can't even ask any follow-up questions. Utter ridiculous. The customer support is bad and this is the worst thing about the Institute!!! I'm just being honest. It's probably the worst customer support I've seen.
9. After having done the entire course, the material is good but there are so much more you could had gone through or been improved and it doesn't feel like it's "enough" to really feel confident, and if they say you just need to google and learn more then what specifically should I google? That's a bit disappointing, i e lack of followup.
The PTFM gives a lot more stuff, but if you want to go more into depth you have to google and learn things by yourself from sites like investopedia etc. It feels like they just point you to the stuff you need to learn and then you have to research about it yourself if you want to know more about it. They don't spoon-feed you with anything more.
10. No community unless you are an institute trader.
Same with the PTFM. Which is basically the reason why I search on forums like this for other people who has taken the course and trades. Also, a good advice is to look at twitter. Follow Anton Kreil and look at people commenting etc. Many of those people have taken the course etc. I have met a few guys which I have contact with and talk to.
