The whole theme of going to trading seminars is a tricky subject. I think it was Skimble who said that one thing is to teach someone to trade, and another thing is to teach how to make money. I believe that is so true.
Many suspect that those who teach are the ones who do not make or can make money for themselves. I don’t think that is always the case. I can certainly site many cases where the opposite is true.
Even if we suspect these teachers to trade or not, the key is what we get out of it. I know two good and profitable traders who rely heavily on candlesticks. They both went on Steve Nison’s course and use candlestick set-ups as a result of the teachings of Mr Nison. However, to the best of my knowledge, Mr Nison is not a very active trader himself.
I have my own mentor, a gentleman from Australia called Bryce Gilmore. He is an active trader who is also the father of several books on geometry. I often trade with him on the phone, and he can read the market better than anyone I have ever met. He does about 4 seminars a year and has his own internet forum where he teaches people the art of trading. So I do believe there are successful traders who teaches as well, because they simply like the interaction with other human beings.
I suppose the crunch comes down to the promises they make. The claims that many in the UK put forward to attract business leaves many of us in a state of disbelief because we know how hard a business this is and how merciless it can be.
Making those % claims and the promises of a life of jet setting attract a number of people who should not be in the trading arena at all. Of course that is the nature of free will, but in this business more than anywhere, a healthy dose of scepticism goes a long way.
I like attending seminars myself because I know I am never too old to learn something new. I also know that one good trade intra-day will make me several thousand pounds. If I can walk away from a seminar with one or two new ideas which will help me see the market in a different way or identify a different set-up, then it is well worth the cost of the seminar.
I notice on Trade 2 Win there is a thread on Darren Winter. He has attracted a lot of attention because of his seminars. I went to one of his free evenings, because I wanted to find out what it was all about. Being in the business you can imagine I was fairly sceptical about the whole thing, especially after the first 60 seconds, when he told us to clap because we were so special, and because we wanted to spend an evening in education rather than watch TV. It was rather corny, but apart from that, I really enjoyed both the material he taught and the way it was presented.
I did not want to spend £1500 ( or however much it was ) on his weekend course because his trading style is geared towards investing, and I am a speculator, i.e. our time horizon is different when it comes to trading. However, the material I saw on the free evening was good, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I suppose I am telling you guys this because I myself teach people. I do it mostly for free through the company I work for, and I have run 2 seminars that I got paid for. I love teaching because it gives me something, a sense of passing on knowledge. I believe my own mentors feel the same way. At least they stopped charging me a long time ago and they still teach me.
That is the whole spirit of this site and sites like it: passing on information and knowledge.
My heartfelt feelings about trading seminars is that they have got a place in the education of a trader, but trading is an individual occupation, and it pays off to contemplate on what kind of trader you are rather than trying to adopt someones system.
Candlestick or geometry are two different areas that can be used in the way that suits you, in whatever time fram you are trading. Someones black box system is probably not.
Happy New Year
