I wrote this for someplace else and decided to post most of it here. It may or may not help beginners - this is just my experience and I think some people may benefit from it and some will not. If you havn't already read the sticky "How to identify an investment scam" by Joe please do so.
Quick story of how I got started a few years ago in high school I got suckered into those high price seminar crap. It was mostly useless just basic info on how to trade that anyone can find for free. A lot time were spent on covering what shares and options are and how they work. Then more time were spent on 2 different spreads & their variations. A little technical analysis was thrown in - stochastics, RSI & trendlines ! Not much else was touched and we were sent off to trade. Money management rule was taught in about 5 minutes: think of your trading account as a pie. You cut the pie into 5 slices, 20% each trade. You can probably tell what happened, high leverage options & 20% per trade = wiped account a few months later (I did pretty well I lasted 7 months).
It was obviously a big mistake buying that course, or was it ? It got me into trading, it taught me how NOT to trade early on in the journey, it gave me my account-wiping ceremony that all traders must go through. I actually consider it money well spent now as it has fast trekked the learning process by making critical mistakes early on. Had I started out with a $50 Van Tharp book or something and used proper money management I still probably would've wiped my account at a LATER date. So it was a blessing in disguise now that I look back.
It also taught me to evaluate objectively. Back when first I bought the course I felt GOOD, as though I have purchased some secret to trading success. As I stumbled into losses I fooled myself that it was still the secret to trading success. I could not let it go for a long time. It was either my ego not admiting that I have purchased something that fails or my desire for feeling hopeful that kept the faith in the method alive. It was only after my trading account balance was 0 did I started evaluating objectively. It was painful but it was eye opening. Lots of newcomers needs to go through this rite of passage judging by the amount of posts I see on people asking for opinions on newsletters, signal providers, analysts, systems etc and whether they should buy or not.
Later on I found a proper mentor that taught a fair bit of how to really profit consistently in the market, different strategies & mindsets for different market conditions. I did a lot of research before I paid good money this time for the mentoring. This guy ran a fund and had audited track record of the method he was teaching. It is attached on this post for reference. Relax I am not a shill promoting anything, his mentoring is closed indefinitely and fund is closed so there nothing to buy. I only mention it to help other people seek proper mentor, if that's what they're seeking.
Track record is very important (audited even better) when seeking a mentor and a lot of educators out there don't provide it - it means a lot of educators you should avoid. Backtested at a MINIMUM and preferably forward tested with real money.
Another good question to ask to seperate the better ones from usual crap is to get a contents list of things going to be covered. Some educators will provide this if you ask - if they don't you probably want to run the other way. Now I will compared 2 courses that have their "syllabus" available publicly:
NUMBER ONE
1 Fundamentals of Options
2 Debit & Credit Spreads
3 Straddles & Strangles
4 Calenders, Butterflies and Condors
5 Ratio Backspreads and Collars
6 Money management, Trading styles and wrap up
You tell immediately that 80-90% of the material you are going to pay for is available online. Learning option spreads one after another is like learning one indicator one after another - you will get nowhere. You will be a theory guru proffessor when you have learnt all that information but you will not make a cent in the markets.
NUMBER TWO
1. Your Market Framework: The Real Nature of Market Behavior, Gauging the State of the Market, Contextual Market Reading Abilities, Market Internals
2. Your Trading Framework: Drawdowns and Risk of Ruin, Expectancies and Frequencies, Systemizing Risk Management, Edge in Action, Overcoming Hidden Psychology of Losses
3. Your Strategy & Tactics: Trade Plan Development, Reading the Market, Principles in Action
4. Your Setups & Execution: Getting On Board Trend Early, Maximizing Profit Exits, Fade Setups
5. Your Mindset: Mental State Control, Harsh Realities of Trading, Peak Performance Through Mental Modeling
Now it seems like this one may actually teach you stuff that may not be available "public accessible knowledge" and deals a lot of the important stuff like money management and trading psychology on top of techniques to actually trade the markets.
I have not taken either course I simply got their contents and compared the 2. Read some reviews of the 2 and the first one is widely trashed while the seccond one had mixed reviews.
I may post more on the topic if there is interest but I hope most beginners will think twice before jumping onto the next system/educator/signal/newsletter promising the holy grail..
Quick story of how I got started a few years ago in high school I got suckered into those high price seminar crap. It was mostly useless just basic info on how to trade that anyone can find for free. A lot time were spent on covering what shares and options are and how they work. Then more time were spent on 2 different spreads & their variations. A little technical analysis was thrown in - stochastics, RSI & trendlines ! Not much else was touched and we were sent off to trade. Money management rule was taught in about 5 minutes: think of your trading account as a pie. You cut the pie into 5 slices, 20% each trade. You can probably tell what happened, high leverage options & 20% per trade = wiped account a few months later (I did pretty well I lasted 7 months).
It was obviously a big mistake buying that course, or was it ? It got me into trading, it taught me how NOT to trade early on in the journey, it gave me my account-wiping ceremony that all traders must go through. I actually consider it money well spent now as it has fast trekked the learning process by making critical mistakes early on. Had I started out with a $50 Van Tharp book or something and used proper money management I still probably would've wiped my account at a LATER date. So it was a blessing in disguise now that I look back.
It also taught me to evaluate objectively. Back when first I bought the course I felt GOOD, as though I have purchased some secret to trading success. As I stumbled into losses I fooled myself that it was still the secret to trading success. I could not let it go for a long time. It was either my ego not admiting that I have purchased something that fails or my desire for feeling hopeful that kept the faith in the method alive. It was only after my trading account balance was 0 did I started evaluating objectively. It was painful but it was eye opening. Lots of newcomers needs to go through this rite of passage judging by the amount of posts I see on people asking for opinions on newsletters, signal providers, analysts, systems etc and whether they should buy or not.
Later on I found a proper mentor that taught a fair bit of how to really profit consistently in the market, different strategies & mindsets for different market conditions. I did a lot of research before I paid good money this time for the mentoring. This guy ran a fund and had audited track record of the method he was teaching. It is attached on this post for reference. Relax I am not a shill promoting anything, his mentoring is closed indefinitely and fund is closed so there nothing to buy. I only mention it to help other people seek proper mentor, if that's what they're seeking.
Track record is very important (audited even better) when seeking a mentor and a lot of educators out there don't provide it - it means a lot of educators you should avoid. Backtested at a MINIMUM and preferably forward tested with real money.
Another good question to ask to seperate the better ones from usual crap is to get a contents list of things going to be covered. Some educators will provide this if you ask - if they don't you probably want to run the other way. Now I will compared 2 courses that have their "syllabus" available publicly:
NUMBER ONE
1 Fundamentals of Options
2 Debit & Credit Spreads
3 Straddles & Strangles
4 Calenders, Butterflies and Condors
5 Ratio Backspreads and Collars
6 Money management, Trading styles and wrap up
You tell immediately that 80-90% of the material you are going to pay for is available online. Learning option spreads one after another is like learning one indicator one after another - you will get nowhere. You will be a theory guru proffessor when you have learnt all that information but you will not make a cent in the markets.
NUMBER TWO
1. Your Market Framework: The Real Nature of Market Behavior, Gauging the State of the Market, Contextual Market Reading Abilities, Market Internals
2. Your Trading Framework: Drawdowns and Risk of Ruin, Expectancies and Frequencies, Systemizing Risk Management, Edge in Action, Overcoming Hidden Psychology of Losses
3. Your Strategy & Tactics: Trade Plan Development, Reading the Market, Principles in Action
4. Your Setups & Execution: Getting On Board Trend Early, Maximizing Profit Exits, Fade Setups
5. Your Mindset: Mental State Control, Harsh Realities of Trading, Peak Performance Through Mental Modeling
Now it seems like this one may actually teach you stuff that may not be available "public accessible knowledge" and deals a lot of the important stuff like money management and trading psychology on top of techniques to actually trade the markets.
I have not taken either course I simply got their contents and compared the 2. Read some reviews of the 2 and the first one is widely trashed while the seccond one had mixed reviews.
I may post more on the topic if there is interest but I hope most beginners will think twice before jumping onto the next system/educator/signal/newsletter promising the holy grail..
