All about investment

I was attending an introductory 3 hour seminar held by an Options trader back in 2005 with a friend who had never traded or invested in anything his whole life (with the exception of his superannuation fund which he did not manage). I was there for my friend who wanted to know a bit about trading and investing.

The seminar went well and you could tell this by the large number of people interacting; but also because my friend, a very risk averse person was also becoming keen to know more. But when the inevitable sales pitch came he sunk to the bottom of his chair.

"What's wrong?" I asked him with which he replied, "You've got to be joking he's asking fifteen hundred for this course? I don't think so; do you want to go halves, maybe I'll consider it?"

I smiled and thought for a bit; I already knew what I wanted to ask him, the problem was I wondered whether I should or not. Finally I succumbed.

"Can I ask you what your debt is for your university course (he was studying Information Technology)?" "Sure it's about $5000, but will be more like $7000 by the time I've finished". "Ok" I said, "does this come with a guarantee of a job, or even a money back guarantee should you decide after a while you don't want to do IT?"

"What?" and he gave me this most puzzling look.

"Well think about it. Becoming an IT professional is a great career if that's what you want to do, but in reality your income will always be capped, and the only way to uncap it is to become a business owner which is a whole new career in itself. Secondly, there's no guarantee you'll even get a job once you've completed it. I'm not saying that $7000 is too much but it's a fair whack."

"Compare this to a course where the owner is a millionaire and practices his craft at the same time. I'm not saying you're going to become a millionaire using his course or that you'll even like it but he's asking less, for information that helped him become financially free. As far as I'm concerned there is no comparison."

My friend thought for a while and realized he had no answer to what I had said however I refused his proposal to go halves. I had no intention of buying the course; I was only there for my friend. As it turns out he never did end up buying it.

As a trader though I'm not going to defend those who sell trading courses anymore like I did back then as my outlook has changed; but that does not mean I advocate the university education system and the debt scheme attached to it either. Nothing has changed there for me.

What has changed though is my realization that what's important in trading and investing tuition is sorely lacking. A system with rules and indicators is simply not enough. For one, it is usually built by one or two people who share a common goal. All those who try to emulate their system have completely different goals, resources, emotions, strengths and weaknesses and the list goes on.

This is why if you've ever bought into someone else's trading course that comes with some sort of support or forum you'll notice the majority can never get to their desired level. They either completely fail or fluctuate up and down along with their emotions. Those that do make it work have managed to do so because they had a very similar set of circumstances, resources, strengths and maybe even goals. This is why so few can make someone else's method work.

I even witnessed a famous trader who sells his trading workshop for many thousands of dollars admit that only around 3 or 4 of his 15 that he lets in gets it (meaning the rest waste their time and money and are unable to make it work)! That is ludicrous in my view to know this fact, and still take their money. The thing is this teacher is obviously unaware and unable to teach his students the ingredients that made him a success. He just teaches them his system.

I even drilled a trader hosting a Webinar for his latest tuition. I kept asking him if he had several methods of trading and flexibility that enabled someone to adopt a method to suit their resources, personality and strengths; and also if he helped the trader to uncover their strengths. He could not answer me.