Finance

Anyone who has watched any late night TV recently cannot have failed to have noticed the absolute deluge of infomercials trying to sell you on a series of trading seminars which will undoubtedly make you very rich.

Before embarking on a course of trading seminars there are a few very important points that you need to be aware of before making your choice of educational company. In this article we will try and point out some of the things to be aware of.

It was the market melt down during 2000-2003 which has fuelled the huge growth in the trading seminar business. Many people now realize that making money trading is not so easy and requires a good education if you are going to survive all market conditions. This is a better option that just trusting what a fund manager may advise you who may be more concerned about his commission than your retirement.

There are a lot of companies that advertize on late night TV but the ones that come to mind the most are Optionetics, Investools, Better Trades and Star Trader. I live in a city where these companies visit on a regular basis so I’ve attended all of their free warm up seminars. I’ve also bought a number of seminars from these companies.

The infomercial only has one purpose and that is to get you to the free warm up seminar, usually at a local hotel. I call it a warm up seminar because this is where the sales pitch will get you even more excited about becoming a trader and making money. They usually last from 45 minutues to about 2 1/2 hours. The one I attended for Investools was about 3 hours and actually provided some good information.

At the free seminar you will be encouraged to sign up on the spot using your credit card, this is usually after you are offered a large discount over the retail price for being a “discision maker”. Most come with a set of DVD’s and manual allowing you to study before the live seminar.

If you do sign up at one of these free seminars here are a few points to consider:

1. Don’t be shy about asking what the refund policy is up front. Understand how long you have to evaluate the training materials because this can very a lot between different companies. It could be only until noon on the 1st day or you may be allowed to stay the whole 1st day before having to ask for a refund.

2. Ask if you can also bring a family member or business partner, usually the answer is yes. Take advantage of this offer, it is better to have a 2nd person evaluate the seminar if you are at all hesitant about whether it is right for you.

3. There are all kinds of promotions going on for these seminars, make sure that you are paying the lowest possible price for your seat. Don’t end up finding out that the person next to you in the seminar got it at a much lower price, just like airline pricing.

4. Be very sure that the seminar you have signed up for is going to cover what you want to learn. Sometimes the agender is vague and the speaker goes off on their own favourite topics. If you want specific training on stocks, options or Forex make sure that they will be covered in detail in the seminar.

Here is something that you need to know, this is very important. All these seminar companies are not going to teach you everything you need to know about trading at one seminar, even if it cost $4K. They all have follow on seminars and courses, and they pretty quickly start to tell you that the seminar you have just attended and paid for is just the basic course and if you really want to be a trader you must buy the other more advanced seminars.

During your beginner seminar expect the presenters to consistently tell you that you have just begun your educational journey and that if you really want to make the big money you need much more education. I know it sucks but it’s not illegal, it’s how corpoate America works!.

If you are very satisfied with the quality of the education that you have received, and you think the company will be around for the next few years then by all means buy additional seminars. But remember this point, usually you will not get an extended amount of time to evaluate the follow on seminars, only the legal minimum 3 days cooling off period in some states. This could be important if you are buying a series of seminars that run over a couple of years.