Found a New Stock Trading Course Online? Demand Some Proof
Published on August 7th, 2023
In todayâs information world, it seems that everyone is out for quick riches. This has led to a plethora of get-rich-quick course sellers who are hawking everything from Amazon drop-shipping, penny stock trading courses, Forex trading courses, options day trading courses to binary option scams. If you play around on Instagram, you know exactly what I am talking about as these ads pound your device non-stop. Everyone has a system, and âhow to learn trading easilyâ is the message.
Do you ever ask yourself, if their idea is so good, why are they sharing it with you? Why wouldnât they just continue to exploit this great idea instead of creating competitors and lowering their own profits? The answer, you hopefully realize, is that for the most part, they are selling you snake oil.
Now, of course, there will be a handful of people who do know what they are talking about and can provide valuable information, but because so many people have gotten rich selling you on âhow to get rich,â there is so much repackaged generic information out there that isnât worth the electricity it transferred to your computer on.
Everyone by now seems to have read âThe Four Hour Workweek.â This was one of the authorâs get-rich-easy ideas and he basically he advised to do a little research on a subject, and then just repackage it into a course and sell it online. Real experts with real useful information are drowned out by such weak efforts.
Whereâs The Proof of The Instructorâs Success In The Activity?
Before purchasing any of these courses, I would strongly suggest getting some kind of proof of their success. And Iâm not talking about the picture of the rented Lambo in the driveway, I mean third party documentation of actual sales reports, trades or at the very least, a multiple year return chart.
In the investment biz, we donât allocate money to a manager because he owns a Bugatti, so why should you?
Iâve seen one successful trader post brokerage statements and certified IRS tax filings on his website and he was only selling a $30 book. Thatâs very solid, but understandably, most people wouldnât be willing to go that far because itâs a lot of personal info.
On the other hand, thereâs a well known penny stock course promoter, Timothy Sykes, who promotes his âLambo and trade anywhereâ lifestyle and has managed to get himself onto talk shows talking about how successful he has been trading penny stocks. But when he started his own legitimate hedge fund 20 years ago, it failed after 3 years. You wonât see that on the front page of his website.
I read one of his books and, of course, he downplays the failure and attributes it to a single bad investment, but we canât exclude the investment choices that performed badly and pretend they donât count, can we? If you make it to the bottom of his website there are a bunch of legal disclosures that show 97% of traders lose money because he risks a lawsuit if he doesnât disclose the snake oil he is selling isnât great advice.
This point might be obvious, but physical possessions are not proof of success in the activity they are trying to sell to you! This style of marketing must work because so many promoters use it, but the items could be rentals, they might have come from a large inheritance, or more than likely the money came from selling the âLearn to Xâ courses. Hell, Iâve seen Instagram ads that comically look like they just found an exotic car in a parking lot and started filming their pitch next to it as if it is theirs.
This style of marketing is only trying to cater to your FOMO greed.
A consistently profitable track record is a key indicator of competence and this data offers valuable insights into the instructorâs trading strategies, risk management practices, and overall market expertise, ensuring that students learn from a qualified source.
But note, this does not mean that the instructor will be able to teach you how to do it even if they can, but at least itâs a start.
Assessing Risk Management Strategies
Effective risk management is a critical component of successful trading and investing. Examining brokerage statements or return charts allows potential students to assess how well the instructor manages risk in their trades. Did the guy just lever up the account and get lucky? Everyone is a genius is a bull market.
Itâs more important to know if his style of trading blow out the account during the first bear market. Making $10 million and then losing it all the next year isnât great success.
I know a man who has accumulated millions of dollars from trading, and brags about it all the time and shows everyone his trading app and holdings. He only plays the FAANGS and one of his large portfolio holdings is TQQQ, a triple levered Nasdaq 100 fund:
He loves to brag about how much money he has made from that, but is he just lucky? Things werenât so rosy in 2022 because the market ::gasp:: went down that year. He admitted he lost over $4 million that year and started cutting costs and trading down on some possessions.
And that was a pretty easy going bear market that only calmly declined for 9 months! Imagine if he was steamrolled with the internet bubble collapse of 2000-2003.
A reputable trader with a course on day trading will emphasize the importance of risk management and exhibit consistent practices that protect capital while seeking profit opportunities. Understanding how the trader handles risk can help students gauge the level of responsibility and prudence they will learn throughout the course and proof statements will help show if the traderâs only skill is good luck.
Evaluating Consistency and Longevity
It seemed like everyone became a successful âtraderâ at the start of the bull market that began Nov 2020. Only when the market turns to bear can you really evaluate a traderâs through-the-cycle performance.
As such, brokerage statements or detailed return charts provide a historical perspective on the instructorâs trading journey. A traderâs long-term consistency in profitability is far more valuable than isolated instances of success.
If they bought a single stock that did 10x in 6 months and made them a millionaire, while impressive, that speaks more to luck than success. Iâve come across hundreds of these types of traders on FinTwit that gain thousands of followers because they bought one of the meme stocks or cryptos that made them a million dollars. That wonât help you much.
Iâd rather be lucky than good
Lefty Gomez
With statements spanning several months or even years, potential students can evaluate the instructorâs ability to adapt to changing market conditions, navigate challenges, and maintain consistent profitability over time. Longevity and consistency are indicators of a trading methodology that is sustainable and robust.
Encouraging Accountability and Transparency
Requesting statements sends a clear message that students value accountability and transparency. This would foster a healthier and more responsible responsible trading education ecosystem if more people insisted upon this.
Another question is how much money is on the line? I once came across a course where the promoter was selling trades for $100 a month to hundreds of students but was only trading $10,000 of his own capital in his system. He claimed that he didnât want to exploit the profits away from his students, but more than likely he didnât believe in his own system that much.
Understanding Trading Style Compatibility
Every trader has a unique trading style that aligns with their risk tolerance, time availability, and financial goals. Reviewing statements allows potential students to determine whether the instructorâs trading style complements their own objectives. Is there multiple trades being made daily, or is the instructor more of a swing trader and places bets monthly?
If an individual has a demanding full time job, a course led by a day trader may not be the best fit. And if you canât stand to lose money when a stock goes down and refuse to use stops, the traderâs results will also likely not match your experience and maybe sticking to the S&P 500 is more your style.
The ability to identify trading styles that align with personal preferences ensures a more productive learning experience.
Do You You Need a Course At All?
There are literally thousands of books and hundreds of free videos on Youtube that you can use experiment with ideas. Iâve read dozens of finance and trading books, and rarely does a fresh, original idea pop off the pages.
PRO-TIP: If you are US based, trade cryptocurrency and want to avoid the tax hassle see the Alto Crypto IRA. They support 150+ coins, there are no monthly or annual fees, no LLC setup fees, no processing fees, and they charge only 1% on each trade. Any cash waiting in your account is insured by the FDIC.
If you want to learn to trade stocks or options, it should start with the self-education and not a course promoter.
A trading course could end up being informative, but itâs probably the same information you could get online for free or from a $30 book instead of paying hundreds of dollars for it.
The next question is how long does it take to learn to trade? There is really no real answer to that but the trading course promoters will likely imply that you could be trading successfully by next week.
More than likely you will find your first yearâs live trading performance to be dismal until you tweak your process enough. Always start with a paper trading account to get a feel for it.
What Should You Look For? Hereâs My Performance Chart
I donât sell any courses, and this website is the only place that I share my investing thoughts (not financial advice) for free. The fact that I own an Aston Martin should not be sufficient proof for you that I am a good investor or trader.
The return chart below of my main investing account is the kind of thing that you should look for, consistency of growth whether the market goes up or down. I donât always catch the big waves up, but I tend to lose less money when the market declines, which generally leads to outperformance over time. In 2022, I actually continued to make money and with less volatility than the S&P 500.
Over the last three years, my main account has grown over 85% compared to the S&Pâs growth of just under 50%. The US Bond Aggregate lost money over the same period.
Let me know if you are interested in my process and I will write a followup article. Several of the articles on my website showcase some of my thoughts at the time, but I donât have time to write about everything.
Closing Thoughts
Ultimately if you do decide to purchase a trading course, I can only recommend that you get some kind of third party proof.
By doing so, potential students can verify the instructorâs track record, distinguish real from hypothetical performance, evaluate risk management strategies, assess consistency and longevity, avoid scams, and ensure compatibility with their preferred trading style. Holding trading course sellers accountable for their claims through verifiable evidence promotes transparency and raises the overall quality of trading education. Ultimately, a well-informed decision will equip aspiring traders with the necessary knowledge and skills to navigate the markets confidently and responsibly.
Free Investing Tools
For advanced traders who want direct access to exchanges without âpayment for order flowâ shenanigans choose Interactive Brokers.
I use Axos Bank for its no-fee business account with free bill pay.
Nice write up. I am familiar with Sykes’s content, and I have to give him just a bit of credit. In his older videos and work, he was much more diligent, in the weeds analyzing companies, exposing fraud and taking advantage of what he found. Since they were all penny stock crap companies, it wasn’t hard to find BS that would bring them down, so he started shorting them and it was profitable. Yes, the “hedge fund” detailed in his book wasn’t all that big and when one investor pulled all his money out that deflated the whole thing – he did a video and was up front about it, at least then. Overall, he still demonstrated a lot of knowledge.
Trouble is, he took advice from James Altucher and got deeper into the course selling business as he realized most potential customers were not interested in charts and homework. He teamed up with Zack Westphal, a guy who used to do course work for a real estate flipping outfit run by disgraced scam artist Robert G. Allen. Zack became his business partner and coached Tim on sales funnels. Together they targeted the young male demographic who responded to pipe dreams of luxury, hot girls, and fancy cars. The research showed Lambos in particular resonated with the crowd most likely to buy a course, so they went way with the marketing, maybe even leasing the Lambo versus buying it outright.
Robert G. Allen definitely lost a lot of cred when he started promoting those MLM businesses, but there was some okay information in his multiple streams of income book. If I remember my facts correctly, about 12 years ago another major real estate guru (forget who) challenged Robert to disclose the addresses of all the properties he ever owned, but he refused the challenge.
That was John T. Reed who challenged him. Allen tried to sue him but dropped it when Reed exposed even more lies presented as proof. Turned out Allen wasn’t in the real estate business, he was in the show business and couldn’t back anything up with real transaction data. He faded away after that. Sad, really.
Reed also did a number on Kiyosaki, which was well deserved and very accurate, but that’s a story for another day.
Oh Reed, right! He had some great books on real estate investing. I also like the “guru” take-downs.
At some point Tim got frustrated, finding that everyone who signed up was a degenerate gambler (surprise surprise), so he made more of a focus to attract serious traders (with an expensive course, mind you – but it offered a lot of face time with Tim). There were a couple of students who did okay (verified as much as anyone could be), but Tim has a habit of taking credit for all their success even when they learned from multiple sources and their own experience.
Eventually, the ease of shorting pump & dump penny stocks ended, as the SEC got a lot better at shutting them down quickly. A penny stock pump used to be very easy to spot and last weeks. But as the SEC monitoring improved, that time line got shortened to a couple of hours, if even that. Couple this with the lack of borrows available for a penny stocks at most brokers and shorting them was nigh impossible.
As a result, a lot of the later trades Tim highlighted were NASDAQ stocks – going against the original theme entirely. Many in the forums suspected he was poaching trades he got from other people and presenting them as his own – getting a bit lazy with all that course money flowing in.
I guess Sykes’s entire racket must have hit a brick wall at some point because Tim went against a lot of the things he said he’d never endorse such as futures trading (he eventually hooked up with a futures trading course promoter), and crypto (he sunk low enough to start shilling for Tika Tiwari, a discredited former banker known for the worst kind of crypto seminars).
I don’t know if he had to get rid of “his” Miami mansion, but that’s okay since he never owned it anyway even though he always talked as if he did. Real estate records prove it was/is owned by a Miami area lawyer and Tim was renting it for the image. He spent money on a one room school house in Bali which no doubt was used as an excuse for a business trip, charity and a write off all in one – no idea if he still has it.
It’s a shame because in the beginning he presented some valuable content at reasonable rates, but the distortions, lies and dependency upon course sales versus actually trading got the better of him.
No matter who’s teaching it, real or sham artist, trading isn’t for the meek and unless you’re a bona fide quant with the creds to get hired by Wall St, I recommend avoiding it altogether.
Great extras on the story! You’ve definitely done your research on these guys!
Please do share your investment though process. Your FIRE blog presents a unique perspective rather than the usual index fund buy & hold cargo cult.
I’ve been a keen follower of this blog for some time for your out of the box thinking on risk management (200 DMA / 10 DMA), and potential alternate investments (Managed future, CEFs, et. al.)