Pentagonal Trading
http://www.pentagonaltrading.com
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.
What I am saying is that the road to success in trading requires
you to look at who you are, what you have, and then how you can
use what you have to achieve your goals. If you're in the market
for a trading system make sure you find out whether the system
will suit you otherwise you'll just become another statistic.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dean Whittingham is owner and co-founder of Pentagonal Trading.
He is a professional trader and trading coach and has experience
in stocks, options, forex, CFD's, futures and commodities. His
passion lies in changing the trading landscape to prevent the
many novice traders being ripped off by marketers, brokers
and many of the system sellers, but also to educate traders
on the 5 essential steps of trading. If you're looking to
find the right education on trading and trading system
development visit http://www.pentagonaltrading.com
No comments:
Post a Comment