How to Select the Right Course for Personal Needs
This week TechniTrader reviews Stock Market Courses and how to select the right course for personal needs. There are many “Stock Market Training Companies” offering a variety of training services. Not all provide an actual Stock Market Course.
Most individuals who are looking to take a course on the Stock Market, want to trade stocks for extra monthly income or as a career using Trading as a Business. Care should be taken when deciding what education and training you need.
To determine a stock trading course that is right for you, below is a list of things you should check out before buying any Stock Market Course or Stock Trading Course. You will need to review the stock courses with care, ask questions, and review several areas before purchase. Here is a list of guidelines for choosing courses and how to select the right course for personal needs:
This week TechniTrader reviews Stock Market Courses and how to select the right course for personal needs. There are many “Stock Market Training Companies” offering a variety of training services. Not all provide an actual Stock Market Course.
Most individuals who are looking to take a course on the Stock Market, want to trade stocks for extra monthly income or as a career using Trading as a Business. Care should be taken when deciding what education and training you need.
To determine a stock trading course that is right for you, below is a list of things you should check out before buying any Stock Market Course or Stock Trading Course. You will need to review the stock courses with care, ask questions, and review several areas before purchase. Here is a list of guidelines for choosing courses and how to select the right course for personal needs:
1. What are the CREDENTIALS of the Author and Educator who created
and wrote the course?
There
are two professional degrees for the Financial Markets, which are the Chartered
Financial Analyst CFA and the Chartered Market Technician CMT. CFA’s are the
fundamental side of investing, while CMTs are the technical side of trading or
investing. Each professional degree requires extensive experience and body of
knowledge, for the professional who earns these degrees.
The reason for choosing a Professional Educator
Those
who have earned a professional degree are recognized by the Securities and
Exchange Commission SEC, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority FINRA, and
other governing bodies as well as the major Exchanges as being certified with
credentials.
Problems with learning from a non-credentialed educator are
that it may be a scam, or a training program which lacks a foundation of
professional knowledge and experience.
If
the course or training you are considering is not written, created, and taught
by someone with one of the two degrees above then you are probably dealing with
a Retail Trader who simply decided trying to teach in order to make money
because they were not successful. The bulk of training offered on the internet
is a Retail Trader selling an idea or strategy.
2. Is the company an Independent Educational Service?
Often
times a vendor selling another product will promote a “training course” or “training
class,” as this helps them sell their product or service.
The reason for choosing an Independent Educational Service
A
company that is actually using education as a means to get you to buy or sign
up for their product or service, is NOT focused on giving you the best
education but is focused on selling their product. The education is likely to
be minimal at best, lacking credentialed educators, and slanted or biased in
favor of their service or product rather than your best interest or personal
needs.
Problems with vendor based training, is that often times it
promotes trading that is designed to benefit the vendor over the individual
trader. Broker training as an example often encourages strategies that cause
excessive trading, because the more frequently you trade the more money they
make in fees, trading costs, and spreads as they fill your orders from their
inventories. There is an inherent conflict of interest in this kind of training.
3.
Educational Format
This
is a critical area to consider carefully. Statistically from empirical evidence
gathered from colleges and universities, there is a constant variable of
retention based on format. Here are some statistics:
Students
lose 80% of what they hear or listen to, so if the training is presented live and
no recording or video is offered you will forget more than you remember.
Students
understand and retain about 70% of a book or written materials without video.
Students
retain 50% of what they learn in an interactive environment, where they can
review the training via a video.
Students
retail 80% of what they study when the training includes video content, written
materials along with self-graded tests, and questions and answers from the
instructors.
Self-paced
training offers a 90% retention when the training includes video, written
materials, self-graded tests, support from instructors, and the ability to
review the material at your own pace. Self-paced education is the best format.
4.
Reputation of the Educational Company
A
good place to start is the Better Business Bureau BBB. A company should have an
excellent rating and few if any complaints. No company can satisfy everyone,
but dozens of complaints even resolved tells how satisfied most students were
with the course. One or two complaints are to be expected, but many complaints
tells you something is wrong with the training or the way it is presented.
5.
Guarantee
If
a company offers a guarantee, it is a HUGE RED FLAG. First and foremost, no one
can guarantee how you will apply yourself, or how well you will learn the
course material. Education is something no college or university guarantees.
Think about it. Does Harvard guarantee its graduates that they will succeed?
No, because education is a 50/50 relationship. The student must be willing to
apply themselves, and the educator must be willing to teach the student and
modify the education to the student’s need.
6. Is the Education a “One Size Fits All” solution?
This
is another big RED FLAG. Usually if the educational company has no
customization for each student, it is because it is either not a complete
course but a strategy, OR it is a vendor selling another product. Look for
educational companies that have a variety of educational courses and formats,
and are willing and able to tailor the educational program to your specific
needs and goals. As an example, is the course only about Day Trading? This is
just one of several Trading Styles to choose from. Day Trading is harder to
learn than these companies admit, far more costly, requires more skill, and
takes much longer to learn than other Trading Styles.
7. Cost
Although
most people make a decision about whether or not to buy a course based on its
price, there are some parameters to consider. If you choose the lowest price Stock
Market Course then it will probably be a disappointment, because either it will
not be all that you need to learn OR it will be a lead-in for a much higher
priced course. This is the method of “Up Selling” most vendors use.
If
the course is $10,000-$50,000 then you are paying way too much, and these are often
scams.
A
good way to calculate the value of a course is to relate it to a standard
college “per credit” based cost. How many semesters of education are you
getting, and is the cost in line with semester costs?
Summary Review of Stock Market Courses
Summary Review of Stock Market Courses
- How to select the right course for personal needs is not easy. There are hundreds of vendors, Retail Traders, and a few Professional Stock Market Educators offering courses. Just remember this, that there are those who teach and those who are teachers. They are not one and the same. Finding an outstanding teacher who is able to convey their knowledge, expertise, skill, and experience is a rare find.
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Trade Wisely,
Martha Stokes CMT
www.TechniTrader.com
www.MarthaStokes.com
Chartered Market Technician
Instructor & Developer of TechniTrader Stock & Option Courses
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