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.
These seminars will represent a very large investment for most people so care has to be taken when selecting a seminar educational company. In this article you will find a few good tips about what to look out for if you call that 1 800 number.
There are quite a few companies that got into the trading seminar business recently, at least in the last 5 years. This has been fuelled by the meltdown of the market during 2000-2003 which has led many investors and traders want to self direct and manage their own money. The less attractive option is leaving it in the hands of an often less than competent fund manger, who may not have your best interests at heart.
Some of the companies that that advertise extensively on late night TV are Investools, Optionetics, Bettertrades and Star Trader. I’m very familiar with these companies as I’ve attended the free warm up selling seminar for all of them, and actually bought and attended seminars from 3.
The usual sales cycle is as follows, the infomercial is designed to get you to attend what I call the FREE warm up selling seminar. This seminar is usually in a local hotel and can last anything from 30 minutes to 3 hours. From my experience the free Investools seminar lasted about 3 hours and was actually very informative and educational. The others were much shorter and really nothing more than sales pitch’s to get you to sign up for a starter seminar which could cost anything from $199 to $4K!.
Usually an attractive discount incentive is offered at these free seminars to encourage you to sign up on the spot, which is not normally available, so be prepared to be tempted, if you are weak willed by all means attend but leave your credit cards and check book at home. More often you will be given a set of DVD’s, manuals and website login immediately allowing yourself time to study before attending the live seminar.
The following points should be born in mind before signing up for a seminar:
1. Check what the return policy is very carefully as this can vary a lot. Sometimes it is 2 weeks, sometimes it is up until noon of the 1st day of the seminar, sometimes until the end of the 1st day etc. The important point is to use this time wisely and fully evaluate the materials that have been given to you. If you are not happy or satisfied be ready to ask for a full refund before your return period ends, otherwise these companies can play hard ball.
2. If you are allowed to bring a 2nd person to the seminar at no extra cost, then take advantage of this. It is very valuable to have a 2nd opinion about the merits of a seminar since it will be an expensive investment. If you are not allowed a 2nd person it may not be a good deal.
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 the bottom line about these beginner trading seminars. They are not going to teach you everything you need to know to be a successful trader in 2-3 days, there’s simply too much you need to learn. They all have follow on intermediate and advanced courses like Options, Advanced Options, Technical Analysis, Advanced Strategies, and so the list goes on. Expect the selling process for these follow on seminars to begin during the expensive seminar that you just paid for!.
Expect a hard sell for the follow on seminars from some of these companies. The sales pitch is usually well practised and hard to resist so be prepared and don’t act on impulse.
I would only recommend buying additional seminars or material from a company if you are very satisfied with what you have seen so far, and only buy in small increments. The reason is that usually you don’t get any refund period guarantee’s on additional buys other than the usual state 3 day cooling off period, which is not much use if you are just signed up for 2 years of seminars!.