Quote from Thunderdog:
Courses and seminars are for people who are too lazy to read books. Seminar "leaders" do seminars and courses because they think they can extract more money from the great unwashed that way than writing a book. (What does that tell you?) The insult to injury is that less material can be covered in less depth during the course of a seminar than in a book. And what brings everything together and into perspective is that most trading books are not worth their price, even when deeply discounted. Now what does that tell you about seminars and courses?
As to your more specific question, I have posed a similar question from time to time here, and have yet to receive a response. Most recently:
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...ht=successful+trader+direct+result#post718240
And what does that tell you?
I think the only thing that's held me back from making a killing on the seminar market is that I just can't bring myself to believe people can really be
so stupid that they shell out thousands of dollars on seminars. It's funny -- I know it is true and it is happening (people are going to these seminars), but I just keep thinking people are going to wake up and realize what a complete rip off it is. (But noooo -- people keep going!)
I mean, take someone like Van Tharp. You can get his book for $50 or whatever, even let's say $100. Or you can get
less information at his seminar for $4000. And economists tell us people act rationally.
Having said that, I think chatroom type operations could probably be somewhat helpful to
complete newbies. You know, someone who's bought the books, done his homework, but is still extremely green. He could probably use the guidance of a reputable chatroom operator. No, that, in and of itself, won't make him profitable (no matter what the operator claims), but it could potentially save him from making some very costly mistakes and slightly cut down on his learning curve.
What are chatrooms going for these days? Couple hundred a month? Do that for three to six months and it's a lot more value for money than attending a seminar or "boot camp". (Don't get me wrong -- I'm very, very anti-chatroooms, and anti all trading vendors, but a good chatroom that doesn't make absurdly wild claims (they all make at least mildly wild claims) probably does have its place for complete newbs.)
