Businessweek seminars worth it? Help please!!!

I attended this seminar in March a few months ago. I had just gotten interested in trading/investing in general and thought that this seminar would be good. It is, if you know absolutely NOTHING about trading.

Their first day is devoted to using their "fundamental" analysis. Which is basically just data taken from Zacks website, yahoo, etc. The second half of the day is devoted to learning about the MACD and Slow Stochastics. Basically, if both cross the 0 line, you buy, if both cross below, you sell. This is extremely extremely extremely technical analysis.

The second day is devoted to learning about option strategies. About 5-6 strategies are taught (covered calls, selling naked puts, using the vix, etc.)

Heed the advice of everyone before, take that money and use it to purchase books. Read all that you can on Elitetrader.

Since March, I've learned a LOT about trading. My best decision was studying with Joe DiNapoli. His book is about 170 bucks, and his private seminar was 1200 bucks. Going to this was the best decision I've ever made. However, I would wait until you've learned a lot about technical analysis, market theory, and paper-traded a while before you start with DiNapoli's stuff, as sometimes you can't appreciate what's good without first experiencing the bad.

My 2 cents-
eugene
 
grayhorse,

pick up a copy of "Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom", Van Tharp. ignore the cheesy title. this one spells out the name of the game better then any trading book i can think of. don't expect to understand it all the first time around.


"Reminisences of a Stock Operator" is an obvious must read.. it'll probably just be a good story first time around.. but once you've had some $ on the line and traded for a while, you'll be nodding your head along in the re-read..

"How To Take Money from Wall St" Tony Oz. nothing earth shattering in here, just good, solid trading advice... in and of itself won't make u a mill, but it will put some "structurally sound" trading ideas in your head..

"How to make money in stocks" William O'Neal.. another book with a cheesy name but great info inside... this one's for the longer term stuff (multiday/week holding periods..)

any book on basic technical analysis will do as far as getting you a grounding in the basics of it, such as John Murphy, Martin Pring, Steve Achelis etc.. or you could just dig up somehting on the net.. stockcharts.com (i think) has some pretty good descriptive stuff on it.. eventually, like most people, you'll realise much of TA is a waste of time, but at least you'll understand the trading lingo...and you might even find a couple of things that work for you, or spark off some ideas...

if you are truly new to the game, any one of the slew of electronic trading books that came out a few years ago is as good as any other when it comes to explaining the basics... just ignore the parts where it makes it sound like a million dollars is a walk in the park away.. pick one up from your library or the discount stand at your bookstore..

"market wizards" or "new market wizards" (or both), jack schwager. a good read to light the "i too can do it" fire under your belly... or something to come back to re-ignite your spirits after you lose money for a while.. both considered classics..

most people will tell you to read Mark Douglas. i can't disagree with that. for the more emotinally intelligent, Douglas's work could probably be summarised in about half the pages, but it's still a very useful read nevertheless..

my point with "there's about five books worth reading" wasn't to say there are exactly five.. just that there's little point going on a grail quest to read book after book after book.. it's not necessary... you'll learn a shit load more just trading..

oh, and since you've mentioned "fundamentals" a couple of times, i would really recommend you read "The Money Game", Adam Smith. this one's a real eye opener for the more naive about the stock "investing" world...
 
haha. yeah, go to serminar and pay big money to the man. he will tell you how to say I wnat to get fully invested in stock on the tv. Then he will tell you how to write letter to your investors saying this is stock for long haul. this is stock for 3 to 5 yeatr time horizon. So you cna become new CNBC stockman guru. They will ivite you on tv and you cna wear nice shiny suit and talk like the funny man and just say same thing over and over again.
 
Daniel,

Don't know if you have read both, if so, how would you compare "The Stock Trader" with "How to Take Money from WS"

The Stock Trader was good, just curious if the later is just a rehash or truly new material.

Thankz
 
no i never read "the stocktrader". i wouldn't mind reading it, i'll probably get around to it some time soon.

from what i've heard that one was more of trading diary kind of thing wasn't it? i guess "how to take money" is more of a "this is important,.. here do this, this and this" kind of thing.

so, can't really help on the "is it a rehash" question... my guess is probably.. depending on your level now, i'd imagine you wouldn't find anything in "how to take money" that's gonna make any huge difference to your trading...but what the hell, for a few RTs it's not gonna hurt...

as far as recommendations go.. even though i haven't read it, i wouldn't recommend to newbies to read it as a first choice... market was too different in early 2000 to what it is now... of course, principles are prinicples.. but it's the juicy examples that usually catch the eye...
 
Originally posted by daniel_m

so, can't really help on the "is it a rehash" question... my guess is probably.. depending on your level now, i'd imagine you wouldn't find anything in "how to take money" that's gonna make any huge difference to your trading...but what the hell, for a few RTs it's not gonna hurt...

Thanks, I found a few used and paperback copies on Amazon, $15 makes more sense to me than $50 for a book, even if I do have to deal with the one page with the mystery goo.


as far as recommendations go.. even though i haven't read it, i wouldn't recommend to newbies to read it as a first choice... market was too different in early 2000 to what it is now... of course, principles are principles.. but it's the juicy examples that usually catch the eye...

Your right, he is trading a few stocks that were over $100 per share like VNTR at $140, I don't even know if that trades anymore. And RMBS at $200, ah those were the days.
More...
 
$4000 to hear somebody yack for two days and a couple of handouts? You've got to be kidding.
Getting a roomful of people to each pay you $250/hour for two days is where the real money is.
 
Thanks daniel_m, eugene, and all others who have given some great advice. I will save the $4K and spread it out over books and trades. I'm still interested in seminars if you think of some worthwhile please post them. What about online seminars like tradersbootcamp.com? Any of these worth the price?

Thanks,
Gray
 
You should look at these EXPO's that are held several times a year as that is where you can get good value and network. While youre there you will be able to talk to others who can tell you what seminars they attended and got value from and which were a waste of money.

For example there is a Money Watch expo in Orlando in November. For a 300 bucks you can take in:

Steve Nison who "literally" wrote the book on Candlestick Charting, Jake Bernstein (not my fav but he has written some books that are heavy on trading setups), John Bollinger (of Bollinger/CNBC fame), elliot wave mumbo jumbo presentations, the Bright Brothers and their Snake oil Tour are there, plus Ralph Block and others.

Here's a link for the full line up. Someone will probably start a thread for it as it approaches since a few traders from here will probably check it out.

http://www.moneywatchexpo.com/orlando.html

Here on the east coast most of the expo's are in NYC, including the big one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top