Bright and Echo both offer seminars. I went to the Bright Seminar in Feb, the Echo in March.
I learned a lot ... not so much what was taught in the classes, but the externals ... viewing the office, chatting with traders there, seeing how the "experts" interact with the participants, getting the dirt on one firm from another, seeing if Pro. trading is really how it's hyped to be.
Bright: The seminar is 5 days long however it can be easily covered in about 8-12 hours. Two strategies were covered ... opening orders and momentum trading. Pairs/Merg/arg was discussed, however I didn't really consider specifics were touched to consider this strategy being fully disclosed. A "blueprint" or timeline of a typical trading day was provided. All-in-all, the handouts consisted of a 9 page booklet and a few single-page handouts. I took some good notes. I came away with a general overview of what prop. trading was about. I didn't seem to learn anything specific strategies that I could immediately apply to my trading. A big push for signup and consistent encouragement to come trade in Las Vegas was present. Part of Thurs. evening was dedicated to signup. The morning session (seeing the opening) field trip was ok. Got to see the traders from the viewing perch. Didn't get to see Don trade so the rest of the time was practically worthless. Don explained how the Fair Value was calculated, then disappeared into his office to trade. He came back 10 minutes later saying he made some $. I mentioned that it might be a "little" more helpful if we could actually watch him trading. He commented that he wanted to trade and this wasn't practical. I'm sorry ... I thought my $1000 fee to attend your seminar would give me some consideration. Earl was a humorous and lively speaker. He was generally good, however he did get a few things backward (saying the DJ index wasn't weighed and a few other small details). Earl did ridicule a seminar participant (sorry Corey) in front of everyone which was unprofessional and rude. Bob was a very straightforward person. Very direct and truthful. Every question I asked he answered bluntly. No BS filtering necessary. Don was generally a good speaker, however there were some times that blanks had to be filled in with some missing (key) pieces of information. The Bright office in LV looked a little tired. The computers were a little rough with mixed-matched monitors and the like. It reminded me of my college graduate computer lab
Overall, I give the seminar experience a C-. The handouts were scarce, the instructors had little patience for participants struggling with concepts (including yours truly on tape reading), there was a lot of filler and certain, hard questions were dodged. Don teaching one night in jogging pants wasn't the classiest either. A BIG disappointment was not being able to actually talk w/several traders at Bright during the day. I requested this and Don refused saying traders "Don't want to be bothered ... they want to trade and make money" (his words)
Echo: Their seminar was a little hard to sign up for. A few calls to Teri did the trick, though. There was some question whether the March seminar was going to be in San Diego or Las Vegas. A little encouragement to have it in SD sealed me visiting the firm. The class sessions were long and there were a few times when I was in a fog. The jet lag didn't help but I personally appreciated the class being taught on the weekend. I didn't have to stay for 5 days like I did in LV at the Bright Seminar (their seminar could be easily taught in 1.5 - 2 days). Jonathan, Aly, and Robert conveyed some good info. There wasn't time built into the seminar for recruitment (a nice touch). I don't mind people trying to recruit participants, but do it outside of classroom time. The handouts were substantial ... a huge book and two supplemental handouts on tape reading and Aly's technique for trading the market. The main book has a lot of background material, a listing of the SP stocks, a glossary and such. This could be labled filler, but reference only material is more appropriate. The reason I say this is that lecture time wasn't dedicated to reciting this material. The book did include three strategies outlined for use ... momentum trading (breakouts and playing news), opening orders and pairs/arbs. A lunchtime technique for playing low volume periods was also discussed somewhat. There was definitely more "meat" in this seminar than the previous discussed. Another key difference was the interaction of the instructors w/participants. I struggled with tape reading and asked the same question 4-5 times. The instructors were patient and attempted to answer my (and other's) questions completely. A huge bonus was being able to visit the office on the next two trading days and see how things ran. Granted, there were fewer trader in the office now than there are reportedly now. However I didn't get the anticipated attitude from different traders that I was pestering them. I asked a few questions and my inquiries were welcome. The Echo office in SD is gorgeous. New equipment, nice view from the 8th floor of a new building, nice eye candy in the Mission Valley area. Each trading station had internet access ... my understanding is the standard Bright station in LV did not. Overall, I give my experience there a B+. The instruction was good, office was nice and clean, the handout material adequate. The days were a bit long and some sections dragged on. At some points the instruction didn't flow smoothly. I understand that neither the guys at Bright or Echo claim to be professional speakers, but traders.
Bottom line, goto both seminars. Learn as much as you can before deciding to enter this tough game. Make sure your common sense hat on as there is a lot of not-quite-the-truths and missing-link facts going on.
I've personally been considering going Pro. for approx. six months. My conclusion (i.e. opinion) is that trading is extremely tough ... it can be done, however why not take the path of least resistance. Being the house is better than trying to beat the house. I've decided not to go pro. as a career. In the future, I may get my 7 so I can trade as a hobby, however it's much easier for me to make better, consistent money by other risk-adverse means.
