Ditto on the free Tony Oz book last year. They put one in every attendee's registration packet. Not sure how he could then sell you on it. Also, I really liked the Shropshire (sp?) book on trading psychology in the packet.
I've not yet attended any paid sessions, though tempted. Sometimes speakers from paid events gave free 1-hour talks which were quite good. Some earlier comments I posted on this are at:
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25867
I attended Alexander Elder's free talk on investing in overseas markets. He mentioned emerging markets as having two-fold benefits: growing economies, currencies strengthening against the dollar. He advised caution on Japan, but suggested Eastern Europe, including Russia, as having good potential.
Since that suggestion the Russian stock market gained about 60% since that call, and that's after the roughly 15% plunge from the Yukos Khodorovsky scandal. From the Russian gov't debt default crisis in the late 90's up to about a few months ago, the Russian stock market had gained 925% in about 5-6 years. That's about 57% compounded annually.
Despite having defected from the Soviet Union (1980's ?) Elder mentioned that he now has some sort of contact with the Russian markets, and one of his family was even working in Moscow.
His academic inclinations give him a tendency to refer you to other people's publications in case you want to pursue a thread in more depth.
Rather than pitching his own books, Elder was actually strongly advising people to read the Economist magazine. That was his strongest pitch of all.
He may not be the most dynamic or energetic speaker, but he struck me as a lot more credible and thoughtful than those who touted their wares.
If you want to read more about him, he has a web site. It is easy to find, but I won't post the URL in case it seems like this post is a sales pitch.
