Lessons from get-rich courses

This article was published in The Sunday Times on October 4, 2009. Of course, due to the copyright reason, I am not able to re-produce this article. If you are interested, you can always grab an electronic copy if you are a subscriber of the Straits Times. [By the way, I am aware that many bloggers will simply copy and paste the article in their blogs. This is in breach of copyright under Singapore Copyrights Act. That is, there are legal consequences to copy and paste the article in their blogs without seeking either permission or waiver from SPH.]

The learned author shared with her experience in signing up a 4-day course on options trading and having paid > S$5,000 for this course. She concluded that she did not benefit from this course by objectively giving her reasons. This is good. She did not blame the trainer or the organization providing the course.

"Maybe it's because I was not hungry enough or I was just too busy with my work and family. It did not help that I fell ill immediately after the course"

"To be fair, XXX still invites me for refresher talks and is willing to sit me through a one-to-one mentor programme, but I cannot find the time."

So, the learnt author has correctly pointed out some critical success factors as to how one can benefit from these courses:

1. Be realistic
2. Setting aside time to learn and practise
3. Track record of the training firm and trainers.
4. Don't invest more than what we can afford to lose

No doubt the trainer undertakes to teach whatever he/she can teach. The students have to play their part and not to expect miracles. In other words, if the students' mindset is to go for the course once, and expect that they can trade and make tons of money in the market, perhaps they should not have had signed up for the course. Trading is a craft, and it will take time for us to practise the craft. And because each of us has different time commitment and other obligations, our learning curve will be different. Let's face it. If we spend only 30 minutes a day to practise, are we realistic to make money within a month or two after completing the course. Go figure.

Instead, Singaporean mindset is like this - they first of all will blame the trainers. They will conclude that the trainers are suckers and the public are the poor sheep. Is it fair to blame all the trainers that they have only one motive, i.e. to make money out of students because they cannot trade well. It also appears that the public have this perception that people who teach cannot trade, or people cannot teach and trade at the same time. I am not sure how this comes about because I have quite a number of trading buddies who can teach and share their ideas, while they are trading pretty well. So, if we are listening to hearsay, without going to look for counter examples of such limiting belief, who are we to judge at the end? Go figure.

Finally, teaching is not an easy task I must say. As a trainer, whenever I am asked to teach a course, I have students interest first. I will find out what they want to hear from me, and gauge their levels to make sure that they know how to look for the answers.

I hate to spoonfeed people. If a student comes to me and is basically looking for fish, my heart will go away. If a student has done his homework beforehand, I am happy to share my experience and direct the student to what he is looking for. In other words, if you give 200% and are committed to do the best, trainer like myself will likewise give our 200%.

To end on this note, I would like to share with my readers a recent response to a student who is dyeing to recoup his tuition fee in four months' time, and he is literally looking for quick tips to recoup his money, and showing no sign to respect trading as a business. Here you go:

1. My philosophy has always been that trading is a business, and it will take time for beginners to master the craft. There is no magic overnight nor miracle. It also depends on how much time we are committed to invest, regardless of our other family or personal obligations. It's like driving. The more time we spend on learning how to drive a car, the faster we get our license to drive on the road. It does not mean that we become a professional driver on the road. Beginners have to put on a P-plate and will be frowned upon by other road users (me included). Yet, having been driving for two decades on the road, I still cannot beat Lewis Hamilton because he is a professional F1 racer and he is of another level of skillset. Understand that trading is the same. It depends on how much we are committed. I told my students during preview very frankly if they are after recouping the course fee, they should not have signed up for my course. They should not even go for another course and simply forget about trading. Carrying this mindset is dangerous because it will sabotage that person. Let's be frank and honest here. There won't be a magic and whether you perceived it to be a misunderstanding or misrepresentation, in one way or the other, by Optionetics or any other people around you, I will assure you that this is my guarantee - if you are willing to give you 200% to invest time to perfect the craft, the instructor team (me included) will give you our 200% to assist you.

Virtual trading is a good start and from a trading psychology viewpoint, you have to do what you are comfortable in trading. So, what is the deal if you are trading spread using Jan 2010 options? Are you going to force a trade using near month option and yet if you are not sure what it means in terms of risk, you are going to lose even more. Assuming that you are getting refunds from Optionetics, if you continue to trade that way, you will be bound to lose a lot of money in the market, and no one is going to refund you. Have you considered this potential danger? Are you going to get refunds from Optionetics and call it a day? If so, why would you sign up for the course in the first place? So, I see a lot of internal conflicts and I can feel your frustration. My experience of you is that it may be the appropriate time for you to reflect on yourself.

2. Optionetics does not encourage one to daytrade. It's been clearly explained in 2-day seminar. Of course, we cannot stop anyone from doing daytrade if he/she chooses to, and he/she has to take 100% responsibility for his/her own conduct. Yet, in reality, a lot of people will choose to be blamer (one of the 5 recognized categories by Virginia Satir - go and google this lady if you are interested). I would encourage you to do whatever it takes to shift your mindset by taking your time to perfect the craft. It's not about reading another book, or going for another course, or learning from another person. Trading is a very personal thing and is a lonely business. We do a lot of self-talk everyday. There is this saying that we talk to ourselves 60,000 times a day. In trading, I will double or even triple this number. Do you realize that you are actually talking to yourself now? So, my experience of you is that you've got to know who you are, not as a person, but as a trader.

3. So, in the moment of time but not future, ask yourself these questions: have you done up a trading business plan? Have you found out your preferred markets, strategies? Have you figured out your risk appetite, and the rules applicable to money management and risk management? How do you manage your discipline if your internal voice is telling you to be "naughty"? What is your proposed research & development (i.e. continuous educational development) expenditure? I seek your understanding that Jack spent one whole year in the US just to learn all these from his mentors before he sees the exponential growth in his trading performance. Without a business plan, we will always be making unnecessary time wasting roundtrips.

4. While it may sound disappointing to you whether it is true or not, I seek your understanding that if we respect who we are as a trader, we will grow as a trader. The moment we have self-doubt, we will not behave as a trader but just another person on the street who is looking for another advertisement about someone selling a trading course and alleging that his/her students make 7000% in a day. There are too many blacksheep in Singapore who are selling us dreams. Trading success is not about knowing one or two strategies. All my successful trading buddies subscribe to one common theme - managing our risk and getting to understand trading psychology. On trading psychology, it is a self-experimental exercise, which means that you have to practise on your own. No one is able to teach you this. In terms of good reference books, I will recommend you to read "Trading for a Living" by Dr. Alexander Elder and "Trading in the Zone" by Mark Douglas. These two books are on the top of my list in terms of trading psychology.

5. Finally, understand that trading is not a QTBR scheme (i.e. quick to be rich scheme). If a neuro-surgeon has to master the craft for a decade, what makes us think that trading is not the same? In other words, are we able to succeed so easily by reading a few books or going for one course, and then we can trade like a pro? Unfortunately, many other course providers are selling us this dream., and suck our money. If you have a chance to talk to me in the next 2-day class on 19-20 Nov, I am happy to elaborate this further.

6. Now, I want you to reflect what you have done since the last 2-day class. Have you been following the markets day in day out? Have you finished reading the Home Study Course for 10 times? Have you watched all DVDs / listened to the CDs? Have you been reading articles in Optionetics.com everyday? Have you exhausted available resources like going to my discussion board to ask me question? Ask yourself whether you have given your 200% here. I am not saying that you haven't. I seek your understanding that if you can give yourself a true and honest assessment on what you have done, it will answer a lot of questions you might have.