Selecting A Trading Seminar For Stocks, Options Or Forex

Anyone who has watched any late night TV recently cannot have failed to have noticed the many comercials trying to sell you on a series of trading seminars which promise will change your life and make you rich.

Before embarking on a course of trading seminars there are a few very important points that you need to be aware of before making your choice of educational company. In this article we will try and point out some of the things to be aware of.

It was the market melt down during 2000-2003 which has fuelled the huge growth in the trading seminar business. Many people now realize that making money trading is not so easy and requires a good education if you are going to survive all market conditions. This is a better option that just trusting what a fund manager may advise you who may be more concerned about his commission than your retirement.

Bettertrades, Optionetics, Investools and Star Trader are the companies that I see most often on late night TV running their 30 minute commercials. They usuall visit a number of large cities across the country and I've been able to attend all of their free warm up seminars at some point. I've also bought seminars and other products from these companies.

The usual sales cycle is as follows, the infomercial is designed to get you to attend what I call the FREE warm up selling seminar. This seminar is usually in a local hotel and can last anything from 30 minutes to 3 hours. From my experience the free Investools seminar lasted about 3 hours and was actually very informative and educational. The others were much shorter and really nothing more than sales pitch's to get you to sign up for a starter seminar which could cost anything from $199 to $4K!.

From my experiance you will 1st be given an inflated price for the seminar which will then be cut dramatically if you sign up on the spot, so be prepared to be tempted by this. Most of these seminars come with a set of DVD's and a manual which enable you to study the material before attending the live seminar.

The following points should be born in mind before signing up for a seminar:

1. Make sure that there is a good refund policy that comes with the package. You should get at least 2 weeks to evaluate the training material that you are given. In addition check what the policy is regards to attending the seminar and then asking for a refund. Sometimes you can only stay until noon on the 1st day, or only the 1st day, before you must ask for a refund if not satisfied. If you wait too long you may lose your right to a refund.

2. Ask what the policy is regarding bringing another family member or business partner to the seminar. Usually you are allowed to bring 1 person, take this opportunity as it is better to have the opinion of another trusted person when trying to evalute if the seminar is good value and right for you.

3. Ask if the price that you are paying for the seminar is the lowest price that is being offered, just like airlines tickets you don't want to sit next to someone at the seminar and find out they paid $500 less than you for exactly the same seminar!

4. Be very sure that the seminar you have signed up for is going to cover what you want to learn. Sometimes the agender is vague and the speaker goes off on their own favourite topics. If you want specific training on stocks, options or Forex make sure that they will be covered in detail in the seminar.

Remember that learning how to trade is not as easy as many people try and make out. These seminar companies are not going to be able, and don't really want to, teach you everything you need to know in a couple of days. They all have an extensive range of follow on seminars and will start to sell these to you during your beginner seminar, so be aware!.

Some of these companies do a really hard sell for their follow up seminars, they are professionals and have practiced their sales pitch many times until it works, so be prepared for this and act accordingly.

If you buy any follow on seminars they are very unlikley to come with an extended refund period other than the minimum 3 days cooling off period set by some states. This is an important point to consider if you are buying a number of seminars that will run over a number of years.

By James J. Dehoiver