I have 4 golden rules that I use to determine if a trading method is good for me:

1. It must be a complete method, with setup conditions, entry rules, initial stop rules, and exit strategy rules, leaving no decision to chance.
2. It must include specific risk management, money management, and portfolio management guidelines.
3. It must be based on technical analysis, but it must not be a 100% mechanical system.
4. It must take less than 20 minutes a day to apply after learning how to trade with it.

Impressed so far? Would you continue reading the remainder of the copy?

Well I’d be impressed… I’d be a little niggly on the last two points as I wouldn’t care if a method took 20 minutes or 2 hours (obviously I’d prefer the lesser time), and so what if the system is 100% mechanical, wouldn’t that be a good thing? Sure, all systems break down, we all know that the only thing guaranteed in life is change so you not only need to have a method that works, but you need to have a process where you can adapt to changing conditions (i.e. how do you know a system no longer works? how do you then tweak it?).

But I found there was one even more important element that this person missed from their golden rules. Did you pick it up?

To see if the element I thought they missed in the opening pitch was going to be in the remainder of the copy I continued to read it… and sure enough it wasn’t there! (Okay, so there was one testimonial where one customer claimed to have had 8 winners in a row – they could’ve all been 1 pip profits, or 1000 pip profits, we aren’t told.)

So what was the missing element?

EVIDENCE

Talk is cheap dear friends we all know that – and it’s even cheaper on the internet! The only evidence this copy provided was the web site statistics on how many people viewed their site, and the expense at creating the high class videos that were used to create the DVD course. Both of which I have no doubt on.

But so what!

Sure, your method may use non-technical methods, you may be counting how many pigeons poop on your Porsche every morning to determine whether to go long or short the Euro, but what has been that method’s results? And can they be verified by an independent third party?

Sure, past performance is not indicative of future returns, but they’re a good guide aren’t they? I mean, would you prefer to place money into an asset that loses money 20-30% every year? No? But past performance is not indicative of future returns, next year the asset might make money?? True, but something would need to change for this asset to make money because the probabilities from its previous history indicate otherwise.

And we know you don’t need a 100% mechanical system to be profitable. That’s what demo accounts are for. You can be at the other end of the spectrum and have a 100% discretionary system, that’s fine. Run a demo account for a few months trading your plan (which is written down, yes?) and see how the results go. As you’re trading write down things that you notice with why a trade was profitable or not (did you trade the method exactly? did you notice anything unusual prior to entry? did you notice anything unusual about where your initial stop was? did something unusual happen during the trade? how was your exit?) – by doing this after your testing period you may begin to see a pattern develop with certain trades and find that when your method is tweaked to compensate for this pattern your method improves immensely!

If you have no plan you have no method.

And if you have results but no plan you have no idea on what works and what doesn’t!? So if your trading a demo account but have no plan – STOP!

Then start by doing the following:
1. Formulate a method. Find what indicators/fundamentals resonate with you, or look at some charts and see what patterns you notice. We’re all different here. I’m not a big fan of Elliott Wave, Gann, counting Uranus’ rings, or counting pigeon poop on my car, but for some of you those things will work the best (hopefully not the pigeon poop!). The best system for you is in you. All you need is time and experience to find it.
2. Test your method. If you can get some historical data, and can write computer code then mechanically test it, if you can’t that’s fine, be sure to write your method down and demo trade it.
3. Stick to your method for a set period of time/trades (at least 20 trades, but if you’re doing more than a trade a day I’d recommend trading for at least a month). To stay disciplined I recommend you exercise regularly or perhaps clean your house regularly (trust me your partner will love you for it – even if you don’t make money), because if you cannot stay disciplined in one small area of your life what makes you think you can do it in the hectic world of forex trading? Oh wait a minute you’re a “special case” and these rules don’t apply to you… rrrright.

You don’t need a special top secret course to tell you what you already know on how to be profitable in the forex market. You just need to get off your lazy glutes and do the work yourself.

If success were easy everyone would have it – and what would special about it then?

So if you’re buying this course then I believe you do so on faith. Nothing indicates to me that the method even works, which means clients may be very disappointed at the actual results when they come to trade it. I have no doubt that this organization will offer tremendous support, or help educate the customer on what the forex market is, but can’t all this be done for free from a popular forex forum??

Tags: Forex Course, Forex Trading, Forex Trading Courses

One such forex course that came across my desk not too long ago stated in their copy that users COULD make US$300 per day trading their method, with only 20-30 minutes day of work.

What shocked me though, as I read through the copy, was that the claim was backed on mere hearsay.

That’s right there was no substantive evidence confirming that a user could make US$300/day – just someone’s opinion!

Yet this course sold for US$2,000 and many bought into the hype.

When I asked how such claims were derived (i.e. from hypothetical backtesting, or from actual trading – whether it be from the person selling the course or from a customer) no such response was given (which didn’t surprise me).

In this internet age things such as this will become more prominent.

Forex trading is a skill. There’s nothing wrong with purchasing ebooks or courses if you believe purchasing the course will enhance your forex trading skills, but try to remain objective whenever you come across such emotive sales copy that has been written by a trained copywriter who is expert in exaggerating claims and enhacing the course without stretching the truth too much.

You may even want to employ tactics that I use before I purchase a product (I’m going to assume that the product being pucrhased here is an informational product, you wouldn’t likely be able to use these tactics if purchasing a signal service, or something more tangible such as forex data):

First thing I do is look for claims in the sales copy of what this product will give me and I try to reverse engineer from the sales copy! What I try to look for are bullet points as these usually contain small snippets of information about what the product will provide. What I do with each bullet point is to try and figure out for myself what each bullet point’s answer is – it will be test of your own knowledge and also your creativity. As an example a sales copy might say:

• Know which direction a currency is likely to trend in the short-term AND medium-term in TEN SECONDS.

Now if you had to think of what this could be what answers would you come up with? Stop, think about it for a minute. Try it for a few seconds and see what you’d come up with.

If I had to have a guess on copy that said something like that I’d probably guess that the course would be either peddling some sort of trending technical indicator (such as moving averages, trend lines… etc) and employing them on different time frames to gauge short and medium-term trend, or perhaps looking at carry trades by assessing which pair has the higher interest rate (for medium-term direction), or perhaps looking at announcements to see whether an economic report will be favorable or not to a currencies short-term direction.

Sometimes brainstorming like this has produced new ideas… all thanks to a product I never bought!

If I come across a bullet point that I cannot answer I write it down and come back to it when I’ve gone through the copy. When I’m done I then go back to all the bullets and determine whether the bullet point will indeed enhance my forex trading. For those bullet points that I believe MAY enhance my forex trading skills I look at the price of the product and make one last final determination on whether the price fits the value (that I deem) for me to increase my forex skills.

Sometimes I’ll even search on the internet to see if I can try and find the answer to it before buying the product, because you never know if the seller may have pinched it from somewhere else!

So, one of your main priorities when purchasing any forex product should be: will it enhance my forex trading skills. If it doesn’t don’t be afraid to say no and move on – spending money on forex material is an EXPENSE and will affect your overall profit and loss at the end of the financial year.

Signal vendors come and go, methods have their season, but if you have purchased products that have enhanced your forex trading skills then you’ve got something that will last you a lifetime.

Tags: Forex Systems, Forex Trading, Forex Trading Courses

The free forex course that I found adequately refreshing and well worth an endorsement was Forex Television”.

The other forex course that I have personally been involved with and endorse is the FX Powercourse.

It’s imperative to receive the right forex tuition when you start out in the forex market and these two course will definitely get you off onto the right foot.

As for advanced forex courses I am still on the lookout… if you know of any please add a comment below.

Tags: Forex Trading Courses

I can personally vouch for the quality of content provided in the FX Powercourse – having completed it myself (and graduated!) – and if I had to do MY forex education all over again there would be no doubt that I would do this course FIRST.

And I don’t say this lightly… as the path I took to educate myself in the forex market involved countless hours, and thousands of dollars spent on forex ebooks, forex courses and forex seminars. While I never regret the education I did undertake if I HAD done the FX Powercourse I would have saved myself those precious hours and the surmounting losses that accrued in my live forex trading account while I guessed my way around.

The most valuable part of the FX Powercourse, I thought, was not the education presented (as valuable as that was, although having been in the forex industry for sometime it was nothing new), but rather having at your disposal a knowledgable crew of forex tutors willing to help you understand.

If you’ve ever attended a seminar and felt too shy to ask your personal question, or never had the time to ask your question, then the FX Powercourse will be a refreshing change as the course is in a forum format.

I must admit I found this structure initially quite odd, although once I became accustomed to it I understood the power behind it. Not only could I ask my questions at ANY time during the day I could also ask a thousand questions and not be ridiculed or laughed at (well I couldn’t hear anyone laughing at the questions I asked!).

And not only that, but I also grew from the questions asked by others far more intelligent than I! It was a win-win for all students involved!

So what do you get with the FX Powercourse?

Besides the education, you receive access to the forex tutors (yes there’s more than one), critiques on your paper trades, tests (to see how you are progressing throughout the course) and a 1-year consultation with the tutors provided you open up a live FXCM account. You also receive a certificate when you graduate (which will be needed if you decide to do the advanced course… coming soon) and
access to another forum where other forex graduates intermingle.

Those that are likely to benefit the most from the course would be new forex traders. If you already have a sufficient understanding with some of the popular technical indicators, know how to fundamentally analyse a currency, and have a basic understanding in money management then this course may not provide the value that you’ll seek.

But, as with anything in life you only get out what you put in. So even if you are a new forex trader and don’t become an active participant then you too will be sorely disappointed.

Any tips for those doing the course?

Yes… here’s a few things that can help enhance your experience:

• Make sure you read through as many forum posts as you can, even if you think you know the area well… and even if you do try to help out someone! You might be able to impart some of your knowledge to your co-students and enhance their experience!
• Do the homework… I know you hate it, I know you’ve always hated it, but if you do it you’ll be able to show your instructors how well you have been going through the course… and you may discover a new question, or idea!
• Do the tests… although I found a few questions a bit peculiar the tests will help you guage how well you are doing… and how well you really know your stuff!
• Submit a few hypothetical trades… don’t try to place your own knowledge into a trade, start from scratch and put everything that you’ve learnt in the course into practice – then conduct a hypothetical trade, post it, and see what the tutors think of your work.
• Make sure you give yourself at least an hour a day to go through the course. The course takes one month, so you want to make sure that you are able to be there as much as you can.

The course is only limited to 200 participants and only runs at designated times throughout the month so you’ll need to be quick if you want to be involved in the latest course!

So, if you’re looking to kick start your forex career with the help of 200 other likeminded individuals (plus the myriad of others who have completed the course and frolick in the graduates user forum) AND receive help from a handful of knowledgable forex tutors, you’ll want to click the link below right now…

FX Powercourse

Tags: FX Powercourse, Forex Trading Courses

When I viewed Forex Television I was blown away by the amount of free stuff they gave away.

Here they offer free visual training on technical analysis, fundamental analysis as well as other great relevant pieces of information on the forex market.

To access their training just go to the channel guide section go to the “Online Training”, “Technical Analysis” & “Knowledge Center” clips.

Tags: Forex Television, Forex Trading Courses