Learn trade co uk forex

Learn trade co uk forex

By: S2G7faO4 On: 06.07.2017

Saturday 20 July These are just some of the glowing testimonials posted on "learn to trade" websites, which hold out the promise that anyone who spends just a few hours at a seminar can look forward to a future relaxing on luxury yachts in the Caribbean sipping strawberry daiquiris.

All you have to do, it seems, is follow a few easy-to-apply trading strategies. Almost every day in hotel suites across the UK a new crop of would-be stockmarket millionaires sit down to hear from the "professionals" the secrets of trading in stocks and currencies. Over the last few months I've been one of them. Not only that, I decided to put down some of my own money and see how far I'd get following the advice of the so-called experts.

What did the seminars tell me? That investing for the long term, buying low and selling high in the style of Warren Buffet, is old hat. Instead, I should jump into the world of "spread betting", going "long" and going "short", with mini-bursts of activity based on the zigzag of chart patterns.

This, I was told, is the "recession proof" way to make money. But relatively little time was spent actually teaching me about investing. It left me feeling that the only people getting rich from the learn-to-trade industry were the learn-to-trade companies themselves. But as an out-and-out beginner in the world of investment, I admit I have learnt a few things. But am I making any money? Hi-energy pop blasts out of the speakers as attendees arrive at a "live trading day" run by industry veteran Darren Winters on a muggy Tuesday afternoon.

Winters is something of a controversial figure. In the mids his company held events up and down the UK. However, his promotional claims led to a reprimand from the Advertising Standards Authority. In recent years he has had a lower profile, but he is now back teaching stock market trading. If you type "Darren Winters" into Google it's not difficult to find negative stories.

I decided to fudge questions on the course application form about my reasons for attending. Was he really that bad? He proves to be an engaging presenter and provides some standard advice: Always place the same number of trades long speculating that prices will rise and short that they'll fall so you're covered whichever way the market goes. And never forget to use a "stop loss" to minimise any losses.

But it transpires that he is also seeking volunteers for his "Elite Apprentice Programme", which starts costing as much as a new car, but rapidly tumbles in price — if people sign up today. A few hours into the seminar my constant note-taking arouses Winters' suspicions.

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He really does not trust journalists. What I do know is he doesn't like hacks sniffing round his business. The following week I'm at an introductory stock trading seminar run by Knowledge to Action in a plush mahogany-panelled hotel near Westminster Bridge.

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It opens with a slick video presentation accompanied by a driving soundtrack. The message is clear: The talk is punctuated with references to dream holidays and flashy cars that are within everyone's grasp, although he does stop to outline his trading rules: Charlotte, a businesswoman sitting next to me, is not altogether impressed. Knowledge to Action was founded a decade ago by former IT consultant Greg Secker and has trained more than , people around the world. Students are taught by professional traders on live trading floors, the company says.

I put out some feelers on internet forums used by traders. Had people who attended managed to make any real money? The first to come back to me was a former employee of Knowledge to Action. They are more likely to be ex-double glazing salesmen. I was also contacted by Stuart Rice, former marketing head at Knowledge to Action, who said that the two-day training courses, which can pack as many as 60 people into a room, are followed by three half-hour one-on-one coaching sessions.

John Crawley, who attended the two-day stock trading course, told me he struggled to apply some of the techniques he was taught. The best I got was someone on Skype, but they couldn't really answer my questions. It wasn't worth the money. Amy Leveson Gower, chief operating officer of Knowledge to Action, disputes these claims. These are openly and neutrally posted at http: A retail park in a humdrum Hertfordshire commuter town is an inauspicious place to seek your fortune, but at 9.

On the walls of the low-ceilinged function room are quotes about unleashing your inner potential and colourful images of golden eggs.

The stong multicultural audience, aged from teen to pensioner, mumbles back in agreement. At the one-day seminar, Olga, a Polish lady from Hastings, looks confused. The details of a two-day course appear on the overhead projector. Then the price drops. And it drops again. I feel like I'm in Groundhog Day.

At the desk behind us, staff members stand waiting with card readers. Petra Folkersma, an accountant living in the Netherlands, attended Investment Mastery's two-day stock market course last December. It was time to put what I had learnt into practice. Spread betting allows speculators to bet on all the major markets, but without the need to stump up the full value of the transaction because they're not buying real stocks.

A spread betting platform simply mirrors the market's movements, although this exposure can still lead to large gains or losses. They might be able to do a couple of things but they're also quite likely to set fire to the carpet. To avoid calamitous schoolboy errors, some learn-to-trade companies advise clients to play around on a demo platform for a few months before they start trading with real money.

Online brokers such as OptionsXpress and FXCM provide free virtual trading platforms. It claims that by reinvesting these gains on a month-by-month basis, clients should have a tidy nest egg after about 15 years.

The first task was finding shares that met the criteria: Learn-to-trade companies cannot recommend individual stocks for regulatory reasons, but many provide watch-lists to help clients narrow down the options. After hours of carefully scrutiny, I plumped for a couple of obscure American energy companies, a communications operator and a British home merchandise retailer.

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I knew nothing about these companies other than the stock looked poised, according to the charts, to make a sharp movement up or down. But if I got it right the risk-reward ratio was — theoretically at least — 1: One month later I have made four trades, two "long" and two "short".

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It looks as if it will be rather a long time before I can cash in and retire to the Bahamas. What I've concluded is that the learn-to-trade industry is an expensive way to mug up on information that is often found on the web for free.

However, the classroom environment and where applicable, follow-up support can maybe help some beginners learn the basics. But it's only ever a first step on a long, rocky, uncertain road. But that doesn't stop some companies selling dreams of easy riches — it's the easiest thing to sell in the world.

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learn trade co uk forex

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