Saturday, September 29, 2007

The Truth About Most Option Trading Seminars

Are you about to pay thousands of US Dollars to attend an option trading seminar this weekend?

Whether or not you have decided to join that weekend seminar, I hope I can help you make a more intelligent decision here.

A Grim Experience At An Option Trading Seminar

I had a friend who joined a weekend, 2 days, option trading seminar (a very well-known one by the way), promising that every participant will walk away with enough knowledge to profit at any market condition and be on their way to their first million just by option trading. He paid USD$3000 for the 2 days seminar and walked away feeling all hyped up but totally confused as to how exactly to start option trading. He was then told to sign up for an advanced course for another USD$5000 for 4 days. That 4 days seminar taught him little more than option trading basics and how to open a trading account but still completely no idea whatsoever as to how to read the market and pick stocks on which to trade options in the first place. He was then asked to buy a USD$6000 laptop containing a magical software that will tell him exactly what to trade daily. That software turned out about a hundred opportunities a day again, he is totally confused.

After paying a grand total of USD$11,000, my friend had completely no idea how to start trading options consistently and you guessed it, he ran into another USD$11,000.00 in credit card debt which he is still paying 24% per annum of interest on. (Not to mention losing another USD$5000.00 on losing trades produced by that magical software)

The Truth About Most Option Trading Seminars

The truth about option trading seminars these days are that they are conducted by people who claimed to have made millions from option trading but are really making millions by conducting seminars like that.

Heres a math from an internationally acclaimed option trading guru who charges USD$2500.00 for her 4 days seminars:

Cost Per Head : USD$2500.00
Average Number of Participants : 120
Average Number of Seminars Per Month : 2
Average Gross Takings Per Month : USD$600,000.00
Average Gross Takings Per Year : USD$7.2 MILLION!

See how these option trading gurus are really making their millions?

What Option Trading Seminars Really Teach

Sadly, most option trading seminars have nothing magical nor proprietary to teach. Most of these option trading seminars simply teach people what option trading can do and how to do some of the common option trading strategies which anyone can learn completely for FREE on option trading sites like OptionTradingpedia.com.

These fake option trading gurus then use a lot of hype and motivational techniques to make all participants think that they have indeed stumbled upon a gold mine.

What Option Trading Seminars Are Not Teaching You

Option Trading, like all kinds of trading activities requires foremost for the trader to be able to pick the right stocks that behave within the predetermined limits of the strategy in the first place. You will lose money if you do a bullish option strategy on a stock that stumbles eventually and you will lose money if you do a neutral strategy on a stock that suddenly surges. The ability to pick the right stocks is the real key to any kind of trading, including option trading and that is exactly what you will not learn in most of these option trading seminars. This means that most of these option trading seminars really have nothing proprietary to teach anyone at all!

To make up for the gap, these fake option trading gurus make participants sign up for stock picking programs or buy expensive software which eventually still led to nowhere. Being able to pick the right stock for option trading is an extremely tricky task which the best in the industry are still trying hard to do consistently!

Everyone who learnt option trading must then begin the long and arduous journey of looking for a reliable way of picking stocks for option trading consistently. That is a long and wide journey which includes learning about fundamental and technical analysis, different scopes and methods of trading options and things like that things that really do have proprietary knowledge and which is ok to pay a fair price for.

I am sad to see so many people who loves to learn about option trading fall prey to these option trading seminars and to pay thousands to learn things that can be learnt for free. That is why I started the OptionTradingpedia.com where I provide all the information and knowledge all beginners need to know what option trading is and how to trade options and I sincerely hope that the public can help me to help yourselves by spreading the good news around.

Jason Ng is the Founder and Chief Option Strategist of Masters 'O' Equity Asset Management ( www.MastersoEquity.com ). He is a fund manager specialising in options trading and his Star Trading System has helped thousands. For Free Option Trading Knowledge, please visit www.OptionTradingPedia.com .