Preface & Context: I previously was a registered financial advisor and counselor (but not presently). I also have studied and traded markets for over 6 years. I’m not a newby when it comes to trading, but I’m also not a multi-millionaire pro trader either. I search for legitimate, decent, worthwhile trading education services that can actually provide something useful, that don’t cost you both arms and legs.
TradeLikeChuck – the Book
On the plus side: You can sign up to receive their book and DVD. I found the book down to earth, an easy read, and actually good for newbies. It also has sound principles for those with moderately more experience and who maybe need to re-ground themselves in some solid practices. The book was forthcoming about MOST chart settings. They were good about explaining setups and precise points of entering and exiting trades. The multiple charts utilize multiple time frames to identify trend and increase likelihood of success. The controlling of risked capital (i.e. “getting out” of trades if they go against you) were wise and in common with some other trading education philosophies. They provide a formula to narrow down your selections of buying (or selling) options, that again would also reduce one’s risk. Overall, I was “reminded” of several principles that–when I implemented them–gave me more positive trades.
On the down side: Their Keltner Channel settings in the book were incomplete and therefore left me guessing about the other settings needed to fully define the Keltner Channel. My default settings did not match theirs. So I had to play around a lot with settings and finally got them to almost identially match. But then in a subsequent webinar broadcast, they were misaligned. I don’t think this aspect (by itself) is a make-or-break decision, as default settings on your platform are maybe ok. But it does raise a little doubt when the claims in a book cannot be easily reproduced to validate them.
TradeLikeChuck – the free webinar
My impression turned a bit more sour after attending 3-4 of their 1 hour free webinars. They are all similar. I never got any live questions answered via chat. They spend 25 minutes promoting why they are king of trading above all others. That only left 30 minutes to dive into more details, about the book and actual education. Not much new, but it is a different teaching approach for those who learn better from a presentation than just reading a book.
TradeLikeChuck – their trading services
Following the webinar, they offer to give you an on the phone counseling session. MAKE NO MISTAKE, THIS IS WHERE THINGS GO TERRIBLY AWRY. It is just a high pressure, “interactive” sales pitch to sell you on why you should spend $8000-$15000 for their personal coaching services.
Understand that I thrive on pulling the rug out from under used car sales approaches. And because I’m not new to this world, I can unravel their pitches pretty easily. I explained up front that I was only interested in chat room services, maybe trade alerts, and an ongoing connection to them during trading hours to provide some guardrails while I’m trading. This didn’t fit into their attempted pitch, and the presenter became very stubborn. Interesting how his initial interest statement of “How can we help? ” went sideways when what I wanted did not fit what they offered.
They tried to counter with, “Well you can’t get any good advice unless you pay lots for the experience, and our teachers are the best.”
WRONG. You can find other sources for reasonable fees. I have done so.
They used arguments like “Well obviously you need help in your trading or you wouldn’t have called us”.
WRONG. I just want to make some improvements. I’m not looking for an entire brainwash.
Here is THE BIGGEST PROBLEM with many (not all) trading education services: They claim they want to help and teach you. But if you say “Here are my terms”, or “Here is what I want”, then they just badger you on how you must buy their high-dollar education to be successful. Their whole pitch is counting on you not knowing what you need, and they are trying to convince you that THEIR system is the only system worth pursing. Hogwash!
Here is the HIDDEN TRUTH to such services: Do the math. Say $10, 000 per customer to the company. It only takes 10 customers forking over this fee to yield them $100K. That’s a pretty darn nice salary for someone to sit on their butt and teach you how to trade. It doesn’t take long before those services are making a half million per year just from teaching. But if those teachers were really making the Million a year that so many claim, then why would they bother taking time to teach you–or me–what they do? Answer? They only do this if they NEED the money and believe they can get it from you, the desperate student wanting to make their supposed Million. Basic logic suggests they are not making all the money they claim in trading (at least not consistently). Otherwise, why bother teaching at all? Many will claim they want to share their secrets. But a cost of $10K is not sharing anything.
CONCLUSION
Chuck himself might do fine trading. But Chuck is not the teacher. In fact–the way they present the webinars an sales pitches–they could have no ties with Chuck whatsoever and still have teachers claiming to Trade Like Chuck.
So get the book and video? Yes
Even attend a free webinar? Sure
But pursue their overpriced service and trust your money to someone over the internet? NO.
You should NEVER fork over that kind of money for internet training unless you can go find them in person and punch their lights out when they shaft you. Buyer beware!
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