Nefarious! I was up late one night and saw the news that "Teach Me to Trade" would be in the area. I decided to go to the free seminar where I knew of course I would be hit up to attend something I had to pay for.
I was told I would be paying $199, and would be learning how to trade no matter how the market goes. Normally this training is worth thousands! Also, I will get edu trader software which is worth a purported $5,000 free for a 30 days, and some "Wealth Intelligence Academy" membership free for 90 days. (After which I will be billed $199 a year.) Truthfully, it is not free 90 days because if you read the fine print they can bill you $199 and you cannot cancel it after day 60. This whole thing is a crock in my opinion, and I feel taken advantage of. The $199 fee to learn to trade paid for a rinky dink three day sales pitch. We were told the bottom basics in very broad confusing brush strokes.
I already trade stocks and wanted to learn more, about options. They dragged out this spiel how to order stock, and placing a market order or limit order for over a hour! I do this myself and know it. If anything this topic could have been a "fast" topic. I sense it was dragged out ad nauseam as a filler, as were all the alleged "making it" in the cruel world stories by our speaker. They managed to make something so easy sound confusing even to me. I could have explained this better myself.
Now, imagine going over options in that amount of time or less? Trust me, options are not near as easy as ordering stock at the market price! I was also informed our software was the "generic" version we are paying $39.99 a month for. We need to pay at least $20 more a month for it to really work the way we need it to! The $200 a month package has everything!
We were continually bombarded with parts of the picture and sales pitches at break neck speed. The sales pitches were so high pressure as to be asinine. All of this was in my opinion was purposefully designed to confuse people and make us fear we had to sign up because we knew so little. We needed them to save us. I know I need further education but dropping 10 grand for 6 more days to in all likelyhood be told I need even more classes and a "mentor" was not going to happen. The education ranges from a few thousand for one class that lasted three days to up to over 40 grand. All the classes are only three days, but you can get a DVD copy of them too! There are soon to be ten total classes and each one seems to be another three day type class. If you buy two you get a couple visits with supposed "mentors" who seemed more like closer's than actual traders to me.
It was stated too how you could improve your credit score by asking to have your limits raised. I could smell this as a way to get the people who had no money to pay for the classes. It was just beyond shady. There were older people thinking how do I pay for this? It was so high pressure they made it like you had to do it now or you would loose the "on site" savings. So charge it. Don't forget to sign up for the three day asset class. (If you have any left or had any to begin with!)
Granted while I did learn I have much to learn, I could have done without all the supposed war stories of how hard this guy's life was and how he "made it" out, followed by more sales pitches, and then more information designed to confuse us. Delta, Theta, and Iron Condor who? This was all glossed over. I realized too when I walked away, how would attending one, two, or three more of these three day events make me any sort of trader? There was no proof in the pudding. There was nothing tangible. All I had is a guy saying he did it with teach me to trade and I could too. Where are the facts?
According to the news sources it looks like a couple of people have already been sent down the river with the SEC for fraud. I am just in shock, and am glad I did my research before being shaken down for more $ like a bottle of Heinz.
I wanted to believe I suppose. I wanted to get out of the house, do something, and learn. I really feel like they are taking gross advantage of people, and the fact I thought to look it up and found all of this just puts it in a whole new light. How can this be allowed? I mean some of these people there were really in dire condition and/or elderly. This is just wrong. I am glad I listened to that inner voice, and thought to google this company. If something seems too good to be true, it is. Again there are no tangible results or examples. Reading the fine print it even says something like all of this is for your enjoyment and personal enrichment!
Two final things that bothered me is this company kept claiming to be affiliated with Robert Kiyosaki of the "Rich Dad" books. When pressed they clamed up and then said they would always own 51% of the company and he owned 49%. Some one aksed who are "they?" We got no response. Oddly enough too this Robert is having free seminars in town at this time!
I will conclude by saying these people were like bouncers too. They would come up if a group of us seemed to be talking to break us up, and mentioned people should not say it is expensive to other students! Are you kidding me? This whole thing was just wrong, and it was so scripted the guy kept calling it the weekend on Monday, Tuesday, and into Wednesday! I could help him with the acting if he wants to barter services! I think I may know as much as him if I read a stock trading for dummies book. What a shame it has come to this. (Jeff... The handsome one should have been doing the "acting" part.)
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