Knowledge to Action -Traders University - 2 day education course

Julianj

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A few days ago I went to a "Free Seminar" in London from Knowledge to Action (K2A) about Forex Trading. Knowledge to Action - Stock Market Training | Forex Training | Become a Trader[/media]

I have been forex trading for 6 months and have realised how difficult it is so I wanted to find a forex course with professional coaching and training from professional traders.

We filled in a form which had all sorts of terms and conditions on the back - I didn't have time to read them all but I was very suspicious. I've never seen that before. I was expecting to be sold a training course at the end of the seminar but this seemed somewhat dodgy already.

I know enough about forex to know it is very complex and risky.

The presenter, Paul Almeida claimed to be a professional trader and gave a slick, but essentially empty presentation which he claimed that you would make thousands of pounds after only a 2 day training session, and some 1-1 coaching on their trading floor in Fulham. The course costs over GBP3000 inc VAT.

There were about 15 people attending the 2 hour presentation. Only 3 including myself had any experience of forex trading.

The presentation I saw said nothing about the risks and unpredictability of the forex business, or that 95% of beginner traders lose their money, or that it takes years of hard work to become a successful trader. I have been studying hard for 6 months, reading books, taking online courses and webinars, and have a mentor, and I am still very much a beginner. You can't learn forex in 2 days!!!

At the end I asked a few questions, which weren't answered properly. A husband and wife signed up. The presenter tried to pressure me into signing up immediately for £1000 discount. I refused, explaining it was a large sum of money and I needed to think about it.

I note that the most respectable forex trading courses publish their results so you can see if they are successful traders or not. K2A don't and make ridiculous claims.

K2A has been subject to a warning by the FSA:

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Doing/Regulated/Law/pdf/knowledge.pdf

There is a blog which is heavily critical of K2A from unsatisfied customers:

[url=http://knowledgetoaction.blogspot.com/2008/11/knowledge-to-action-traders-university.html]knowledgetoaction's Traders University - Scam Equity & FX Trading course? User reviews.: Knowledge to Action Trader's University - is there a scam?[/media]

In my opinion K2A is a scam, which pressures the unwary into parting from large sums of money for information which could be found for free on the internet, or in such books as Currency Trading for Dummies for £15.
***There's no way IMO you can make the sort of earnings they claim after a couple of days training.***
 
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Julian,

My complements to how you handled this. Most people posting here about similar situations would have been complaining that they'd already signed up and couldn't get their money back.

Resisting high-pressure sales tactics is one of the best ways to avoid getting scammed. If an investment or product is a good one for the long term, a company should welcome questions and happily give the investor/purchaser sufficient time to do research. If a company won't answer questions and keeps pushing you to jump in now, take your money and run in the opposite direction.
 
Knowledge to Action in Australia

Yeah I thought the name was familiar. I attended a seminar held recently by K2A in Melbourne. I only attended for the free bonus really, as I have been burnt too many times to want to remember (various investments).

The seminar was a quick hour or two, and after the two-man presentation they offered a limited number of positions for attendance at their two-day course in Sydney, where the participants would undergo intense training and be a part of their "testimonials" (so K2A was saying you WILL be successful because they want you to succeed and say that, so they can use your statements for their marketing purposes).

The price was AUD$10k, but after the "hype" I was keen to attend. I enquired about why the cost was so high if they were really making good money with trading, and they said it was only $6k after the discount (which I did not see), and they justified the high price with the value of the information they were providing.

I am not saying these guys are true scammers, but perhaps they fit the category of rip-off artists because although they aren't simply cheating / stealing money, they are charging too much for simple-looking knowledge / strategies which can surely be obtained freely (or close to) on the net and elsewhere.

No, I am not attending, TYVM :D
 
Hi Blue Panther

What you got sounds the same as me

I am not saying these guys are true scammers, but perhaps they fit the category of rip-off artists because although they aren't simply cheating / stealing money, they are charging too much for simple-looking knowledge / strategies which can surely be obtained freely (or close to) on the net and elsewhere.

I think that's a pretty good summing up of what they seem to be.
 
BTW Pharoh, FPA was one of the first sites I discovered when I first heard about FX trading and gave me an insight into the way that newbies could be suckered, so I thank you and your colleagues and posters for your community.
 
Hi

I disagree with what has been said.. I went to a free seminar and I did not feel they promised you that you'd make thousands in a short time.. in fact the presenter said it had taken him 3 years to build up enough confidence to leave his day job and just trade.. they also continued to push the idea that the seminars were for ordinary people looking to give up their day job over time.. no one ever said 'you will make tons of money doing this easily' on the seminar I was on..

There was no hard sell either.. I think the discount is offered to get ANYONE to sign up for the course.. getting people to sign for courses not being that easy anywhere unless they are free in my experience.. I did sign up for a course in January (not Forex), and I will feed back my experience of the seminar.. I was immediately sent a folder with a CD, I was immediately signed up for weekly internet webinars from the company, I have only had very professional emails sent to me.. the free seminar did explain how you might make money but didn't give away the concepts behind their formulas.. why should they?

I do not have the time to spend 6 months researching the web for free information to become a forex trader..I've been signed up for a few months now to stock reports and still am no nearer to actually taking the first step and trading.. it all seems like jargon I just don't get at the moment.. I like quick learn the basics courses.. I also like the fact they offer you a mentor... and that you can go back and redo the course for free within a year if you wish to.. so effectively two courses for that same signing up price..

As I said, I'll feed back once I've done the course what I found on it..
 
What you get

First a little background. I've been trading stocks for 10yrs, and my last 2 have been profitable. I'd put on the blinkers as every time someone mentioned something else, I'd just get back to my trading of stocks as there is always some new thing to check out and not learn one thing.
For some reason I got sucked in to going to the 2hr presentation with a friend. Now I bought the course, on the day. Thinking back, it was not the course or presentation, it was finding out more about that market that I had not paid attention to, that got me hooked. I also paid for a mate. Yeah OK they gave us the deal they give to couples. Half price for the second person. $7500.
We were the only 2 that signed up that seminar. They were surprised when I said lets do it.
Now looking back, most of the info can be found elsewhere for free, minus the strategies. Spend time at babypips.com and you get more than what it gives to you on the first day, and half of the second. Seriously.
Then we start in on the strategies. You get the income generator, which is a nice relaxing end of day strategy which needs a good trending market to work well. Otherwise you need extra information to make it work well, come back and pay us another 10k. The most time is spent on this strategy and explaining it, around 2hrs.
Strategy 2 is the pivot trade. It was reasonably well covered and they spent around 1.5hrs on it. You can find better info on pivot trades and the strategy used to make it happen elsewhere. I've since read heaps on the strategy to get more out of it after many failures. Its glossed over.
Strategy 3 is the sniper. I remember thinking that time of the day, gee this is the most flexible and powerful of all the strategies and they give it last and spend the least time on it. Everyone is burnt out and just goes yep ok another thing. I loved the idea of the strategy, but recognized that it wasn't as easy as they say.
So, first 1.5 days forex basics. Last half day 2, you get the strategies.
OK since I signed up with a mate, we got 6 hrs of coaching via skype. Most times you are supposed to get 3, but I found out that everyone on my course got 6. Yes I talked to everyone, all 60 of them. So they lied their, not good.
The coaching did help a bit, most times I ran out of questions. Well the set ups for the strategies do not happen all that often. In that case you would cop an ear bashing of what you should be doing next with k2a with the left over time on the coaching.
My advice with hind sight.....(gee I wish I could trade with hindsight) Don't do it. I don't regret it entirely. It opened my eyes to something which amazed me. Most of the information is free( 75%) and the whole problem with the strategies is you have to be able to get them to work for you. The sniper happens around 3-4 times a week (7 majors and minors). The pivot around the same. Thats if you put 5hrs per night into sitting and watching the screens, and you happen to be watching the right currency pair when it goes. I was getting around 2 per week, and its not enough. You start trading cause you are frustrated and bored, and that is not good.
I agree, put your money into an account, get the services of a broker, and trade a demo account. You'll learn heaps more. Try and get one with education too, and your onto something. Also heaps of information is available with the forums......heaps.
I still use eSignal recommended by them, as it has a nice play back function to test strategies in. But I'm looking at dropping it as soon as I can, as it adds another aspect into the trading (price variances between broker and eSignal) that you have to figure into the equation.
It was a good weekend with them, and it did open my eyes. With hind sight, its not worth $5k. I'll get it back, and probably not even on those strategies, but simply because I did get blown away by the forex market.

Cheers
Colin
 
Knowledge to Action Scam

There are definitely two courses with K2A which teach spread betting and share buying/selling ‘tactics’,so in that sense it isn't a scam, however the scam part is the fact that they have salesmen, rather than actual self-made wealthy traders presenting their seminars and teaching these courses – which they claim they are. A simple google search of the ‘successful’ trader who presented my seminar showed me a man who was a bit of a nomad, lived in a bedsit, had numerous court convictions, advertised himself as someone who could do any job as a temp such a buying, selling, scamming, and also was trying to make a bit of cash from multi-level marketing. It’s amazing that people don’t realise what is open source on Facebook and newspaper court listings! He even has videos of the inside of his bedsit which is complete with posters that a teenage boy would have up (not what I would expect froma 40yr old wealthy trader!).
This particular saleman covers the seminars held in Milton Keynes, Oxford and Birmingham. Anyone thinking of attending one or who has attended one is welcome to contact me for some website links for the above evidence so they can judge for themselves whether this gentleman is the real deal!
r.k.lennon@gmail.com
 
Knowledge to action in perth

Yeah I thought the name was familiar. I attended a seminar held recently by K2A in Melbourne. I only attended for the free bonus really, as I have been burnt too many times to want to remember (various investments).

The seminar was a quick hour or two, and after the two-man presentation they offered a limited number of positions for attendance at their two-day course in Sydney, where the participants would undergo intense training and be a part of their "testimonials" (so K2A was saying you WILL be successful because they want you to succeed and say that, so they can use your statements for their marketing purposes).

The price was AUD$10k, but after the "hype" I was keen to attend. I enquired about why the cost was so high if they were really making good money with trading, and they said it was only $6k after the discount (which I did not see), and they justified the high price with the value of the information they were providing.

I am not saying these guys are true scammers, but perhaps they fit the category of rip-off artists because although they aren't simply cheating / stealing money, they are charging too much for simple-looking knowledge / strategies which can surely be obtained freely (or close to) on the net and elsewhere.

No, I am not attending, TYVM :D

hi i have recently attended a Knowledge to action seminar in perth and am interested to find out if anyone you may know has complained about the service? they seem well versed and they are fully registered with a finance license is there any real reason to be concerned ( apart from the price) about what they offer???
 
No, I have done a fair few of their courses and most students are beleagured and confused and no one I know has made any money, we started a facebook group but none of the basic students got anywhere

https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/fore...8275-knowledgetoaction-useless.html#post79042

Waste of time if you ask me and a con because of the price of £2-3 K for the basic course, heard other students paid more, can get all their strategies onto meta trader.
And speaking to some forex proffs realised there is more stuff than they failed to mention, ie lots, other strategies, elliot wave, bollinger bands, they dismiss all indicators and just follow price action but you cannot find their trades unless you sit to ur computer 24hrs!
 
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