Inasmuch as most candidates for training are not cognizant of the nuances of the trading world, they expect to become masters of the game in a short order by paying thousands of dollars for trading curriculum and begin their trading career, immediately becoming profitable. It, in a word, it does not "work" that way, by any stretch of the imagination. If one is to be a proficient trader it will require hundreds if not thousands of hours in front of screens and incessant research into the fundamentals of the equities in question (stock trading). All markets are linked, to be sure, and any specific asset market class does has an effect in most instances on the one in which one is engaged in trading. OTA, in my opinion, does provide information, but to expect to become a master trader as a result of attending those classes is absolutely unrealistic. My wife and I have taken courses in Equities, Options, Futures, etc., spending thousands of dollars and the initial classes are cleverly designed to upgrade one or entice one to purchase a secondary series of courses. This, of course, is good business from a cash flow standpoint, but does little to ensure that the student become sufficiently proficient to recoup the investment of $5,000 for a class or $30K for the higher package, which gives one admittance to the "ultra" group! They must take care of the franchisee and that can only be acomplished by a steady flow of revenue generating students.
In the final analysis, knowledge applied to the price action of the markets 'can' work if one wishes to spend the time honing the skills and temperment required to become a successful trader and has the time to allocate to observe the market on a day to day basis. After realizing that the market has changed significantly from those of yesteryear, primarily due to "quant" trading tactics employed by the institutional trading community, strategy must be modified on a protracted basis. There appears to be a 'timing' factor whereby the HFT (high frequency traders) change the algorithms utilized via computers to confront the changes by the competition or other institutions. Also, the stops placed by the retail trader (the individual trader) has exposure to the broad market participants, which allow them to "sweep" those stops....ever wonder why it often appears that someone is looking over your shoulder and the market direction turns at the precise point where you have placed stops? It's akin to showing all your cards to other players in a poker game! The commodities market is rife with this activity.....as are all the others. Think about this......regardless of what you've been told by brokers or other traders. The professional traders know all the strategies that you know....and much, much more.
I believe Goldman Sachs made a statement not long ago that they had no losing trades for a fiscal period! Why do you suppose that was probably a true statement? There is money to be made in the markets, no question there. Well, someone figured out just how this was accomplished and formatted an application for the little guy. I'm checking that out now
