The Real Cost of Education

An old adage says that education will only cost you once but ignorance will cost you over and over again. Nowhere is this more true than in the financial markets, where ignorance will certainly destroy your account. Like so many others, I was caught off-guard by the crash of 2008. But instead of burying my head in the sand, I decided to learn as much as I could about trading and the financial markets. I began by amassing a mountain of books (all, I later found out, trading "classics") and reading them with absolute attention. I was determined to grow my knowledge, and I did.

But reading books did not satisfy me. I am a skeptical person by nature so I didn't know which author I could trust. In addition, the more I read, the more questions I wanted to ask - but you can't ask a book can you? Then one day, I met an old friend for lunch. We talked about trading, and the markets and I told him about my search for practical trading knowledge. He then told me about a trading school he heard about - a place that teaches you to trade hands-on, taking real-time trades in class. Immediately I was intrigued. When I got home, I looked it up. It was the first time I had heard about the Online Trading Academy (OTA).
After spending a few minutes on their site I made an appointment with one of their education consultants. I was temped to sign up right then and there but, as I already mentioned, I am a skeptic. So I took a couple of days to think it over and realized I was either going to spend my tuition on education, or give it away to the market with no return on my investment. I went back and signed up.

Once in class, I quickly realized I made the right decision. Just being around other folks who shared my goals was priceless. You can learn so much from other people's questions, their struggles, their mistakes and successes. One of the crucial factors in my decision to sign up was OTA's lifetime retake policy which allows you to retake a class, for no extra charge, as many times as you like, which means you can take the same class with different instructors. I knew this was an important feature and I was proven right. I took full advantage of the retake policy and learned something new each time I retook the class. The different instructors I came across had distinct trading styles and that helped me formulate my own personal style that suited me and my personality best. The staff at the OTA locations I attended was great so it was always a pleasure to go back. Retaking classes helped me internalize the most basic but most important concepts of risk management and discipline.

Another added benefit of attending OTA is their commitment to their students' success.On more than one occasion, I was able to contact one of my instructors for additional information. Just recently, I needed to clarify something I didn't quite understand and I contacted one of my instructors, Brandon Wendell. Within hours, he responded back to me with an answer. It's a good feeling to know you have a trader of his caliber in your corner.

Sam Seiden, OTA's Director of Online Education, can often be heard saying that trading is transfer of accounts from those who don't know to those who do. If you have any experience in trading, you know that's so true. So, on which side would you rather be?

For some free (but valuable) stuff from the OTA check out: Lessons from the Pros