For the last 21 years I've trained thousands of traders how to use specific price action patterns combined with risk management strategies for active day and swing trading entries and exits. I have less than no interest in theoretical macro and micro economics or market structure. That's the kind of thing that people go to college to learn. My training has been popular because I focus on what's practical in terms of entries and exits. As somebody who's been a Moneyshow speaker for two decades I've carefully paid attention to what people want to learn and it's absolutely not theoretical. You mention "micro and macro structure of markets, asset/factor pricing theories and models, and how to conduct analysis"..... that's Not what traders I've met are even remotely interested in. I've done surveys for years and know what my trader customers want. Traders want to learn how to trade based on price action patterns combined with careful risk management, and that's what I focus on. My business has been successful because I teach lessons learned from both wins and stops from thousands of real money trades I've done.
I don't think most of the people who attend Moneyshow or buy retail trading education programs know what they are up against or what they need. The legit day traders of the early internet age found ways to extract money from the system -- they were not trading chart patterns or price action. If you have taught thousands of people, what % of them turn into legitimately profitable traders that can quit their day job and trade full time? It strikes me that there's huge demand for real and accessible education.
There is! The problem is that everyone wants to get rich tomorrow. That's what you have to sell. Not how to get rich but the dream that if you just spend enough money there is a secret known to the very top traders that will enable you to turn you meager account into millions. Maybe you should go into the education field instead of looking to run your own fund.
No way haha. But I’m hoping I can tell educators what I would look for in a recruit (trader/analyst) and maybe they can teach them the basics.
I've always avoided get rich type bs pitches when it comes to trading education. Instead I focus on helping traders learn things like: + how to set up a daily trading plan based on watchlist of daily gappers and breakouts + how to use price action setups to enter and exit + risk management, how to set stops, scale in carefully + how to avoid false breakouts and low volatility charts So far, so good, celebrating over 20 years in business with traders, many who stay with me for years. Plus I help them learn live realtime setups like these:
The thing is you are not teaching a transferable skill. If you look at trader jobs, why don't they ask for success in trading "breakouts" and "price action"? Ask yourself seriously if you are preparing your students for any of these real job postings below: Citadel is hiring a trader: Another PM job: An analyst role: Long story short, trading is very hard. Those who wish to become traders need to 1) understand the challenge, and then 2) prepare effectively to meet it. Maybe it's time you reconsider your curriculum...
I don't think that one of Kens graduates is going to apply for any of those jobs. At the best someone can tell the small retail trader how the big boys think so they can front run them.
Points well taken... from what I can tell, most traders who look for ideas from educators are hobbyists and speculators, not people who are going for a career as a trader in a big firm. I do a lot of training on understanding how markets work each day. Eg how to use market internals like VIX, TRIN, in vs out days etc..... I like a top down approach, which we cover daily in my room. I work hard to teach transferable skills, vs alerts only. That's a key advantage to my training.... big focus is on teaching practical skills, like realtime tape reading, entering gaps, scanning etc
You won't be able to front run them because another hedge fund with a team of PhDs is already doing that. The advantage you have as a retail trader is: 1) It is your capital, you set your risk and volatility limits. 2) You are not constrained by capacity (unless your size is 10k+ shares etc) -- THIS IS A BIG ONE. Hedge funds (most) limit their trading as a % of average daily volume; this means that many stocks, especially in the Russell 2k, pay an illiquidity premia (excess returns). 3) You are closer to the "real economy" -- professional traders need to pay experts to learn about what's going on in the economy, industry, or company. You may work in an industry and have friends that work in others -- without this being material non-public information -- you can survey their sentiment as a "channel check." 4) You can move fast and be nimble. If your thesis changes you can liquidate your position in minutes. When you increase your confidence, you can also add more aggressively. However, none of that will help you if you do not have a basic framework of markets and asset pricing. Things like microstructure and asset pricing are necessary because that tells you the available ways to make money. From there, you can analyze and harvest anomalies to beat a benchmark (say a goal of making 10%/yr.). In regards to hobbyists -- I get that. However, I think a hobbyist would find more value if they learned the basic things that a Michelin starred chef does versus what a line cook at taco bell does. It helps them understand and appreciate the work of the real chef, while also elevating their personal experience (now they know how to properly de-bone fish, or cut a chicken, or pan fry a steak, etc.). An example, from an investment standpoint, is positioning your portfolio to benefit from industries likely to experience positive revenue/eps surprises through the business cycle. Another example would be knowing to exit a stock when the thesis changes (immediately dump -- especially if led by a catalyst like an earnings miss & lower). When buying or selling a stock, retail can benefit by benchmarking against VWAP/TWAP through their trading period. For the day trading crowd, they'll know to seek volatility and understand that they are trying to capture shocks to liquidity, typically driven by a catalyst (which they can price against). They can also learn more about momentum (autocorrelation) and manage short-term reversal (or trade it) successfully. None of these things are guaranteed to make someone money or become rich, but they are sources of excess returns or can help increase efficiency in a return.