I find it interesting how when people start trading one of the most appealing aspects is the freedom that successful trading can allow you to have. However, once a peson starts to trade, many people turn the markets into their own little prison cells and they have no freedom at all, even if they do find success as traders, they lose it as people. I'm not saying that you should attend the expo, or that you shouldnt for that matter. I've not been to one for years, but the most successful traders are those who can find a balance. Brandon
ROFL (sorry, couldn't resist).... I haven't gone in years, so this cannot possibly be true any longer, LOL. Don
A bit to my surprise, this was the best expo I've ever attended. Very good presentations (but maybe i know which ones not to attend), and overall very informative. My favorite was a one hour presentation by John Ehlers. He is full of solid concepts and a very good presenter. I was also fortunate to get about 10 minutes talking to him one-on-one before his presentation. Joe Krutsinger also gave an excellent presentation. John Carter was (again) unprepared and just goofing off, so that was a waste of time. Brett Steenbarger was very good as was John Bollinger. Other than Cash Coyne, i didn't run into anyone I knew.
I think the expo may be on the way out. The exhibitor's floor was the smallest I've ever seen. There were some that were noteably missing such as Ameritrade, Schwab, Fidelity, etc... they always had the big booths which meant big dollars to the expo. There were still quite a lot of seminars though. I jumped from one to another looking for useful tidbits and while 90% of what I saw was a waste, the other 10% was quite beneficial. Anyway, my attitude has always been that it only takes one idea presented in 10 seconds to make the whole trip worth while. I wonder if they'll ever go totally webinar. I don't see how they can cover costs with so few exhibitors. If they do go all webinar, they might get more presenters who don't want to travel. But they might lose some, as lots of these guys need their ego stroked and are there only because they can do the hard sell. It's funny watching as some of these guys are still preaching to their groupies surrounding them long after the next seminar has already started. I will say that the venue was one of my favorites from the standpoint of location. It was right across the street of a good size retail complex with lots of food choices at real-world prices. No one likes getting charged out the wazoo for crappy convention floor food!