Whether you take a formal course of study or go on your own, you are going to pay for it - one way or the other - just look at how many come to ET and spin their wheels for ever. As to formal study, I have purchased a number of books - Wyckoff, Livermore, O'Neil, Mamis, Larry Phillips among others. I have found books by and about gambling and gamblers, and trading books that emphasize probability at least as much as technique to be most helpful (or at least interesting) to me. However, I primarily relied on Richard D. Wyckoff's original trading course, which is now available for free. I'd hate to think of how I might still be floundering around, or more likely completely washed out had Wyckoff's course not been free and I avoided it because I didn't want to "pay for an education."
A complete misunderstanding I'm afraid. You talking about books, I'm talking about Gurus that are out there to steal your money with courses and newsletter or seminars because they can't make a buck trading the market yet they don't leave the business.
Yes, a complete misunderstanding - you see, were Wyckoff around today, selling the same course I referenced adjusted for inflation in today's dollars, he would no doubt be labeled a Guru and run out of ET on pike.
lol All one has to do is see how DbPhoenix is treated on the forum for simply sharing the Wyckoff course for FREE and helping people understand the material for FREE to guess at how Wyckoff the "Education Vendor" would have fared here.
You referred to "Gurus that are out there to steal your money with courses and newsletter or seminars because they can't make a buck trading the market yet they don't leave the business." Does not Wycoff qualify? Do you know whether he made money trading or not?
Well, that's different, there's no charging involved. What are you gonna do, shoot the priest for giving you a blessing? Even if you don't believe in God, it's still a free blessing.
Wyckoff was successful, now he's dead, back then there was not an influx of Gurus stealing hard earned cash from retail traders so they can become successful daytraders from home sitting in their boxers. Nowadays, they are the Psychic Networks of the new Internet era.
Maybe he was successful, maybe he wasn't. That's not the point. There's a nearly infinite amount of "free information" out there that is not only completely useless but is presented in such a way as to direct the beginner onto a path that will lead to discouragement and failure. Beginners are not victims of unscrupulous vendors; beginners give their money away because they're too lazy even to learn the basics of what an auction market is, much less how to profit from it. All of that information is freely available as well. It's just not exciting or glamorous.
Quote from Wikipedia. " grew his account such that he eventually owned nine and a half acres and a mansion next door to the General Motors' Industrialist" I would call that successful. As far as the rest of your post, if it's free, it's not a scam, unless the info is erroneous. Hard to argue against free.