OK, so what does this have to do with trading? I'm studying for the Series 7. It's insane how much information you have to know. I'm missing practice questions because, for example, I forgot one feature out of 5 on a CMO or a GNMA. Has anyone taken a speed reading or memory improvement course they can recommend? I'm looking for responses from people who have had actual, dramatic results in one or both of these areas.
The Series 7 General Securities Representative is given by the Procter Testing Centers after the candidate is sponsored by a brokerage, insurance company or finance company. The test consists of 250 questions-multiple choice. Alot of the information on the test you may never use , however , to become a professional trader or stockbroker you must get at least a 70 on the exam. Students are given 360 minutes to complete the exam. You may bring scratch paper, a pencil and a calculator that does not have a programable memory . If you are having trouble with the material, I would suggest you study with a group of people(after studying on your own) and have someone ask you questions. I would then take all the practice tests and try to get at least an 80 on the practice tests before I would feel comfortable taking the test on a Proctor terminal. Try to answer the questions by process of elimination. Answer the easy questions first and then answer the hard questions last.(The Proctor terminal lets you go back and answer questions again). Answer all questions even if you do not know the answer(you have a 1 out of 4 chance of being correct-there are four choices for every question). There are many Series 7 books available from a wide variety of schools. The Series 7 material I like is from Dearborn financial at http://www.dearborn.com/dfp/home.asp . Dearborn has a book and CD ROM for home study that should help. The CD ROM has the same format and feel as the Proctor terminal. Many of our traders gave this course high marks. I would suggest you put in at least 30 hours of study before taking the Series 7 exam. Gene Weissman Lieber & Weissman Sec., L.L.C. gweissman@stocktrade.net
mjt, I've found Photoreading by Paul R. Scheele very helpful. You can get it at his website or at Amazon. It takes a little practice but it has worked for very well for me. Its different than speed reading. He has a course but I've only read the book. http://www.learningstrategies.com Tom
Amadeus Thanks for the reply. Believe it or not, I actually have the photoreading course at home. I've gotten about 1/3 of the way through it, but I lost faith in it when I read a few negative comments by some people who had tried it. Plus it's so hard to 'suspend my disbelief' that it will work when you consider the claims of the author. If it really works, I would love to finish the course. When you say that it has worked for you, can you be a little more specific? What I'm trying to figure out is whether photoreading will work for something like the Series 7 material, which is very detailed. The books I have are close to 1000 pages of information, and there may be half a dozen terms or concepts to understand per page.
mjt, I know what you mean. I started the book and thought I wasted my money. It sat on my book shelf for 2 months. Then I decided what the hell and finished the book and tested it out. I always wanted to learn how to play chess so I asked my brother-in-law ,who's been playing for 35 years, for 3 books to read. I then "photoread" them over the next 3 days. That weekend I played my brother-in law 10 matches. He took no mercy on me, but i actually won 1 match. He was surprised that i knew a couple of complicated gambits and defenses. Overall he thought i played very well for a rank beginner. Not bad for not even knowing the basic moves beforehand. I then test it out again by "reading" the NIV translation of the bible and had my wife test me the next day. She would pull a quote out and I had to give book, chapter and verse. Then she gave me book, chapter and verse and i gave the qoute. I got 19 out of 30 right. Not bad. I've since "read" 6 trading books, but I can't verify if its improved my trading. I've been profitably trading 4 out of the last 5 years mainly trend following commodity futures. Hope this helps. Tom
Amadeus It's funny; I read all kinds of comments on photoreading all over the web, from book reviews to discussion forums. About half are positive like yours, and the rest say they've tried PR, and it's a scam. Makes you wonder whether an individual has to have certain qualities to make it work. Anyway, it was good to hear a positive review from someone that I know isn't a plant from Learning Strategies. (Unless you are, in fact, Paul Scheele) Thanks again for the posts. I'll give the course another try.
Gene You recommended 30 hours of study for the Series 7. In your experience, do you see traders passing with that much study? The books I have recommend 120-150 hours of study, or 80 hours of study plus 40 hours of classwork. I've already studied about 5 hours, studied stocks and bonds, and I'm getting scores only in the 60s on the practice exams. I'm using books from BISYS, which Echotrade recommended. I'm babbling here, but I'm just trying to gauge how much study I'm going to need. Is 30 hours enough (generally speaking of course) for the average person?
mjt, depends on your experience. for me, all I did was take a bunch of the practice tests (didn't bother reading all the material in between) and studied in detail all questions I got wrong or was unsure of the answer. It didn't take too long to get comfortable that I would score above 70. Just remember, depending on the guide you are using - i used the NASD practice tests - that the practice tests towards the end are much harder than the first few ones. Perhaps speed reading or something of the like will help but I gather the amount of time you need to study/practice that will far exceed the time needed to pass the series 7.
I said NASD in the last post but I should have said STC. The NY number is 800-STC-1223. as mentioned somewhere else on the boards, they have two manuals. 1. the study guide, 2. sample tests. The sample tests are quite good with decent explanations. Perhaps for a section or two you may need to go back and scan the study manual given your knowledge of the markets, you should do ok with the practice tests.