I'll weigh in here. First, Don has always been upfront about his success rates from his classes. Having said that..... Don, I'm often on your side but calling out other firms for their stats is pointless because they aren't shilling a $1000 class or boot camp program. In fact, from what I've seen (I trade at one of your competitors), there is no training at the other firms. But you do offer training and you offer it for a fee. Therefore the question to you is valid and is valid for you alone. I also post from the point of view that I took one of your $1000 classes. Most of what I learned to be successful I did not learn in your class, not to say your class had no value (Bob was great). I agree with Lescor. If you have the dedication, you'll succeed whether you go through Bright or not. If you are fresh off the street, one of the Bright programs may be right for you as you will learn the basics much more quickly. But the bottom line is there is no reason to join any firm unless a) you need training AND they will give you quality training. You WILL NOT be a profitable trader after the $1000 Bright class if you weren't beforehand. After the Bright boot camp? maybe. b) you are undercapitalized and have no other way to build a bankroll. c) have profitable methods that would benefit from increased use of capital. Otherwise save up your money and open an account at IB and trade 100 lots until you figure something out and save yourself the whole hassle of registration and licensing. There is a lot of great information on this site if you just tune up your BS meter and filter the crap out. I've personally made things I read about on this site into profitable methods. I've also met some great people through ET. It's all here. Sometimes all it takes is to read something here to inspire a totally different idea. Watch the tape. Learn to backtest your ideas. There are no silver bullets regardless of how much you're willing to spend.
I'll only be at the Expo in the capacity as journalist for Stocks and Commodities magazine this year....hang out everyone else's parties....point me in the right direction!! Don
Even if you have a TON / A Lot of traders you and Don are probably screen training them - if you use Camtasia to screen record http://www.techsmith.com/ and do a voice over you can archive the training session and have it available for whoever whenever... saving wisdom... cj... HAVE STOP - WILL TRADE
While we're on the subject, maybe Don can shed some light on this too... How many of those who have come through the doors at Bright are college graduates? How many graduated from top 20 Universities, and how many have advanced degrees? Further, is there any correlation between quality/level of education and those who make it at Bright (ie become profitable, albeit slightly, and the majority who don't?
Here's the deal. Basic class open to the public, we have 4 or 5 of us, including my brother, Rob Friesen, Earl, Randy, and myself teach that class. This is more detailed than our "gratis" College classes that we have been teaching forever (trying to get people away from their retail brokers, not ever thinking that they will become Bright traders, althouf a handful actually have...just to "give back to the community" so to speak). About half the attendees of the 3 day class join the firm, about half of those attend the 4 week boot camp. In bootcamp, we spend 70% of the trading day with our (rather intimiate) class...again, Rob, Randy, Earl, Bob, Aly, and me. We add more "fuel" and mentor on a nearly one on one basis...and we actually do put each trader "one on one" for a day or more during this time frame. We then have Bob's advanced classes which are free for life to all Bright traders. And...we never stop doing our best to help everyone as they ask for it...and believe me, many do...and we are glad to oblige. We teach our guys, we help the public (as I said, 3 day and college classes open to "non-Bright" traders). We mentor as well as we possibly can from several qualified instructors (I would say most are "extremely" qualified). I do have to pay the guys something for taking them away from their focused trading during the day. Some thrive from all this, some need more (which we try to accomodate), some expect "magic pills" of some sort...by my records over 90% are very glad they took the training. (I've been threatening to do this, but I'll keep it small...I actually prefer to "promote via attraction" - but the guys on ET have given me an idea to post up a page that I can have the public link to, with positive and negative comments, followed by "real names" not aliases). And, just for fun...this IM from a trader who used to be: President of: Accutrade;K.Aufhauser Co; CeresSecurities.;First National Futures. Accutade was the largest brokerage company under Ameritrade's umbrella. When we finally combined all companies I was Vice president of Ameritrade..... "I have spent well over 100k buying trading systems,books,and attending seminars looking for the proverbial "Holy Grail" of profitable trading. Luckily I finally found it in the training I received in Bright's Las Vegas and Vancouver offices.Go get it." Comments from "newbies" are generally nice, but I realize that they are new to all this.....but, since we give FREE follow up classes (even to the Public)...for those who need refresher's, I think that perhaps some of those people who are feeling less than satisified should come on back...no questions asked. The market changes, as do the classes...we do our best to keep up, and if nothing else, no one can question my brother's skill or our trades successes. Sorry for the long post, especially to you Mav...you are one of the "good guys" and I know you work well with your people. Maybe we can all stop "beating our chests" and simply do our best ot make some money and enjoy our lives. All the best, and thanks to everyone for the input. Don
Good questions. We, of course, have traders with all levels of education, from HS only to Yale and advanced business degrees. I would guess our percentages are similar to those who have retail brokerage accounts, many being successful regardless of advanced education, and some being successful utilizing their advanced education. I can usually tell when I review their Trading Business Plans...the detailed, more analytical, seem to be from the college grads...the more basic from those with perhaps less formal education. The bottom line is...there is not really any correlation to overall success that I can see. Dedication, drive, discipline....and desire seem to be the most important attributes. I encourage all of our younger traders to finish school, no matter what...even if they have to put off trading for a while...that's just my personal take on education for the general good of everyone. Don
Well, I've been through most sides of retail traders. - I started on my own. Busted my account twice. - Then moved to prop. firm. Made money and used most of it up with sex, drug, and alcohol. - Started working with hedge funds, as a 3rd party contract developing trading systems. Made some money... made more connections... Had to work in a restaurant to pay my bills, for some time. - Worked in a relatively large broker/bank, running an internal hedge fund. - Now running my own hedge fund. Now... I've been through a few phases. I'm probably the most untalented trader you'll ever meet. I've made mistakes in/out of trading that others with a little sense of sanity would not make. But I'm a little more experienced and doing OK. Anyways... it is nice to have a business mind looking into the statistics of the success (turnover) rate in a firm you are about to join. Trading works in the same way, you wouldn't place a position if there is no basis (opinion, stats, instinct...) of potential profits. There is nothing wrong with trying to place yourself with a higher chance of success, as all traders act the same way... moving to firms with lower commission or efficient trading environment. It's about making money and it's business. Though, I can relate to the nay-sayers. Trading is not a knowledge driven profession. It's a mental driven profession. All traders are given the opportunity to access the same information with billion dollar firms. It's a matter of how the trader digests the information and applies it. Those things can't be taught by others. You can only relate to something, and never be or understand the other. It's like a scientist studying a monkey. A person can never act 'as' a monkey", but can act 'like' a monkey. A blind man can only relate to someone who can see based on their experience but can never "see" what others are experiencing... So in all, it depends on Bright Trading to give new traders access to top traders so that they can start relating and percieving the markets like them. And... more on the new traders to start rebuilding their mental perception. Added: Everyone needs some basic knowledge... at least a Series 3 / 7 competency. Maybe a few extra books depending on the type of trader you are... (system developer needs to read more stuff than discretionary traders)