Just because there is the opportunity to make huge amounts of money, many scams are relatively easy to operate because they rely on peoples' natural greed overtaking their natural logical and rational thoughts! You know the thing ... "turn £100 into £50,000 in 6 months by working 10 mins a day", etc... I dare say most people with a small amount of trading knowledge could cobble something together and sell it on eBay for £20 and make money!
It means that if there are any good systems, trainers, etc out there, then they tend to get viewed with suspicion when maybe there is no justification. There is always the argument that a course has to be expensive to be good - again this is just playing on pure psychology, and is only a ploy to defraud people out of their money, because that is exactly what it is - fraud. 
A) Systems do work. It doesn't matter if you are using a system based on ratings, form (3 of the free systems have form elements), or with stats, if you do something methodically and have the foundations right, then systems should work.
B) Some people have paid £x thousand for systems. Some have paid hundreds. Why do they do that when free ones are better!
Expensive systems are rip offs and it's as simple as that. The more expensive a system, the more a person will be inclined to buy because it must be good if its expensive. So where have all the Selecta7's et al gone in the past year?
Checking back my results for other systems over the years reveals that realistically, a good return for systems is anything between 5% and 15%.
You can forget systems which claim 30%+ profits year in year out: they just don't exist.
Some of the courses run by the spreadbet companies can be quite good and offer good value (and a day out to meet like minded people) if they are free. The only thing is that some of these courses contain a certain amount of sales pitch. Quite often the speaker is promoting his own private coaching services for which he/she obviously charges a fee.
I wouldn't personally have a problem with paying someone £200 - £300 per day if I thought that they would either, genuinely improve my current trading, or introduce me to an aspect of trading of which I had little knowledge.
I do however take offence with people who charge £3,000 per time to sit you down in a room with 50 other people whilst they show you their best 'Harry Hindsight' charting methods and talk about how much they have made trading a particular stock. Be particularly aware of people who are promoting themselves as 'market masters' or 'spreadbetting millionaires'. Remember, self praise is no recommendation.
I am also bombarded with emails offering me free seminars... Some of these are genuinely free and are run by ADVFN and my various brokers and are really to sell their products but contain useful content. Others are in effect promotions for expensive seminars and are great if you enjoy the Ideal Home Show e.g. it's just an exercise in salesmanship. Then there are the big shows, which are free and have free seminars (and some paid for).
TD Waterhouse, ADVFN, Money..AM, Capital Spreads, Finspreads, CMC, e-trade, Updata all offer training to clients, and some to non-clients for a notional tenner.
Secker, Win Investing & New Skills - are promotional for their expensive seminars.
Tom Winnifrith's day is available to all for £49 (or free to me for some reason) and free for members of his website, which I am not.
Technical Analyst run various days...but they are expensive, I just blagged a freebie last year.
There are then the big shows...names of which I can't remember but they are all advertised in Shares/IC.
The most interesting one last year was TW's day because I got to meet all his 'crew'. I like to meet people because then I can better judge what I think of them.
The other useful one was Capital Spreads but only because I had a couple of hours in the pub with the trainer (ex-pit trader) and the MD afterwards.
My motivation for going to all the seminars was little to do with learning...but that, as they say, is another matter.
Being gullible, I wonder why trading masters and others run training courses, when they could use their own theories to make a fortune?
I don't know, is my answer, but it's a frequently asked question. Here's my opinion, for what its worth.
If you've ever traded full time from home you'll know how isolating it can be, even if you're making loads of money. It's also not always consistent in terms of profitability, and bills have to be paid regularly. Also, some people, love an audience (which I think is a big factor for trainers). My guess is that someone who manages to develop a trading strategy that has brought them good returns, and who likes contact with people, and who loves an audience, might well be motivated to run training courses, not least to ensure a more even level of income for themselves. I actually think some also want to help beginners, because they remember how it was for them when they started. Yes, I think there are people like that, which is why you get many positive and supportive posts on boards like this.
I'm not trying to be an apologist for trainers but, without them, I wouldn't be anywhere near as advanced in my knowledge as I otherwise would (which is now starting to bear fruit (...not that I wanted fruit, but that's another matter)). I would say, use the review section of this site to help weed out the weaker ones, and stay away from the ones who a) charge too much, or b) sell their services too hard with constant mailers, radio ads promising easy riches etc. They strike me as the ones who NEED to earn from selling courses because they can't at trading.
Also please remember there are certain individuals who truly enjoy teaching and I know that others including myself can vouch for some of the trainers as being genuine. I have personally wasted money on other course which you would agree are a waste but this spreadbetting course is for real and it works.
I also think that one should start of from a basic book rather than just jumping in and out of courses. This will give an idea as to what you are facing rather than just buying promises.
In the end, you just need to learn to do the thinking on your own two feet but even Tiger Woods as great as he is needs a coach. This is exactly what Sandy Jadeja said to me and it does make sense. You either go it alone - or you get someone to coach you. Either way it's gonna cost you something. £485 is not a lot compared to what I paid for some other courses.
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