Feedback requested on viratech TA course

I am not writing this with the attitude of "I told you so". It is just a presentation of facts on an issue I feel strongly about. People are free to decide what they would like.

In his latest book "How to make money trading derivatives" , well known technical expert Ashwini Gujral says that he had read more trading books on Technical analysis than engineering and management combined. He is an engineer-MBA. He also says that on an average one should leave aside 12 hours per week for mkt analysis and in other portion says that technicals can take years to master. Best quote, " Mkt is not the easiest place to make money but easiest way of losing money" which is right considering 90% failure rate. When I told another expert, Mr Sudarshan Sukhani that I had read Alexamder Elder his immediate response was " How many times have you read it" as if it was customary to read several times just as one appears for a CA exam several times. Another experienced trader told me that I should read all basics at least 4-5 times after intermitent application.

This only vinidicates what I have said earlier about a full fledged course. The way Mr Gujral has described it, it should be a degree and not even diploma what I was thinking.

The Stocks and commodities people sent me a sample( their August’2004) issue. In that issue, one MBA from Harvard who gave up his real estate business to become a very successful options trader says,” If someone wants to be successful, they should follow somebody else who has done the same thing. If I am trading, I must find somebody who is good at it. If I want to become a restaurant manager, I need to find somebody who’s done it before and done it well. “ .

Both the above gentleman believe in Seminars. All I can say is that if I were to conduct a seminar, I would do it in groups of four or five and teach one or two indicators in a way that it would be easy for the student to learn the rest on his own and make sure that he has understood the charting basics thoroughlly. Shri Aurobindo has also said that real teaching is not instructing but guiding. Better to have them read the best literature and come like NIIT.

On clearing our library, I found one of my father's old books in which Management consultant Pramod Batra says, " If I want to cut a tree, I would spend a majority of time sharpening my axe". This implies that tools are equally important and Metastock or some software should also be covered. In 1989, I remember training one person on computerised accounts when he had no accounting knowledge. Despite giving full time attention, I had a harrowing time and swore that I would never teach a tool without the knowledge of the subject. However in a seminar, one has to make the best of limited resources and try and learn both. On training other people who had accounts knowledge, they would still make serious mistakes despite one to one sessions on the computer. In trading that can be fatal.

Even in the CNBC first camp at Delhi, a lot of people just walked out within 10 mins of derivatives lecture starting. What good does it do even as an orientation? This can actually prove counterproductive as people lose interest.

The best thing is to cater to two-three broad customer profiles as in professional marketing. Let people who want seminars learn like that, someone may like one to one session on the computer, some others may insist on live trading sessions after the seminar. There would be some people who can do it even without any seminar. Optimization need not be restricted to the stock market. Let each determine his learning style as one has to discover one's trading style.

The latest Naredra Modi controversy has thrown an interesting analogy with this post. As we are aware the Gujarat chief misnister was castigated by the entire English media for this role in the post Godhra period. Now that he is refused visa to the US, everybody across party and media lines is rallying around him.

When I pointed out that Equis conducts free metastock workshops in USA and nothing of that happens in India even in the paid seminars, nobody seemed interested. Maybe its a left handed compliment- Indians are supposed to be brainy in the US. On a lighter note, since it is "equis" it should have ensured equality:

My dear Equis
Metastock free training in India we also miss
There are just kids in Inida, Among US Indians, there maybe many a whiz
You can't change policies in different countries the way husbands were changed by good old liz(Taylor)

180 $ for a beginner course on TA . Too costly IMO for average Indian investors

Nice of you to point that out though one should be more concerned with value for money rather than cost. Can you please enlighten us as to what the right cost should be now that the issue has been raised.

Dear friends

I am also pretty new to TA. I am also going to take up the training from Viratech.

Can anyone tell me where in mumbai i will get the following CD's

1. Discovering the power of MetaStock
2. Technical analysis 1 interactive tutorial CD by Paritech
3. Technical analysis 2

i would be glad if you guys expert in TA could help me out.

I agree with you value for money is more important than cost .
50 to 70 $ max i feel is right cost for it ( beginner level TA course )

Thanks a lot. From your other posts, you seem to be quite at home at Technical analysis. I am not a raw beginner that I was almost a year ago but I am curious to know that should not hands on training on Metastock(value for money) be part of the course($70 or $180) ? I now feel that had one or two indicators been explained thoroughly on Metastock, my learning curve could have reduced considerably. As pointed out earlier, Equis gives free workshops in the US