I enrolled for this course with my girlfriend, not because I wanted to, but because she was interested and thought that I might learn something.  To be honest, I day trade already and am starting to make a decent living at it so I didn't really think I needed to waste 2 hours of my life on this.  Sometimes you have to make sacrifices, so I did and sat in front of the computer with a beer and an attitude.

The lecture started on time—good I thought to myself, maybe it will end on time too.

The instructor introduced himself, provided the requisite background information and then told everyone that this was a pilot course—hence the low price of admission.  Great! I thought, this guy is testing his shtick on our dime.  I flashed an I’m really interested smile at my girlfriend and gulped more beer to numb the pain I expected the next two hours would become.

Then Mr. Gandon made an outrageous statement: Most of you should not become traders, become investors instead.  With this, I became interested.  Of course someone immediately asked Why not? 

His answer made me sit up and really take notice. 

Because most of you will not make it as a trader, most of you will fail at this and lose money.  Most of you won’t get it, and those of you who do, will decide that the the rules do not apply to them and will end up broke and disillusioned.  The best choice most of you can make is to view this course as a very inexpensive lesson and put your money to work by investing and not trading.  WOW!  THIS GUY IS ACTUALLY TELLING THE TRUTH! I said to my girlfriend. 

When I started out as a day trader just over 18 months ago, I was working out of an office in lower Manhattan.  The desks on either side of me seemed like they had revolving chairs.  A guy was there for a week or two, maybe even a whole month or six weeks, lost a lot of money and out he went, in came a new body and fresh money.

Mr. Gandon then showed a chart and had us look at it for what seemed like 5 minutes trying to figure out what it meant.  He had us discuss it and offer ideas about what it might mean.  I won’t go into details but when I finally got it, I was amazed.  The first part his chart summed up everything I had gone through my first 90 days.  The rest of the chart pretty much tracked what had happened since then.  We probably spent 15 or 20 minutes on this simple little chart.  We then moved on to money management.  Why doesn’t anyone discuss money management when you get started?  He showed spreadsheets that clearly illustrated why it was the single most important factor in trading.  If I had this instruction 18 months ago, I could have avoided many losses and the humiliating need to grovel for additional funds from my grandfather. 

(Thanks to the generosity of my grandfather, I was able to stay in the game and he has been paid back in full.)

We got lectured on the need for discipline, the need to focus and specialize, system trading and development and finally what I consider to be the Holy Grail; about 15 or so different trading ideas.

Richard (he says Mr. Gandon is his father’s name) made it very clear that these ideas are merely starting points or in other words, ideas to point us in the right direction and that we must do the research, paper trading and customization in order to realize consistent profits.  Many of these ideas are observations that most people pass right by.  As a day trader I really got excited when he showed us an idea that was so simple that it was and still is scary.  I’m not going to tell you what this idea was but I will tell you this—I am now trading this idea 60-70% of the time, I am making money on this idea most days and I do not sweat the losses when they do occur.  Why won’t I tell?  Because as Richard explains, (to paraphrase) You have got to learn to keep your mouth shut.  If you find a golden nugget, keep it to yourself or everyone will flock to your mine and the advantage will be lost.

In conclusion, I decided to write this review because I went from a successful know-it-all to a believer as soon as I realized that

1. He was telling the truth 

2. Most people will not bother telling you the information that really need to know to get started. 

3. He was engaging and kept everyone involved throughout the entire seminar.  He didn't drone on, he prompted everyone to respond and offer their opinion.

I think that anyone considering trading full or part-time should be required to spend two hours with this guy in this course.  If you decide not to pursue trading as a career, consider it at $75.00, to be a very inexpensive way to learn that trading is not for you.  If you do decide to pursue a trading career, proceed with extreme caution if you choose to bypass this course.  Trust me. It will cost your more in tuition (trading losses) if you ignore the advice and rules outlined in this course.