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 which was 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” he said, “become investors instead”.  With this, I became interested.  Of course someone immediately asked “Why not?”  His answer made me sit up and 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” he continued, “and those of you who do, won’t follow the rules 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. 

(NUI) - According to statistics from the National Council on Economic Education, only seven states require high school students to take a personal finance course while eight others require courses with personal finance content.