Online Trading Academy

Just finished the classes I paid for, including Pro Trader 1&2, Professional Futures Trader, and Professional Forex trader. I heard about the academy on the radio and took a free introductory evening session earlier this year, followed by a three day weekend for a nominal fee, and realized that trading is what I want to do for the rest of my life, in addition to my «day job» for now, and then continuing into retirement down the road. Did the classes prepare me for this goal? I’m off the Launchpad and cautiously trading using the risk management skills I learned, starting with single futures contracts, and planning on micro lots of currency pairs once my account is funded at my Forex brokerage in a couple of weeks. We traded with the company’s money during class for a couple of days, but what a rush the first time you put your own money on the line (with an appropriate stop loss of course, to prevent big losses).
There are free class retakes for life which is a very good thing… but one of the most valuable things for me is the lifetime access to the XLT (extended learning track) classes, which are two hour long recorded or live online sessions conducted by pro traders on a lot of subjects. These sessions are constantly generated such that I pick and choose the ones that are most valuable since I can’t keep up with the flow of info. XLT is at my fingertips at all times, in addition to «Hour with the Pros» and other online resources. And an educational counselor is a phone call away.
I thankfully had enough vacation time to take all my on-​site classes in the first half of this year, and I gotta tell you that they are a hoot, taught by a delightful rogue’s gallery of professional traders with extensive experience, who are not inhibited at all about sharing information from their trading experience, even if it occasionally drifts away from the school’s basic strategy. But, in my opinion, that’s what you want: reliable core strategy salted with experience.
There are cheaper ways to learn trading, but I haven’t pursued any of them since I took a casual interest in the matter years ago… now that I dug into my credit cards, I am invested in this experience, which is the motivator I lacked in the past!
Be prepared to give it 100% in terms of studying and taking advantage of learning resources… I would caution anyone who thinks they can throw money at this and get rich without much effort… but if you are reasonably self motivated, the school will get you going in the right direction. Gotta go, I’m in a trade on the e-​mini Dow…