While there are high quality service providers for those among us who wish to up our trading game, there are plenty of deceivers who seek to profit through sheer exploitation. Many of them will instill a feeling of confidence in their victims, often inventing impressive professional backgrounds and immense personal wealth.

Something that promises to let you learn trading online free may cost more than you’ve bargained for. Find out how to recognize a trading course scam, and how to find the best learning materials in today’s article.

What is an Online Trading Course?

You will find that there are numerous different types of trading courses available. They may include various teaching methods, usually webinars, online videos, presentations, ebooks and articles to name a few.

The courses should usually consist of the following elements:

• Technical analysis – reading and interpreting market information through use of charts, as well as predicting future market movements. Courses that tackle this on an advanced level will cover complex procedures such as using technical indicators, moving averages, MACD, RSI and others.
• Fundamental analysis – financial instruments are complex, and are influenced by numerous factors. To develop this skill means to be able to accurately gauge the health of a specific instrument through examining circumstances such as company performance, industry trends, economic indicators and other factors.
• Risk management – learning how to maximize profits while avoiding losses is another essential skill for traders. It involves choosing appropriate leverage, diversification, position sizing and stop-loss strategies.
• Trading strategy – successful traders have developed numerous different strategies that best suit their styles. Legit educators will usually provide a day trading course, option trading course, swing trading, scalping and other relevant courses, including entry and exit strategies or trade execution techniques.
• Trading psychology  – the all-important course for developing a successful trading mindset. It will help you develop self discipline, control, patience and resilience. They usually discuss emotions such as greed, overconfidence or fear.

How to Recognize Legit Trading Course Providers?

Many charlatans online like to come off as highly educated, experienced and wise when it comes to Forex trading. They usually boast about their luxury but fake lifestyles in an attempt to appeal to traders looking to learn trading. 

In contrast to them and their duplicitous marketing campaigns, legitimate trading courses online differ significantly. 

First of all, Forex veterans advertising them actually gained a degree in finance, economy or similar branch and are licensed professionals that have entered regulatory databases. 

Secondly, they will actually work on familiarizing their clients with the Forex basics, like platform features, trading terms, fundamental analysis, swaps, rollovers, etc. 

Lastly, what they promote aren’t unrealistic expectations of skyhigh profit and quick wealth. Their forte are evidence-based strategies and honest information that increases awareness of the risks involved with live lectures and guidance.

However, it’s understandable why even the most successful of these educators choose to sell courses rather than focus on trading, especially if we examine what is less risky and more profitable. 

For example, Timothy Sykes, a known online course creator, openly admitted to earning 12 times more money from selling trading knowledge than actually engaging in trading online.

Common Types of Trading Course Scam

A study published by the leading French financial regulator, AMF, finds that more than 89% of Forex traders lose at least €10,887 on average, which makes for more than 4 out of 5 active investors. Many investors are faced with the fact that they lack the experience and knowledge to come up with a lucrative trading strategy and avoid loss. 

That’s why they quickly get attracted to false Forex guru’s that use social networks to flash screenshots of their bank accounts, photos of their luxury cars, expensive watches and dream vacations. 

These manipulators promise anything but realistic wins and losses. High returns on profit, magical trading strategies and mysterious knowledge is what these cons sell. Not a single portion of it is true and it’s just another form of scam that steals billions from traders yearly.

Forex Trading Courses

Whenever you hear about an entrepreneur that made millions in his twenties just from Forex trading, you can immediately spot a fake trading trainer. These charlatans will promise to turn you into a Forex wizard in a matter of weeks, only if you cough up several thousand dollars (as victims report) for their overpriced course. 

What is commonly used in this type of scam are screenshots of trading simulators and rigged Forex demo accounts with unbelievably fake wins from single positions. 

Stock Trading Courses

Traditional stock trading is probably the second most popular online trading niche after currency trading. That’s why it’s no wonder an increasing number of alleged stock traders and entrepreneurs are trying to sell us useless knowledge they have put a hefty price tag on. 

The majority of stock market courses promote the “mindset of a millionaire” and “living your dream life” thanks to the knowledge you could unlock with their help. The absolute majority of these is completely forged and extorts huge sums of money. 

FTC (USA’s Federal Trade Commission) sued Online Trading Academy for selling stock trading training programs for over $50.000 each during a course of six years. That resulted in more than $370 million stolen.

Crypto Trading Courses

Trading education is a necessity when engaging in trading volatile digital currencies. Some even claim that crypto trading is art as much as its science and therefore, requires a unique set of skills. These can never be built through false educational programs sold by swindlers that claim they could teach you how to earn passive income in no time. 

Some have even gone as far as using their authority to pursue their financial goals at others’ expense. One of them is Brian Sewell, founder of the American Bitcoin Academy, a platform originally designed for learning and training.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged him for fraudulent activities targeting his students and stealing $1.2 million.

What Can I Do If I Was Scammed By a Fake Educational Platform?

Cybercriminals constantly invent new ways to part you from your money. Being the professional deceivers, they also abuse the idea of an online teaching course. While it may seem unthinkable for us, many of them will pretend to teach you a valuable lesson while ripping you off and disappearing.

Depending on the financial channel through which you may have facilitated payment, different options are available for recovery. For more info, book a consultation with our recovery experts via the live chat on our site. We are available 24/7 for your convenience, and our first consultation is free of charge.