Hi everyone,

I have been getting hammered with emails ever since the announcement of the online component of the workshop….if you know one thing about me by now, it is that I have never been a fan of the educational, commercial side of this business. It can be harmful in more ways to count.

Not so much in terms of emails but in terms of anonymous comments on this blog have people spoken up about the ‘sell out' nature of what we're doing here…and this is largely the reason behind us not doing in the future. So it has been bugging me bigtime…..

Most people would never, ever think of writing something like this. But this is what makes us different.

In addition to last week's post there are a few things that need to be said about this industry:

Truth: It requires a holistic approach to trade these markets successfully. Theory is not the way to learn.

I learned this one the hard way with past people I have tried to instruct.  The way most people teach, and the way most people learn, is through theory.  I stress many times the mechanical nature of these markets is absolutely essential to learn….that is the ultimate intent of this weekend.

From the mechanics you can then conjure any level of theory that you wish but until you understand the technical, fundamental and order flow essentials it all becomes a wash in my opinion and from what I have experienced with others.

Truth: Many of NBT's materials have been taken and resold, renamed, rebranded under other people's names.

I have sent emails to those abusing these privileges, others I have let go for other reasons…..but all of this content (on these pages) is under a creative commons license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/. I get many emails from readers pointing out cases of abuse, some from sources I would have never expected. I'm talking about the unique price patterns and other concepts on this site. If you read about it, there is a good chance that the reason it was posted in the first place was because someone else is trying to sell it. Others have emailed me asking why the materials I cover look identical to others…this is where I cringe; sellers have gotten to the point of redistribution that people think they are the originators of this content.

C'est la vie.

Why the weekend is different: These price patterns or occurrences are of little use without deeper explanations as to why they work from a purely mechanical perspective….admittedly in the past I have made the mistake of not explaining these points clearly but I have gone through the motions on some willing traders recently and I see light bulbs going off.  In addition, I have added a great deal of content. I am heavy-centric on putting everyone on “fair ground”.  I don't try to make myself look smarter or bigger than my business is, nor will I give you materials that you will be unable to apply.

One of the benefits of working with us is the post-weekend follow up.  These materials covered are useless unless you can actually do something with them.  I'm providing a basic trading plan to get past major hurdles, should you be experiencing any.

Truth: There are no “bank secrets”, “forex secrets” or any other ridiculous thing like that matter.  Those of you that have been doing this for a while know this well.

This is a marketing tool to the retail crowd. At the workshop I'm going to be showing you verbatim what any dealer would be looking at limited to my relationships with prime brokers.  Open book.  I have no problems doing this simply because people need to see for themselves.  I don't know anyone else that can do this for you.

Truth: Proceeds from this weekend are going towards funding a new, free project for traders, not pay my mortgage.

It took me a lot to say this simply because I wasn't sure how to approach it.  As many of you know I, once upon a time, had the idea for a live trading website that opens the doors of transparency to the retail crowd.  It is getting closer to reality but funding was an issue, and I simply don't like the idea of mixing baskets.  If I can provide my help and experience in the meantime than all the better.

Paying for education is expected….the problem with this business is that that work is left to a largely independent crowd with hard-to-verify track records or people simply not knowing what to expect when they show up at the door.  I'm essentially looking to break down that wall, at least for one weekend.

Truth: This weekend is rare in its honesty

I am going to get a little cocky here for a second: I really don't know many other people in this business that are as honest as I am.  I have been trampled all over in the past because of this and my intent to just “do things right” ended up with my materials plagiarized by others or just simply pushed to the side for their own needs.  I tend to bend over backwards for people and I have been told many times now that this is one of my “weak” points.  I view it as bringing equilibrium to the world.  I grew up in an area where loyalty and straight shooting are the only way to do things right and had to forge my way forward.  What I have done to this point has worked for me so far but there are consequences of course.

What this means to you: if you need help, I give it.  Additionally, we have other traders coming to join us that are independent and successful – this is verifiable.  Smoke and mirrors versus open sky.

Truth: We have experience

I have verifiable experience that shoots back about 10 years working in banks and hedge funds, but my experience does you zero good if you can't apply anything we cover.  What results is wasted money and wasted time; planning the post-weekend materials has been just as hard, if not more, than the materials getting covered in 3 days.

I never realized this so much until just recently: teaching is an art unto itself; my brain and your brain are two very different worlds and I say that in a sense of understanding, not ego.  If someone were there to tell me half of the things I know today in a way that I can understand them my learning curve could have been cut way back.

Everything moves in a full circle:  Intermarket Analysis, Economic indicators, Order Flows, Basic Techs, etc.

Truth: People “love” to be sold to

I am on one of these email lists that shoots out a constant barrage of high-pressure, “we're including this this and this….an unbeatable value” type of trading education, systems or otherwise. This stuff sells like crazy, where the locked-up, quieter types are the ones that really get you anywhere.  Think of your favorite books or other materials that have helped you along the way….most of them probably fall under the radar of most.  I have always tried to maintain a balance between these two areas when it comes to this blog simply because we have costs here and traffic is simply the only way to cover them.  It is what it is.  We're offering a rare opportunity at literally 1/3 of the price of other shops for the online version and 1/3 to 1/2 less for live…the reason?  Cover costs and get what we need for the next project. We err on the side of simplicity and this weekend is literally packed in with information end to end.

For the pirates:

It is at the point of expected that anything that hits the internet will be available for free at some moment it seems….as you know this weekend is sponsored in part by another private company that doesn't take kindly to these activities form a legal perspective, not to mention the technical aspects surrounding or tracking systems.  A huge part of joining us is the support.  I know exactly how many people we have with us this weekend and it is manageable in terms of what is being offered.  Please help us out and support this new project while gaining some experience along the way.

….this is my Friday rant.

Here's the link to the live event and online version…….last time you will see this posted on this site or via email…..we have to lock up registrations by the night of  Wednesday, June 22 in order to manage logistics. https://paracurve.com/foreign-exchange-prop-trading

As always, a massive “thank you” for the years of loyal support to those that are able to look past the fluff in this business.  I'm quite busy these days so unfortunately locking comments here, not to mention I don't want this to turn into a gossip column.  But thank you again and I hope you can join us.

-Steve