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Anyone who has watched any late night TV recently cannot have failed to have noticed the many comercials trying to sell you on a series of trading seminars which promise will change your life and make you rich.

There are several questions that need to answered for anyone who is even remotely thinking of attending one of these seminars, in this article I’m going to attempt to at least point out a few of the pitfalls and help guide you to making a more informed buying decision.

The volitile market of the last few years has taught people that making money in the market on a consistent basis is not so easy, and requires a good financial education. The market crash during 2001-2003 showed that profits can disappear as fast as they come if you do not know what you are doing.

There are a lot of companies that advertize on late night TV but the ones that come to mind the most are Optionetics, Investools, Better Trades and Star Trader. I live in a city where these companies visit on a regular basis so I’ve attended all of their free warm up seminars. I’ve also bought a number of seminars from these companies.

The usual sales cycle is as follows, the infomercial is designed to get you to attend what I call the FREE warm up selling seminar. This seminar is usually in a local hotel and can last anything from 30 minutes to 3 hours. From my experience the free Investools seminar lasted about 3 hours and was actually very informative and educational. The others were much shorter and really nothing more than sales pitch’s to get you to sign up for a starter seminar which could cost anything from $199 to $4K!.

At the free seminar you will be encouraged to sign up on the spot using your credit card, this is usually after you are offered a large discount over the retail price for being a “discision maker”. Most come with a set of DVD’s and manual allowing you to study before the live seminar.

If you do sign up at one of these free seminars here are a few points to consider:

1. Don’t be shy about asking what the refund policy is up front. Understand how long you have to evaluate the training materials because this can very a lot between different companies. It could be only until noon on the 1st day or you may be allowed to stay the whole 1st day before having to ask for a refund.

2. Ask what the policy is regarding bringing another family member or business partner to the seminar. Usually you are allowed to bring 1 person, take this opportunity as it is better to have the opinion of another trusted person when trying to evalute if the seminar is good value and right for you.

3. Check that you are paying the lowest price possible for the seminar. You don’t want to end up in the seminar and find that the person next to paid a lot less for the same seat, just like on airlines!

4. Be very sure that the seminar you have signed up for is going to cover what you want to learn. Sometimes the agender is vague and the speaker goes off on their own favourite topics. If you want specific training on stocks, options or Forex make sure that they will be covered in detail in the seminar.

Here is something that you need to know, this is very important. All these seminar companies are not going to teach you everything you need to know about trading at one seminar, even if it cost $4K. They all have follow on seminars and courses, and they pretty quickly start to tell you that the seminar you have just attended and paid for is just the basic course and if you really want to be a trader you must buy the other more advanced seminars.

During your beginner seminar expect the presenters to consistently tell you that you have just begun your educational journey and that if you really want to make the big money you need much more education. I know it sucks but it’s not illegal, it’s how corpoate America works!.

If you are very satisfied with the quality of the education that you have received, and you think the company will be around for the next few years then by all means buy additional seminars. But remember this point, usually you will not get an extended amount of time to evaluate the follow on seminars, only the legal minimum 3 days cooling off period in some states. This could be important if you are buying a series of seminars that run over a couple of years.

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Choosing a platform for forex trading that is user friendly provides more than just the obvious benefit of convenience. In the serious business of trading foreign currency time really is money and not just some empty buzz word.

The spread is the difference between the bid price and the ask price for the currency being traded. The broker adds this spread onto the price of the trade and keeps it as their fee for trading. So you can consider this as a hidden commission.

One good thing about the spread is you pay it when you buy and not when you sell. A trading of 4 pips vs. 5 pips makes a difference of 25% on your trading costs! This makes the point clear why you would need a low spread Forex trading platform.

I do not want to have to download software and wait for the proper set up and getting rid of the bugs before being able to trade. The questions to ask are: Is their internet platform friendly and easy to use? Do you need to download any software? Can the trading be performed immediately, without any obligation to a certain configuration or a computer?

You will find many online sites offering different platforms for Forex trading. Through these platforms you can actually buy or sell the Forex. You will have to identify a low spread Forex trading platform from them. A good Forex trading platform shows live prices that you can actually trade at, and not indicative quotes. The low spread Forex trading platform should be fair and should let you know the actual prices so that you can have an idea of the spread.

A forex broker providing transparent services is a worthwhile choice for any forex trader. All costs associated with the trading platform and trading account in general should be disclosed up front. Integrity means not having to pay any hidden commission charges or fees for making deposits and withdrawals. Bank costs that are part of doing business as a forex dealer are not passed on to the forex trader. Beware of any service provider that does not provide sufficient firewall protection and some sort advanced SSL for user authentication and data transfer.

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Global forex trading was founded in 1997 and is today one of the world’s leading providers when it comes to forex real time trading. Global forex trading offer you the chance to deal in real time online currency trading that is making millions of forex brokers rich each day.

Global forex trading serves over 100 countries, using its DealBrook FX2 software and 24 hour market access with one of the highest levels of customer service available in the forex trading industry. With Global forex trading forex brokers have access to pricing for more than 60 currency pair and excellent analytical services from renowned experts.

There are up to the minute currency news bulletins and advanced forex charts available. Global forex trading boasts that they provide the only forex trading platform that is suitable for both beginners and professionals.

The global Forex trading day begins down under, in Sydney, Australia, and moves across the time zones as the great commercial cities of the world open for business. Because the world’s political and economic climate changes on a minute-to-minute basis, Forex traders can buy or sell different currency pairs based on how they read those changes.

Another advantage of forex trading is of course the fact that it is global and there are not restrictions placed on shorting which means that you can enjoy your profit opportunities no matter what the market condition.

Global Forex trading in exceeds 1.9 trillion US dollars on a daily basis, three-hundred-and-sixty-five days a year. The total amount of all the stock and bond transactions in the world on a single day is less that one-third of that. The thirty billion dollars which flows through the New York Stock Exchange is a mere drop in the Global Forex trading bucket. And the enormous liquidity of the global Forex trading market, when combined with the low margin requirements offered by most Forex brokers, mean that most trades are filled almost instantaneously, with very small transaction fees.

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