College courses for forex

Hello, there I am fairly new to the world of forex. I have been trading demo for a few years with mixed results as I have only educated myself with books from the library. My big question is:

Why on earth are there no university programs/courses offered for teaching people the technical analysis of successfully capturing pips! If this is the largest market in the world, and millions of people are interested and actively trading in it, it just seems ludacris that you can't study it in university. Am I missing something here??? Could anyone clear this up for me!!!

Thanks

University course? Lol

Do you learn to ride a bike by reading a book?

This forum and countless others are the only University you need, and its free, just have to use your noggin.

If there is a Uni course, people will learn to trade one method or system and it will not work in the long run so waste time and money imo

Easy now.... it's a valid question.

What about poker college ??

With a special Masters Degree in Texas Hold'em ??

OK, I guess I get your point.

I can imagine now, one semester on how to use lagging indicators

prolly no regular classes,
but my friend (@ LSE) , had trading class once
they were given trading platform and asked to trade for the whole day,
the top 2 guys at the end of the day were given a job instantly by a trading company who was watching the class...

seems they both have been trading for 5+ yrs ... my friend barely managed a positive p/l and was given as an example of how any newbie who doesnt know the head or tail of trading can come out positive by pure chance...

Join my forum called the college trader.........

Providing a class on purely technical analysis, which pretty much flies in the face of accepted finance theory, would not be very warmly received by the academic community. 90% of university professors would probably tell you based on the efficient market hypothesis not to waste your time trading currencies (and for the 90%+ people who lose all their money doing it, they would be right) or doing any kind of technical analysis at all. Financial theory doesn't really have anything to say about spot market trading. So like others have said, there's not much they could teach you about being a good retail forex trader.

Thank you pearl Jam for the first educated answer that actually addressed and attempted to answer the question. I don't understand why others bother to post things on here when all there doing is making themselves look foolish not answering the question and wasting everyones time, pretty lame...

Anyways, since reading your post, an entirely new spree of questions have just encompassed my mind. According to your response, If 90% of traders fail, there is no logical financial theory to back it, and there are no proper institutions to educate yourself with because qualified professors look down upon the entire concept all together. WHY IS THERE SUCH A MASSIVE DEMOGRAPHIC of people losing significant amounts of money. Why do people like you, and anyone one else on this forum trade forex if its mostly gambling. Why are people so dependent on books published about forex trading when, the theory is flawed to begin with. If highly educated and qualified people holding doctorates in financial analysis are not in support of this market, doesn't it seem kind of brainless that this many people in the forex factory community ALONE are even trading despite their awareness of the odds against them???

Also, people kept saying "theres not enough demand for education." WHAT?!?! This is the biggest traded market in the world, and your telling me theres not enough demand for a few courses on it. Meanwhile courses are offered on just about any pointless aspect of life in many schools around the world!!!! I go to UBC Canada and I can name quite a handful.

You guys are making it out to seem like it's not even possible to be successful based on a rational system, so if there is shouldn't that system deserve to be shared amongst the academic community....

Sorry, to those people if I'm coming across as someone who is new to Foreign exchange, well guess what I am, and I'm really trying to wrap my head around it. If you don't understand the question, please don't respond. However I WELCOME all logical criticism.

One last message to Pearl Jam:
Do you trade forex? How did you learn? do you consider it as gambling? and why do you trust the system that you use if its not a respected theory?

Thanks

fosho14-

First I would point out that it's the largest traded market because of financial institutions, multinational corporations and governments, not retail guys like the people in this forum, although the retail market is of significant size by most standards I would think. So demand for a trading class is probably there, but given that there are a lot of trading books that you can buy for $20, taking a class is probably not that economical and I wouldn't be surprised if they're right that there is little demand. If there is, maybe you just found a business opportunity.

95% or so of people who start up fail, because they don't really know what they're doing, they don't know what leverage is or how to manage risk, and they get started because they saw an advertisement and thought it sounded like an easy way to make a lot of money and quit their job. I get the sense that most people who take the time to participate in a forum like this fall into the other 5% and at least have a chance of making money.

And I won't get into the theory in detail but yes, finance theory would suggest that unless you had some kind of informational advantage you could not beat the market, and in the currency market that means you would be expected to lose money- currencies are not stocks or bonds that you get paid to own.

I have traded a lot of things, and I invest professionally for a living, but I am just getting started in currency and haven't put any real money at risk yet. I don't consider informed trading "gambling", which is purely a game of chance. I haven't seen anything to make me believe that strict market efficiency exists.

There is courses in Univeristies about Forex but it is integrated with stocks... If you are interested I can do more research on that for you.... I just know because when I went to uni there was lectures about it...

But its more about fundamentals and how the carry trade works... So it won't help you more than the articles your read...

As the other guys said, this is a game you have to walk your own path if you don't, you will fail...

This game isn't hard, I reckon it is just too easy for people to believe it... Then they try other stupid stuff like high %risk, revenge trading etc...

Mentally it is hard but when you think about it, when you eventually are consistent, you know what I mean...

It's like when you think about how hard it was to learn to ride a bicycle... Is it hard now?

I think it is because learning to become a successful trader is like learning to become a Rock Star. A long shot.

Now, there are classes on music, and lots of them. There is an industry in music. If you learn the ropes you can make a living off of it. Even if you don't become a Rock Star.

There are also courses in support of the music industry. Recording, etc.

There are also courses in support of Trading. Those who write the news feeds, etc.

The problem is, learning how to trade the markets successfully is a tough one to teach. And that is what you're asking about.

There are no music classes called "Learn to be a Rock Star".


Oh, and if you ask a question, it's just too effing bad if you don't like the answer. Stick around, there's ahella lot more of that to be had. It's just the nature of the business.

Two words, "Empirical Quackery" was what I've been told.

Apart from that, I've heard some emerging market universities have been offering specialized FX courses.

pearl jam,

So basically is your conclusion to this discussion that the best way to educate yourself and learn is to buy quality books from amazon or take them out from the library? Thanks buddy

Price,

Your very quick to point out how to not be successful what cannot happen, and what you should not do. How about some constructive advice on what you should do in order to be successful. Especially when starting out. Further more, if your not trying to be a rockstar, but simply just another guy trying to make a buck, how should you go about learning lol. Do you do anything else besides read internet news feeds, because I've literally found those to be the least helpful and most inaccurate resource of anything. If you beg to differ, I'd be interested in looking at the sites you use.

Off the top of my head I can think of a few MSc programs in finance that delve into trading to varying degrees, but not many undergraduate classes that deal with trading.

Most universities with a business school will offer classes that deal with the foreign exchange market (mine was 'international finance' and the spot market was the smallest portion of the class), but they don't deal with trading that much (if at all). My class was mostly case studies on multinational corporations and properly using forwards, futures, and options to hedge fx risk.

There is no fully accepted 'financial theory' regarding foreign exchange or trading in academia. I can tell you personally that the most influential professor I had was a former hedge fund trader who provided the basis for my market belief, that the market is comprised of humans making decisions and human nature is consistent and constantly repeating and unless you can exploit the market mechanics (think spread arb or something similar), taking advantage of market psychology is how one beats the market.

As for your questions about why people would gamble, trade in the face of an overwhelming failure rate, etc... put simply, trading isn't gambling. Gambling is a loser's game with a negative expectancy, and (with the minor exception of very few games where you can beat the house) there's nothing you can do to change it. When it comes to trading, you control your expectancy, and if you can put up a positive expectancy then the sky is the limit. It doesn't change the fact that most people will never reach that level, the prospect of it is so alluring to so many people who think they can be the one who reaches positive expectancy.

Also, price's rock star analogy is pretty spot on too, except there's probably not that many music teachers who say "you CAN'T be a rock star" but there's plenty of finance teachers who say "you CAN'T beat the market"

trading is eventually gambling
its a zerosum game which involves money , another word for gambling game ...
but doesnt mean u cant be a consistent winner here,
be better from the rest of the players and u ll be a winner , just like any other game ...

take the 'experience' class in the School of Hard Knocks

I think some MBA courses have an optional module on trading.

Not exactly. I would highly recommend getting a college degree and/or a CFA charter, reading anything and everything about finance and economics you can get your hands on, including a few quality trading books. You'll be ready to go in a few years. There will still be plenty of trades waiting for you then, and if you scour the WSJ, FT, NYT, Economist and various newswires you might be lucky enough to find some.

I'm sure others will disagree strongly with that, but it's my opinion, so take it for what it's worth.

I second this - learn from the school of hard knocks.

But one doesn't necessarily get beaten up if they take small careful steps.

There are a couple of trading schools which give a one-week course on technical analysis, specifically for either Forex, equity, futures, etc. I believe these are a cut above the hotel seminars. They're expensive, but they give five or six full days of training from accomplished traders.

Rob