Investools Review
Does Investools work? More importantly is it worth the price? Read on and you'll find out. Investools is a company that provides stock market training and anlysis software which is geared towards beginner to intermediate-level investors. It's a publicly traded company and therefore has to disclose its earnings, which is always a good thing. Investools is also in partnership with optionsXpress, an online broker as well as big names such as E-Trade, Forex Capital Markets and even Yahoo Finance. With big names come big prices and Investools boasts some of the largest that I've ever seen. You may at first be confused about the actual price you'll have pay to join but don't worry, everyone else I've ever talked to is confused as well. First you will start with a free "GET MOTIVATED" 2-day seminar which will cost $2000 if you decide to stay for the second day. After that the Investools software is $600 per year. I attended the "GET MOTIVATED" seminar in Orlando (Jan 25, 2006) and I would like to include a couple of warnings here. First be sure to return all your materials at the end of day 1 and let them know you won't be attending day 2 or you will be charged. Secondly, be prepared for a lot of hype and sales techniques to get you to upgrade to a higher package. The higher package comes in 3 coaching options - Associates ($5,000), Masters ($11,000), or PHD ($23,000). There is no typo here, you may be asked to pay twenty-three thousand dollars to get access to everything Investools has to offer. A negative aspect of the company that I've heard reflected in my interviews with some of their customers is that Investools is too largely focused on selling you next level of education, and not focused enough on your success in the markets. The opinions I've heard on the actual Investools software are generally positive (of course there are many exceptions), but many people claim that while Investools offers generally good information, it's hardly top secret. In fact, you can find much of the same information with free services all over the internet. Another problem is that when you finish the course you feel pretty much forced to start investing, even though you may not be comfortable yet, because you're already in the hole several thousand dollars if not more. In most cases, the cost of Investools will eclipse your returns for several months or more even if you are successful. Many advocates of Investools will say that the price is worth the money and point out how education at a university may cost 20K a year, so it should not be any different to spend that much on Investools. Although I agree that you should be generous when investing in your own education, I have to disagree with them here. It all comes back to my opinion on "black box trading" and why I believe it's not really a good idea. "Black box trading" is basically trading where you have a program make all or the majority of your decisions for you. It's referred to as "black box" because you never really know or understand what the program is doing; you can never 'see' inside the box as these details are kept secret. So when the proponents of Investools speak about investing in your education with Investools they are incorrect because, in my opinion, all you're really investing in is learning how to use the Investools software and not on understanding the markets for yourself. Couple this with the rocky history stock predicting software has had and you may be in for a ride. All the Investools instructors say students will make 100% per year or more and yet obviously your results are not guaranteed. Not to mention the fact their claims are not realistic. Even the world's richest investor Warren Buffet (who's theories Investools follow) made an average of just 40% return per year over his entire career. A friend of mine who is a very successful trader once told me something that I find very valuable. He said that the market is and will always be a dynamic entity. No canned program will consistently predict correctly the movement of the market. You must develop your own system and it will take years to come up with, and there is no way getting around that. Remember 90% of the traders lose and only 10% win in the long haul. If you want to be one of the 10% then you must build your own system. It takes time and total dedication to be the one of the 10% and while Investools may have you convinced that it's easy; believe me when I say that it's not. I stopped wasting my time with things like stock auto-systems and the people who try to sell them to you. They are not out to help people like you and me and most can't even beat the market themselves. I was fortunate enough to find something better that's finally started making a difference in my financial life. If you're interested in learning more then Check It Out Here. Best of luck, 
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