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The
date was Thursday Feb. 17th, 2005 when I attended a marketing
seminar in Pasadena, California. I received numerous
invitations to similar seminar in the past but I ignored them because I
thought they were gimmicks and not worth spending my time to attend.
However, I decided to attend this seminar just out of curiosity to see
what they have to say. It was free of charge anyway.
There
were four speakers in the seminar. The Investools speaker caught my attention right
from the beginning. He demonstrated how his company software will help
investors getting in and out of the market profitably. However, I was
still skeptical about the software because it sounded too good to be
true. Besides, the price they charged for 2-day stock seminar was out of
this world. At least, that was what I thought at the moment. After the
Investools speaker finished his presentation, the audiences were rushing
to register for the program but not me. I was still thinking about the
price. It was way too expensive for a short 2-day seminar, I thought.
When the break was over, I was inside the auditorium and waited for the
second speaker. I did not remember the details of his speech because I
was still thinking about the Investools program. However, one of his remarks
was interesting. He told us not too long ago, we were all celebrating the
New Year with party, food and champagne. Then what, he asked. We all
drive the same car; take the same route to and from work; and work for
the same company. He jokingly said it seems to be the number of the year
was the only thing that changed. He then challenged us to do some thing
different this year. His statement woke me up and I decided to try
something different. After the second speaker finished his speech, it was
my turn to rush to the register table and signed up for Investools 2-day
stock seminar to be held one week later. I was given the workshop
manuals, a set of DVD and an account to use the company software for six
months.
When I
got home, I read the manuals and watched the DVDs to get an overview of
what I would be learning in about a week. I was amazed of how straight
forward the material was. The manual is designed in a way that note taken
is not needed so student can focus on what the instructor has to say.
On Feb.
24th and 25th of
2005, I attended the 2-day stock seminar taught by Mr. Mark Larson on the
first day and Mr. Mike Coval on the second day. I was so excited about
the seminar I was the first one to show up at the hotel conference room,
even before the Investools team. The registration table was not even set
up when I arrived. I took my time to relax and read the course manual
again while I was waiting.
Needless
to say, I was one of the early birds to register and got in the
conference room. As expected, the seminar was not a college style
lecturing class but was an interactive seminar with live market examples
and analysis. Mr. Mark Larson did a good job introducing the program on
the first day. He went over the green & red arrow system and talked briefly
about the covered call concept. I was so exciting about his lecture I did
not take a restroom break until he gave us a break. I did not want to
miss a single word or slide from his presentation. On the second day, Mr.
Mike Coval went into the details of the system and introduced us the
spread trade concept. It was an interesting concept but I was very
confused about the terms “buy to open”, “sell to close”, “sell to open”
and “buy to close” he was using. However, I had fun watching Mr. Coval
searching for stocks using pre-built search and custom search system. I
was even more excited listening to his analysis of the covered call
examples. All were done in front of my eyes while the stock market was in
session. I realized I was wasting my money down the drain by not
utilizing the covered call strategy. I owned enough shares to write
covered calls but I was not aware of this simple option strategy before I
attended the seminar. In fact, I was naïve to think with the green &
red arrow system and the covered call strategy alone; I could make easy
money in the market.
At the
end of the seminar, I declined to sign up for further education program
because I thought the system was good enough for me already. There was no
need to go further. I remember Mr. Bruce Dinger, who was a helper at that
time, looked at me in the eyes and told me I made a terrible mistake by
not signing up for further education, especially when I am already a full
time trader. I was not convinced though. I went home excited about the program.
In fact, I was so excited about what I had learned I could not sleep well
during the weekend. I couldn’t wait until Monday so I could apply what I
had learned in my stock trading. I even woke up my wife several times
during the night just to tell her how I felt.
The
2-day stock seminar I attended in Feb. of 2005 marked the beginning of my
story with Investools. Before joining Investools, I bought stock and
hoped, even prayed, for it to go up. I was gambling. After joining
Investools, I buy stock with a strong likelihood it will go up. I am
investing. Was it good enough for me to make
money in the market? Not quite. There is still room for improvement. I will cover my subsequent story with Investools in
my next article.
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