Trade Smart University: a real university?

Trade Smart University Review
  • Honesty
    (3)
  • Quality
    (2)
  • Cost
    (2)
  • Support
    (3)
  • Verified Trades
    (1)
  • User Experience
    (2)
2.2

Summary

Trade Smart University is a trading education company offering the very basics. Little value to anyone other than the extreme newbie trader. Teaching old and tired technical analysis concepts. Nice people running the organization. Very friendly and they want to be helpful. But missing a track record and the owners of the company refuse to publish a track record. No trading histories of the owners give pause and worry. Proceed with caution.

Comments Rating 0 (0 reviews)
Pros: The blog is entertaining and well written. Very basic technical analysis information. Perhaps an OK destination for those with very little trading experience. Owners are not scammers.
Cons: The concepts taught are old and can easily be obtained for free. No track record. The owners of company have probably never been successful at trading.

Thanks for reading today’s review of Trade Smart University

What is Trade Smart University? The company is a trading educational company that specializes in teaching technical analysis for stocks, futures, currencies and options. There are several membershipTrade Smart University options available. A $39 per month “Silver” plan that includes a library of training videos, on demand study courses, a sentiment survey, access to the community, and market research tools. Next, there is a $89 per month “Gold” plan that includes everything in the Silver plan, plus weekly trade ideas and the opportunity to have your trades analyzed by a trading expert. Next, there is a $119 per month “Platinum” plan that includes all of the prior, plus “exclusive master classes” and something called the Weekly Power Trader Live.

The website appears to be managed by two individuals named Josh Hesse and Jeremy Whaley. An exhaustive Google search did not reveal any negative information for either of these individuals. The Trade Smart University website appears to have come online in 2009. Considering that this educational business has been in business since 2009, and has been able to avoid any negative online chatter is a good sign. Regardless of how well a trading educational company services customers, they usually will gather a few scars and bruises from online review forums. Nothing much to report on the company or the individuals.

Initial Findings of Trade Smart University

After signing up for a trial account, I reviewed several of the videos and educational materials offered. The materials presented are very basic technical analysis. Nothing extraordinary. I would have preferred to see some statistical testing attached to some of the trading concepts, but this can be expected as the materials are geared towards a newbie audience. To gain a better feel for some of the trading materials, the style of teaching and educational offerings, you can find plenty of material on their YouTube page.

The individuals that run this organization are based out of Nashville, Tennessee. And like most people from the southern part of the United States, they are very friendly and folksy. I have hundreds of “kin folk” throughout the south, and hospitality and friendliness are something that is quite common. The individuals running this organization are quite friendly.

Performance review and performance claims

You will not find any information regarding the individual trading histories of either of the company founders. I reached out via email and asked for more information regarding their qualifications or performance histories, but none could be provided. They prefer to simply be labeled as educational in nature and wish to not have the product based upon performance metrics. Of course, this is the type of stuff that drives me crazy. Nothing more irritating that when average folk will put together trading educational products meant to teach how to trade, but they themselves have no verifiable history of ever trading profitably themselves.

In lieu of a trading performance history, they appear to rely upon clever, colorful, and downright friendly marketing. They have this “we are all family” attitude, where everyone is nice and friendly and simply because we are nice and friendly, then hopefully this correlates into trading success for students. Unfortunately, I have not personally found this to be the case. In my many reviews, the majority of my positive reviews are written about traders that can be downright nasty and socially awkward individuals. I have found that the most successful traders that offer an educational product do not have the time to produce fancy marketing videos with background music and sappy emotional undertones. The guys at Trade Smart University love sappy videos and overly friendly messages. Am I being too critical? Perhaps.

In my own experience, the markets make quick work of those that bring emotions into the equation. This is not to say that since TradeSmartU is a warm love fest, then it must be a haven for suckers and losers. But the point that I am making is that trading is a very brutal sport, where you are attempting to out whit and cleverly pick the pocket of your trading adversary. If I am looking to learn how to take the resources from my adversary, then I want to follow in the footsteps of those that are currently doing it. I want proven killers. These guys are not killers, and they are definitely not proven.

Since they have no verifiable track record of any success whatsoever or are simply unwilling or unable to prove any prior trading success, then one has to assume that a positive trading record has never existed. This might sound like a harsh and simple conclusion, but when it comes to trading educators, even very nice trading educators…one should always use an abundance of caution.

Simple Technical Analysis

Trade Smart University is what I would consider to be simplified technical analysis. The ideas that are presented within TradeSmartU are indeed simple and easy to digest. And so the central question is whether simple technical analysis, that can be obtained for free from many sources, is it of much value? My own personal opinion is that technical analysis is mainly mumbo jumbo that does not stand the rigors of statistical testing. One of the most depressing and sad books that I have ever read is a book by Professor David Aronson titled, Evidence-Based Technical Analysis: Applying the Scientific Method and Statistical Inference to Trading Signals.

Over the years, since the 1990’s I have purchased hundreds of books on technical analysis. David Aronson’s book was the last book on technical analysis that I have purchased. Its a big fat whopper of a book. From page one, David systematically takes the reader on a journey that begins first into the human mind. How as humans, through evolution and natural selection, we have evolved to look for patterns in everything around us. It is part of our survival mechanism. This is part of our subconscious programming, and in nature, it has given us a distinct advantage over other living creatures. However, the human mind when combined with  modern computer visualization tools can very easily be tricked. In short, computers allow us to present large quantities of data to a mind that is unconsciously predisposed to finding patterns in everything from mouse droppings to cloud formations. Its no coincidence that the era of financial technical analysis took a fertile root with the advent of the personal computer.

Aronson takes many of the technical analysis concepts that we have accepted as scripture, and then he systematically destroys it through science and testing. Everything that I thought was valid regarding technical analysis, it turned out was just my little brain subjectively interpreting squiggly lines on a screen. If you need further evidence, then you should generate a series of random numbers using excel. Apply a stochastic or MACD indicator to the random data…like some sort of sorcerers magic, the patterns will start magically appearing!

Enough ranting about technical analysis. But the key point that I am trying to make is that before you invest your time and resources into a trading education, then make damn sure that the person teaching the concepts are actually able to apply these concepts in a winning manner. The only thing that really matters is a real track record.

Wrapping Things Up

I hate to be disagreeable with agreeable people. Being skeptical is certainly much more difficult that accepting the status quo. With the guys at Trade Smart University, my heart wants to agree with them. They are so darn nice. But my head say’s that unless they can prove some sort of prior trading success, then how are they any different than the rest of the trading scammers that pollute the internet?

The guys at TradeSmartU claim in several of their videos that many of their students are earning $5k to $10k per month at trading. But where is the proof? Why not trade themselves and simply post the results? This would put the skeptics to bed.

And my final question would be, why would anyone invest in their unproven investment concepts when many trading educators are now accepting the inevitable and are now reporting actual trading results? Jason at B12Trader.com reports his results daily, so does Jason at OilTradingGroup. More are joining the trend by just being open and honest about trading results, creating an environment where the truth can flourish. Where people can actually learn something of value, as opposed to learning something of little value than having to unlearn it. Nothing worse than unlearning something. Sort of like eating bad sushi, you eat it then you have to deal with flushing it out of your system.

Well, that’s it for today. Hopefully, the guys at Trade Smart University read this and take the final step…find someone that can actually trade. Plug this person into their website, and then folks can at least get a clearer picture of value.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to leave your comments below. Even the haters, trolls and shills are welcome to post their comments.

One final note, I have to give these guys some credit for not putting up a big fake spreadsheet of supposed trading results. It’s tempting for sure. These guys won’t do it. That say’s a lot about character. Hopefully, they take the final move towards accountability and transparency.

18 Comments

  1. Jerry December 4, 2019
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