I’ve been looking at trading systems for a long time.

From free forum discussions to $5,000 trading courses, I’ve gone through and tested countless of them.

And although most did not yield positive results, one quickly learns how to identify the quack systems from those that are potentially useful.

If you’d like to discover what I’ve learned, read on.

The 3 Considerations

In choosing a trading system, there are 3 major considerations:

  1. Cost – Is it cheap?
  2. Effectiveness – Does it work?
  3. Speed – How often can I trade?

Of course, we all want a trading system that is cheap, effective and works fast.

Realistically though, we can only choose 2 out of the 3.

You can find a system that’s…

  1. Expensive, effective and takes trades often
  2. Cheap, effective and takes few trades
  3. Cheap, ineffective and takes trades often

Now, it goes without saying that we only want to use a trading system that’s effective, so we can eliminate the third option.

  1. Expensive, effective and takes trades often
  2. Cheap, effective and takes few trades
  3. Cheap, ineffective and takes trades often

So it really boils down to whether we’re willing to pay for an expensive system that trades often, or a relatively cheaper system that takes fewer trades.

Avoiding Crap Courses

One of the first things I look out for in a trading system, is whether it claims to make money, do it quickly, and is selling for cheap. If it claims to have all 3 factors, I won’t even bother testing it – it’s probably no good at all.

Think about this: The smaller the time frame we’re trading in, the more noise we’ll observe on the trading chart.

So an effective system that takes trades often (in the small time frames) must necessarily be sophisticated enough to handle the infinite combinations of market noise to avoid false signals, while taking trades upon the valid signals… and you can bet that even if you were lucky enough to find such a system, its creator isn’t going to sell it for cheap. It just makes no sense to do that.

Put Another Way…

If you want to trade with an effective system, either be patient with it, or be prepared to invest a significant sum for one that trades often.

People who constantly look for for a low cost, fast profit, quick trading systems are the prime targets of marketers who sell dreams, not results.

So when someone claims to have a cheap, effective trading system that makes money quickly… beware!

What are your experiences with such Forex courses and products? Let me know in the comments below, I’d like to hear your thoughts.