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I recently became aware of Knowledge to Action’s (www.knowledgetoaction.com), Greg Secker’s company which offers the apparently award winning “Trader’s University” Course. This is an equity trading course that promises just 1% downside risk (per trade… but over a few days you could lose all of your money by trading equity or forex, so be careful)
So, is there a scam in this equity trading course?
Is their a scam running on these investment and equity trading courses, or are they perfectly legal and fair? Is their advertising overly aggressive?
These companies use “free seminars” that promise to teach you some untold secret about trading equity to wealth in just 2 hours, with no hard sell. I have spoken to someone who went on the KnowledgetoAction seminar and it seems that this is far from the truth. Whilst the seminars are at best, informative, they do not really have much of substance. The “secrets” are only partially revealed – enough to get you salivating for more but certainly not enough to get you share trading. And certainly, there is no concrete evidence that trading equity with these methods will make you more money that it will lose you.
Plenty of testimonials were given of people who had been on the traders university course at knowledgetoaction, and they had all, conveniently, made money. Those who had lost their money would not have been asked for their testimonial I presume.
If you sign up for a course, you won’t notice this, but you will be signing not just a payment slip for the payment of the course but also a CONTRACT with 10 clauses to it. This contract is the small print which is on the back of the form that you are signing. Because your form is attached to a clipboard, you probably won’t even know that it has this smallprint contract on it! And clause 3 states that you agree to a £500 non-refundable fee being applied if you cancel – even if you change your mind just a few hours later!!
Is this illegal? Can knowledgetoaction and Greg Secker’s trader’s university hold back my refund or is this a con?
Well, there are a number of regulations in place that would suggest that this is not legal. For instance,
The “Unfair terms in consumer contract regulations” state that unfair terms cannot be entered in a contract if this would put the consumer at a disadvantage. Knowledgetoaction are claiming that £500 is not unfair, but to me, a 25% penalty for cancelling just a few hours later seems very unfair. I wouldn’t go as far as saying it is a scam, but I would certainly be questioning the legality of it.
Are there any other laws that might prohibit knowledge2action from doing this to people who sign up to their traders university course?
There are.
As with distance selling, there is a law that gives the consumer a cooling off period when purchasing a good or service in a place that is not the trader’s usual place of business. The regulation is “The Cancellation of contracts made in a consumer’s home or place of work, etc..”. This regulation gives the consumer 7 days to cancel their purchase if they change their mind for whatever reason. -irrespective of what it says in the contract.
Does Greg Secker know this? What happens when you contact knowledgetoaction to complain about your refund?
Apparently, knowledgetoaction will plainly refuse to issue a full refund, stating that their terms and conditions plainly state that you have agreed to the £500 penalty. If you push them a little more, they will just keep saying this over and over again like a broken record. Good old fashioned British customer service has gone out of the window and has been replaced by what really feels like a money-making operation that considers fairness to have no value.
Are there other laws that might protect me from knowledgetoaction’s “scam”, “con”, or “terms and conditions” ?
There are. The company could be accused of taking part in Aggressive Commercial Practice when they pressured you into signing up for the course by telling you that you would never get that special price again. But this is not true, in fact, you could get that price again just by attending another seminar.
So what can you do if Knowledge to Action, Greg Secker, The Trader’s University, have treated you unfairly, if you feel you fell for a con, a scam?
Well, you could phone them up first and try to settle it directly with KnowledgetoAction, but this might be difficult.
Next, you could contact your credit card company to ask for a chargeback of the amount that you paid, stating your reason.
Then you could contact the Office of Fair Trade and Consumer Direct. They will be able to advice you with the steps to take.
It seems that Knowledgetoaction are not afraid of legal action, they have probably had this kind of problem before and they possibly have a whole team of lawyers ready to scare you if you try to get your money back. But if you feel that they don’t deserve your money, you should definitely give it a go. There are plenty of regulations that back you up. And the only way of knowing if this is indeed a scam, would be to go all the way.
Please let us know your opinion and experience with knowledgetoaction, the trader’s university, and Greg Secker’s course. This blog is open to all and we are trying to get a balanced discussion on the subject. No posts will be deleted as long as they are deemed genuine and truthful.
You are welcome to copy this article in its entirety and post it on your own blog.
what they ‘promise’ for the results of attending a free seminar is a bloody lie. I attended the course, and find out it’s a blood-sucking business. You pay for more than 2k for this course and you are expected to sign up master course or forex course each will cost more than 5k. What is more.
You are told off not signing up for using ADVFN/ Sharescope and not opening account with MF Global where they collect their commisions from. They excuse their stargeties can only work under those platforms.
3 coaching sessions valid within two months. By the time you were notified who your coach was, there were only 7 dates (out of 2 months) available! whatis worse. you write to your client service. Never get a reply. Anything against K2A, you will never get a reply. Any profit you can bring them, you will get special care.
Advance trading consultants, Adam and Carla use the word ‘vouch’ to deceive you when you want to cancel your course within that 7 days period. Well, they drag you into the trap. After you attended the course, there is no support afterwards. Bye. Bye. K2A has got your money. You eithor die or live.
When did you attend the course? I was supposed to attend it last weekend but decided against it a few weeks before and told them i wanted a cancellation. I hadn’t paid anything, i said i had to transfer money to my account for the deposit so this was never taken. They didn’t let it go though, constant phone calls from some guy, Mark i think, trying to get me to come in and see the live trading floor and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Emails were ignored. Just told him no i am not interested and leave it at that. Eventually he stopped breathing and shut up. I shouldn’t have been so blind in the first place to sign up but the next day i thought things through and realized. Glad i didn’t waste 2.5k on the course!
I have just comeback from a free 2 hour seminar.
Yes it’s the usual hard sell and sign today and we will knock off £1k etc etc. and yes they probably do get kick back commissions from the brokers etc.
But what i want to know is whether anyone has actually signed up and done the 2 day course and is it any good ? are they making money
A question for anyone on this forum who was surprised that the 2 hr free seminar had a sales agenda – What planet are you living on? Of course it has a sales agenda! That is how business works. Every company has a sales aspect to it. No one is going to give anything away for free! It just doesn’t make sense – Duh!
Ian get a life. You have never even been on the course. You guys on these site are completely pathetic. Either you believe you can make money or not from trading. If you don’t, then don’t waste your time going to free seminars.
Why are you all so against other people making money?
It’s amazing that those who post comments with derogatory remarks always seem to pose as anonymous.
Sad!
I totally agree with you Ian!
What’s more, we’re not discussing whether or not money can be made from trading. It can. but it can also be lost.
What we’re discussing, is that the “trader’s university” is scammy.
They promise to reveal secrets in the free seminar, but they don’t. Then they have a very hard sell. They promise “easy returns” if you follow their system, which, after talking to a guy who got into trading using some of these methods, aren’t that easy…
AND, most importantly, they try to trick people by asking for money upfront and then refusing to pay out refunds -despite their legal obligation to do so!
Who’s making the real money here – the student/trader, or Greg Secker’s trader’s university? I’m sure it’s the latter!!!
So whether or not their course might be “good”, it is still a scammy company that I wouldn’t want to be associated with.
I attended the free seminar yesterday (04.07.09) and whilst sceptical about signing some aspects of what was on offer seemed useful to someone not familiar with trading.
I was hoping to find comments from people who had actually paid to do the 2 day course but have not found any on the web. The main thread here is from people who paid on the day and then decided this was not for them (anom please dont respond by telling me to get a life as its not very helpful)
Rick read Jean 24 June above.
Can anyone tell me how I can get my £500 deposit back I signed up on the 11th June and then cancelled on the 16th June, but they quote the contarct. Any help please. Cheers Dave
Its a scam if you live near one of their seminar locations spread the word
Hi Dave
You have the law on your side if you act within 7 days of placing the deposit. If you are going to write a letter add this:-
Under the Doorstep Selling Consumer Protection Regulation, I have the right according to the Cancellation of Contract Away From Business Premises Regulations to ask for a full refund.
Then add what every you want.
This is what The Office of Fair Trading told me to write. I actually got my full deposit back.
I would like to advise anyone considering doing the Tradersuniversity Course, to immediately cancel, and get your money back. I have attended the 2 hour free seminar, the weekend resindential and indeed a further course called “MasterTrader”. I have followed the rules, as given by Greg Secker himself. Perhaps the TradersUniversity trading rules work in long term trending markets, (2002-2007) but for now, with markets all over the place and one piece of bad news sending the market crashing, its not the time. You can learn what I was tight from a book also. It much cheaper than the 5000 pounds I spent in total. I have lost about 2000 pounds in addition to this 5000 in current market conditions. I also had a colleague who lost 10000 pounds following the TradersUniversity rules. He decided to question the testimonials on thier web site and also the ones given one we eventually signed up. He received no reply from anyone at TraderUniversity. He still hasn’t to this day. Decide yourself, but you have been warned!!
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31 comments:
Hi
Just read your blog on Knowledge to Action. Very good information.
My brother and I had signed up for the course after attending a free seminar, a few days ago.(27/01/09) The following day something got me thinking about it, like it just seemed to good.
I looked at the deposit sheet we got and as we were never told about the refund conditions I turned it over and in very faint print, read section 2.3. None-refundable deposit.
I called The office of fair trading and explained the whole situation. They told me exactly what to write in a letter to ask for the deposits back, as they said that in England no matter what it says on the form, everyone has 7 days to ask for a full refund. The person stressed that it is law, and the company has to give you a full refund.
If anyone needs a copy of what needs to be put in the letter then I will be happy to tell you.
I am now waiting as I sent the letter today and as I only paid the deposit 2 days ago.
Ian
Yeah, I’m having the same problem. Could you tell me what you had to do and who you wrote to?
irishplan22@hotmail.com
Hi i have attended a free seminar on 21/03/2009. I was offerd the application form but the guy said I have to feel/sign it up on the spot or we take the form from You.They don’t want people to take forms home and read them carefuly.They offered a 1 grand discount for a promise to give them Your trading history for 6 months after the course so people would fell easyer for signing up.
Hello,
I have recently attend to one of these free seminars, and they near catch me. Their selling practices were really hard. And today the have phone me, I was at work so I do not know what they wanted, but they will call again. I will keep you informed.
Any way I would like to know if they offer something real or is really an scam?, because I would like to learn what they promise at the seminar.
Hello everyone
IIan here, the guy who posted a commment at the top and contacted the Office of Fair Trading. Well after writing off to them I did get my full deposit back. In the letter I gave them 10 day to pay up or I would pass on all the information to the Office of Fair Trading. 11 days later and a another letter sent alwasy by registered post I got all the money and no moans or groans from them.
Everyone just remember that YOU do have the law on your side.
Hey Ian,
Well done on getting your money back.
The law is on our side, but the problem is many people will have signed up to the course, and then when they read the cancellation fee on the back they will think they are stuck.
Knowledgetoaction are breaking the law just by not informing you that you have the right to cancel!
Hopefully this blog will inform as many people as possible.
If anybody has a website, please make a link to this blog: it will make it easier for people to find it and get a refund from these “traders university” people.
This blog is excllent! I thought there was something not quote right about the whole approach of Knowledge to Action.
If you really want to learn to trade – do the research yourself on the web, looking for a technical approaches. E.g. using various indicators like trend lines, oscillators (RSI, MACD), lines of support/ resistance, fibonacci trace backs etc. then use demo accounts to trade for at least 6 months risk free to get a feel for what works for you. Keep your head in the finacial news – e.g. Bloomberg/ Reuters.
Question is… if their trading strategies are so good, why sell the secrets? Surely, the opportunity cost of trying to get people to sign up to a course is higher than executing a successful trading strategy?? The truth is, Knowledge to Action make money by selling something with zero risk. What is the cost of sales for knowledge? Zero… it’s all profit, no risk. Not only that, they probably get sales commission for introducing you as a trader to their broker network, or selling trading software or a market data subscription.
There is NO QUICK AND EASY WAY. You can’t just spend 30min per day to trade well… if you’re that good you should work for a bank! A good trader is able to anticipate market movements ahead of time or react very quickly, before the masses take away any opportunities. It’s you vs. all the other traders – end of!
I attended a 2 hour intro on Friday 27th March on FX.After a i hour high pressure sale (was told we would see live trading to get us there at their so called trading room) we were asked, who wants to learn to make money put up tour hands.The rest of yo can leave and don`t come back.As this was done at their business address.does the refind in 7 days not apply. ie the real reason to get us there? The women conducting the meeting was a so called FX trader expert but did not know what she was talking about.I promptly left with a number of other people.
Hi all.
According to The Office of Fair Trading, if you sign up on their actual premises then they do have firmer ground to fight to keep YOUR money, but as long as you ask for your money within 7 days of paying then by law they cannot refuse to give you your money back. If anyone wants to know the exact terminology to use in the a letter asking for your money back then just reply to this and I will post it for you.
Hi There,
Does anybody knows what I should do if I dont want to attend the course and dont want them to charge me? Is there any legal way after the 7 days to avoid making the full payment (even if I loose my initial deposit)?
they tried to charge my credit card but they couldnt charge me but I received an email from them saying that they are going to charge me interest?
Regards,
Dinos
Hi
I do believe they are trying to scare you by threatening you with interest being added on, Who are they, a secret bank?
The Office of Fair Trading will be very interested in the tactics that they are using on you.
Tell you bank under no circumstances are they to be paid, then contact the Office of Fair Trading and tell then EXACTLY what is happening.
It is illigal what they are trying.
Hi Dinos.
Did knowledgetoaction tell you how you could cancel when you signed up? Did they tell you that you had 1 week to cancel without loosing anything? If you experience is the same as mine, then NO, they didn’t tell you any of this.
By law, they should have informed you of these rights.
Therefore, they are in the wrong as well.
Contact the OFT like Ian says, and they will be able to advise you best.
Is there anyone out there who has done the course?
Hi There,
They want me to come in an arrangement with them and pay the for the course even if I dont attend, I think this isnt fair, I dont think that any consumer has to pay for something that they decided is not for them.
I’ll keep you posted with any new developments.
Dinos
That’s funny, them trying to get you to come to some arrangement. That arrangement will be to their benefit not yours. Do not arrange anything. Keep all corospondance and make copies, as emails are legal in the eyes of the law.
I am not advercating any courses, but I am having success with a system by a guy called Guy Cohen. It is called Flag trading – http://www.guycohen.com/us/cmd.asp?af=992188
Do a review on him from google. He also has 3 books on amazon.co.uk Publshed by the FT.
Or just sogn up for his free newsletter, you get free videos, articles. http://www.flag-trader.com
The vdeos on Video Alert are great and very informative.
Kind regards
Hi Ian,
You say that you are not advocating any courses… and then you give the URL for a trading course of which you are an affiliate (we can see this by the af=992188 in the URL) – so if we sign up, you would make a commission.
The course might still be good, but I’m just saying that we can’t take your comments as being unbiased.
Take it as you want. I do know what an affilate link is as IT is my business.
Like I said, do a Google on the guy, do your homework and make a decison from there.
All I know is that it is working for me.
Hello,
Wao, I was quite astonished by all the bloggs I read above. I went recently to one of the ‘knowledge to Action Trader’ seminar. I did not sign up because I thought it was too good to be true. I said if I have discovered the secret of trading, I will not sell it to anyone. I rather make money from it than doing some hard selling at seminars.
I would really like to know if anyone has attended the training and what was the result. I would be very pleased to know of their success rate.
Thanks.
Hi everyone.
I signed up for the course and then cancelled 5 days later. Thanks to the help on this post, with a correctly prepared letter, K2A finally agreed to refund my £500. I also threatened Watchdog if they didnt pay up and that seemed to help!
Dont let these crooks get away with it.
I have booked to go on a free ‘Traders Secrets’ seminar tonight. However, after reading this blog I am not so sure it is a good idea. Like the previous entries, I would be really keen to know the outcome of anyone having attended the paid for training course. Anyone?
ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION – WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO GO TO THE BOTHER OF ARRANGING SEMINARS AND TRYING THE HARD SELL IF THEY WERE SUCCESSFUL TRADERS?
Went to there seminar and found it an eye opener, and afterwards a complete waste of an evening. A very high pressure, unprofessional outfit, who cannot back up their claims. Don’t believe the hype! IF IT SEEMS TO BE TO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT IS.
STAY WELL AWAY
Dear all,
Very interesting article – thank you for posting and thank you to all the kind people who have taken the time to comment.
Here are a few words from me to you all as I’d like to give something back. I hope you find this useful.
Despite the lack of drinking water and some luxury chockie bickies, I found that this was a great FREE introduction to this ‘award winning course’.
Throughly enjoyed the enthusiasm of the presenter and the assistants were extremely polite, and seemed to be very genuine, obviously when you attend you may not have the same experience, but I certainly enjoyed myself and picked up a few tips.
The good news is, if you’re looking for a get rich scheme then this it! The bad news is the owner has beaten you to it! Needless to say I didn’t and wouldn’t part with my hard earned cash, even if they dropped the price significantly.
If you decide to ‘invest’, then be prepared to stump up a couple of K’s for the course and make sure you have about 5k to invest – at the very least, anything less and your chances of blowing-out your account are too great.
Hmm.. did I just say “Invest” A bit of a loose term in this context, as this is all about spread-betting, it’s more akin to yes you guessed it, gambling, masked as betting with a strategy. Some you win, some you lose and some more you win, or at least that’s the theory, but don’t become too attached to your investment, you could easily lose the lot. But remember that’s true with businesses, and trading the real stock market. There’s ALWAYS an element of risk and you could ALWAYS lose the lot. You have to speculate to accumulate.
If you’re a risk taker and willing to risk life savings or a proportion of them, then this might be suitable for you – at least attend the free seminar, but go objectively and cut through the hype, I’d hate to know that someone is out of pocket after having made a. wrong choice and b. some bad investment decisions when putting theory into practice.
Remember, there are no guarantees with this, just the guarantee that you could learn some new skills that might help you earn money as a secondary income.
I have no doubt that there are some very successful students that have ‘graduated’ (jeee that term sounds cheap too! I know how hard I studied for my proper university graduation!) but I think the coaches are in a league of their own.
The use of ‘University’ is a bit of a cheap shot and disrespects academic institutions that give people real degrees, but is this a degree you want or a way to make money? Trading College doesn’t have the same authenticity I guess. Hmm. Also as mentioned previously. Award winning? Maybe so, but come-on!
So for those uncertain peeps, questioning should I stay or should I go, the very fact that you’re asking this question means STAY! Don’t invest a dime; in terms of time or money.
But if that’s not justified, here are some more reasons when to run for the hills:
1. If you don’t like the idea of gambling. No matter how they market this, it is gambling – it’s even acknowledged by government as gambling, hence no need to pay capital gains tax or stamp duty.
2. If you think you’re going to become a millionaire shortly after you get your account configured – think again
3. If you’re either greedy or fearful, you’ll be…. Well not exactly quids in.
And proceed with caution if…
1. You’ve got enough funding and see this as a bit of entertainment
2. You enjoy taking risks
3. You live each day as it comes and don’t worry too much about the consequences of your actions
4. Happy to sign up for a course with out having any time to think about it
5. Don’t mind adding to Greg’s wealth whilst potentially minimising yours
All in all, interesting company that will MAKE some people and BREAK others.
Are you brave enough? I know I’m certainly not!
Cheers and good luck, what ever you decide.
God bless!
Hey, great last comment!!
But personally I would prefer to run a business that I understand and can “control” more than running a spread-betting strategy that can just as easily go against you than with you. It could take £10,000 of losses before you finally work out that your strategy is not working!
i attended the forex course in March and thought it was very good although there was intense pressure to buy further training and mentoring. however i have been making a 10% return on my capital per month since then and have paid for the course and equates to about 15 minutes work per day so i would recoomend it but only to people who do what you are told to do on the course and who can afford to risk losing money as that will always happen with trading but if you are consistent you can make steady gains.
Real money is being made every day on the Forex and Stock markets! It is the only game in town apart from a Job! Learn to trade and then get better at it!
Sure, there is real money to be made. But there is also real money to be lost.
There are plenty of professionals out there. Banks, brokers, etc… with plenty of experience.
How is a week-long course going to allow anyone to compete with these guys?
For every winner in spread-betting, there has to be a loser.
If knowledgetoaction have such a great system, why are they training people to use it? Surely this would mean that their own traders will have more competition?!!! … or maybe they make more money from the courses than from actual trading.
You guys sound like a bunch of losers and I bet you all have 9 to 5 jobs, yes you can win and yes you can lose, but if you want to succeed then you will, not in 20 minutes a day as some may have you believe but you will be succesfull over time, stop bitching and start to focus your energy on what YOU want to achieve in life??
Typical. Big guy spouts his mouth but leaves his name as anonymous.
Hi Ian I have just signed up for aKnowledge to action two day course on the 17/06/09 but would like to change my mind and get a refund could you send me the information you sent in your letter to get a refund please.
Hi Frank,
There is a whole post on this blog about what to write in the letter.. make sure you read all the posts as each one has something useful.
The one with a sample letter is
http://knowledgetoaction.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html
You should be able to get your money back, no problem! Other people have!
Make sure you come back to write about your experience and help others!
Hello Frank
Sorry for not getting back, very busy.
You have the law on your side if you act within 7 days of placing the deposit. That actually means that if you send the letter as a registered letter on the 7th day then it is still within the law.It counts within the 7 day ruling, even if they get the letter on the 8th day.
As a heading and inside the body of your letter, add this:
Under the Doorstep Selling Consumer Protection Regulation, I have the right according to the Cancellation of Contract Away From Business Premises Regulations to ask for a full refund.
After that you can write anything you like.
Kind regards