I've ducked this thread in the name of fairness of debate. But here is some input.
First the ambassador campaign. I've been pestering Betfair for ages to get some recognition for trading to legitimise it. So when they said they were doing something I was delighted to offer my help.
They felt they needed several people to put up. So I gave them a list of established Bet Angel users known to me. Betfair have always had this mantra of trying to be fair to all vendors so they felt they should split the campaign along software lines. That's how a long term Bet Angel user who's been on my course twice ended up being asked to show some other software.
On training front you always have this contradiction in the market. If you are that good why not just do it. I did my first course in Manchester in 2004. Back then it was almost impossible to get traction on the concept of trading on exchanges without teaching people how to do it and how to use software. That's how I started and it's continued to this day, albeit its scope has expanded significantly from there. It's well known that some of the advice givers out there have NEVER traded effectively in the market. Others did trade the market but have been pushed out of the market and now offer training as a way to earn a living. I don't see that as a major problem as long as they are honest about it.
From my perspective I still trade for a living first and everything else is secondary to that. Despite the software and training business, I've earned more from trading than anything else. But that's because I put a bucket load of hard work into it. I understand the markets from all angles in wonderful detail now, far better than I have in the past. When I've had a really good day I'm often left wondering why a bunch of photographers are not outside the office to catch a glimpse.
But seriously, I've been contemplating putting it all into a formal academic study as some of it is really interesting from an academic perspective (often useless for trading) but that's unrealistic at the moment. Maybe someday.
Each morning I analyse yesterdays trades, look for new angles, work on strategies, update spreadsheets etc. Then from 2-9pm (at least) in the summer I trade. That doesn't leave a great deal of time for much else to be honest. To operate in the markets at a high level that's what you need to do.
As some of you can testify, I've often helped out people outside of my standard trading material. But you quickly spot a problem, time. If you trade full time it's difficult to realistically help people at a level that they require, especially if they are struggling. You also often reach this point where you said so much in so much detail that it's easier if you just click yourself! The psychology of trading is something I've conquered from an initially weak starting position but it's something that nobody is really interested in curiously, but IMHO something that is vital. The ability to take risk and react to potential problems.
When in the markets you just tend to do it, function at a level that allows you to maximise the opportunity. No distractions, just focusing on the opportunities in front of you. So I've never considered a room where people can ask me questions real time. Just never seemed feasible. I go mental if the phone rings when I'm trading!
I've often played with the concept of bringing people into the training side of the business and have offered the chance to several established users. But one of the problems I've seen here is that when you bring people up to the level where they can trade well, they just want to do that.
But one thing I think may work well is opening up the office to Bet Angel users that want to trade from here. We have a really nice set up, high speed internet and of course that would be a great environment to learn from. I can carry on trading and scream the odd bit of advice when it happens. If people are up for this I'd happily consider it. We are working on new educational stuff at the moment, but that has been delayed unfortunately. It just a question of how to scale my knowledge to users in a way that works for all parties.
So what advice would I give to anybody (in any market or sport) wanting to learn something.
Go get advice from people who are least able to provide it. Because that advice is probably the most valuable.
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