Stu Whisson of Insight Support has been trading successfully for many years with the last 5 concentrating on Financial Spread Betting and honing his techniques to capitalise fully on this method of trading. He has privately taught over 500 students and has since developed a high-end website to service, support and train traders in his techniques and methods of trading in financial spread betting.
Stu is the author of 'How to Succeed in Financial Spread Betting', is the Managing Director of Insight Support, Ltd and is best known for the financial spread betting trader training website Insight Support. Insight Support has recently been awarded full recognition by the Man Group (one of the world's largest fund managers) to train all their select clients.
Note: If you aren't familiar with spread betting, log on to Tradindex and click on the 'Free virtual account’ icon. Then register for a 'player' account and you will be allocated £20,000 in virtual money to bet with.
First of all it's good to see a course in Spread Trading/Spread Betting (even if basic!) where you can get training direct from the author.
Stu's tutorial approach is sound and his results speak for themselves. He is not perfect (sorry Stu) but his holistic approach makes things seriously good value for money. He also makes himself freely available for questions and discussion sessions.
Module 1-4 basically covered the following:
* Intro's to how stock markets work.Module 5 covers the part that I really was interested about. It covers:
* Japanese Candlesticks.The earlier modules are an introduction to trading in general and spread betting in particular and are written in an easy to read and easy to understand manner. They would be helpful to a beginner and their content, in that context, is to be commended. Perhaps a little too wordy and with too much comment (good and bad) on other trainers. I have to say that if I were a new trader I would be getting a little frustrated by the lack of action. Perhaps that is a good thing as it may teach patience and an itchy mouse finger in the hands of the inexperienced is a recipe for financial disaster...
These initial basic modules did not teach me anything that I didn't already know, however if I had them in the early stages of my trading career they would have been a godsend. I expected the modules to contain all the info required to answer the 11 online questions, but they didn't. However since most of them were pretty basic, that wasn't a big problem.
The course modules themselves are, however, a small part of the overall package. The website is pretty comprehensive and has a wealth of information and resources, from downloads of e-books to full video tutorials on everything from Fibs, RSI, Candlesticks, to Elliot Waves... also news, portfolio capabilities, a charting application, data feeds (covering, UK/US and now FOREX), forums.....the list goes on.
As I've stated above there are video tutorials onsite, which "walk you thru" a visual version of the text in the module.....the couple I have watched helped me grasp the theory much quicker than the text alone did.
I submitted a chart of my own after the first part of the technical analysis module with questions...etc as I wanted to ensure that I had the correct understanding, and received feedback within 24 hours. The ability to be able to do such things as submit your own charts and have them analyzed is a huge advantage (imho) of the course. I got the video analysis of my first three (short) trades back from Stu and it seems overall I did ok. One trade has proven slightly profitable, the other a slight loss, so not as bad or "embarrassing" as I thought I did manage to recognise the signals from the indicators taught, (phewww) but got my consolidation v retrace a bit confused on the second one. The video analysis of your trades is a great idea and without doubt makes seeing where you got it right or wrong so much easier.
My main interest was in the technical analysis aspects as I'm always looking to devour new information, and so it proved to be the most interesting and enlightening part of the course for me. That said, I fear the Indicators /EOD / Individual share basis of the course is not something I personally feel particularly comfortable with, nor a method that I personally would use. I have no doubt that the methods taught would with practise prove to be a successful trading strategy. However apart from gaining a lot of knowledge and practise in technical analysis, the course has also enabled me to eliminate certain things from, and encompass others into my thinking.
If there are negative aspect to the course, then I still (despite Stu's protestations) feel that the "auto response" style of answer to the written modules could be improved upon. I am now fairly convinced Stu does look at them, I think the problem here is that he doesn't add to them/edit them to make it obvious. Having said that, any and all questions submitted either onsite or by e-mail have been answered very promptly.
The most positive aspects are without doubt the almost "mentorship" like support, and the superb facility to see full video analysis of your trades clearly pinpointing where u got it right/wrong. The members website is also an excellent resource.
The videos on his site show him analyzing charts, discussing ideas etc..., others guide you on how to use things like Fibonacci retracements to identify targets - none of it is rocket science, it is put together in a way that will allow a newbie to become competent to a fair degree or those wanting to brush up on their skills.... I would argue that beyond this point it is up to the individual, the tools are there and a simple MA crossover system will make you money if you are able to manage the money side of it.
In summary, the course is okay if you are a complete beginner. Most of the modules will give you information on spreadbetting which, however, in my opinion are freely available on the internet.
Pros:-
He does video tutorials, they are watch able and sensible. Con - not very good quality first time around, but I've done screen capture videos myself and it isn't that easy! Also, there are the Quicktime video versions which can be downloaded which are better in quality.Cons:-
The website is, in my opinion, a little chaotic but improvements are being continually made here*Hey we even received a comment from Stu in person!: As you correctly pointed out I do personally read everyone's coursework - I read and comment where required on all modules at the end of the email that students receive back and on the online version that you can see through the student centre. Also, I will usually place a closing comment relating to the students work, in conjunction with the replies to the students answers.
Once the initial modules are completed and the student has a then good understanding of the techniques - I then ask the student to supply various sample charting analysis.
Simply a symbol, what type of trade and more importantly why! The key part of this stage is that I then provide a video of my own analysis of that same chart and cross reference that with their analysis of the same. We keep doing this until the student is happy and secure in their own ability in their analysis. I personally would say, and many students have too, that this is perhaps THE most beneficial part of the training - having someone analyse your own analysis and foster and guide improvement.
Further from that, there is of course all the additional services that members get to use. Including a quality charting package and end of day data feed, search and scan which analyses the exchanges for quality trades and so on.
I think one of the other key issues that maybe needs re-iterating is the fact of the support in all of this. Yes, the modules have a degree of stock answers, but these aren't automated and I read every module sent to me. There is also the personalised analysis videos, where we look to see how your analysis can be improved upon. As well as all the other training and trading tools found on member site.
However, the key aspect of what I provide is support every step of the way, from student to trader. Obviously it is up to the student to request this and I do try my best to look to see where it maybe needed for that student also. But a student knowing that they can request support, help and guidance quickly and easily from their tutor is key, throughout their training and beyond. It was this that lead me to create Insight Support Ltd - as I felt that there was a need for someone that could provide cost effective training with a solid and secure support structure behind it. Training courses are a plenty - that we know, support for that training sadly is limited and so was borne Insight to provide a solution to both training and support.
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