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• 1. chandra  |  January 3rd, 2006 at 10:19 am

  great article! thanks. it’s cool that somebody is putting info about phil and investools all in one place where others can find it.

• 2. Q. McFarlan  |  January 5th, 2006 at 11:30 pm

  I just bought the course from them - paying tomorrow, expect it to be here next week. I’ve gone through the materials already (my parents had the course first), and it looks like a great place to get started.

  The $1053 course pack comes with 6 months of Investors Toolbox access, so I’m going to paper trade for 2 months until I’m comfortable, and then begin with real money. Goal? Not having to work by the end of the year

• 3. chandra  |  January 9th, 2006 at 4:40 pm

  you should let phil town know about your progress if you reach your goal, Q - he likes to write about peoples’ success stories on his site. by the way, awesome goal. you should blog about it as you go. ; ) if you do, let us know where we can read about it.

• 4. Gary Whitehair  |  January 25th, 2006 at 12:16 pm

  I’m not sure where ypu got the figure of $1,000 for the training. I went to one of their free seminars. Not surprisingly it truned out to be an 3 hour infomercial. You cannot subscribe to the Investools Toolbox unless you take their training. I was told that two days of training or their CD self paced training was normally $5000.00, but for those attending the “seminar” that day, the price for both would be $2,999 including a six month subscription to the Toolbox which is $50poer month. So the traing and Cd set woulod cost $2,600. They offered a money back guarantee if you were unsatisfied at the end of the training, but that certainly seems a steep fee to be trained on their toolbox system.

• 5. Peter  |  January 25th, 2006 at 8:02 pm

  I also attended a seminar today (Get Motivated Seminar which was awesome by the way). It included Phil Town who spoke about the Investools software. Everything seemed really great and simple to use, however, I was skeptical as I have attended other seminars in the past where everything seemed “too good to be true”. I then research them when I get home and find a bunch of bad posts about the program. This program, however, I haven’t found much info on in either direction or about Phil town for that matter. I am very interested in trying out the software but one thing that has really discouraged me are the supposed “deals” for signing up the day of the event. I really hate it when seminars do this, especially, when you find out that it really isn’t a “deal”. So my question is: Why so many different prices and why not just be upfront about the actual price? I realize you like to present a sense of urgency to get people to sign up before they go home and change their minds. It’s just reminiscent of other bait and switch programs and false deals.

  In summary, if any knows (including the poster above) please confirm the price you have paid for this course. If someone from Investools (Chandra I think I spoke with you on live chat before I got disconnected) or Phil Town himself sees this, please post with more info.

  Thanks.

• 6. Blair Clements  |  January 27th, 2006 at 1:47 pm

  Through BusinessWeek Mag’s website, you can attend a 4-hr introductory session for free. Investools also struck a deal with CyberTrader (Charles Schwab’s online daytrading arm) to provide discounted trading for Investools members to make trades directly from the Investools program into which the member is logged. I’m not a member yet, but Investools has solid business relationships with Charles Schwab, Success Mag, and BusinessWeek Mag. It appears that their business plan is to link their product through other subscriber companiesw where it appears that they are not in direct competition. Investools is a major Ad sponsor at Morningstar.com’s Stock page.

  I was first exposed (not literally) to Phil Town and Investools at the GET MOTIVATED Tour, with the likes of Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Suzie Orman, Zig Zigler. Phil Town was one of the speakers and offered attendees at the TD Waterhouse in Orlando (1/25/06) to sign up for a 2-day seminar and get the 233-page manual that explains in detail the Software, as well as 4 DVD’s that give the info in a visual format. The package was given at the conference, which surprised me; so, of course, I signed up…no strings attached. I keep the manual and videos, and I do not have to show up for a seminar. The two-day seminar is supposed to go into technical detail about how to use investools for your needs. The cost is $3k. The subscription being $600 annually. The free 4-hour seminar I suspect is a teaser, but the 2-day seminar is the nuts and bolts. I am not aware of any other training offered; so, I don’t think they are trying to milk you with training.

  From what I’ve seen in the manual, this Investools is handsdown the most extensive andat the same time user-friendly stock-picking software I’ve ever seen. Like your article stated, all of the info is collected into one neat package to saqve time…and time is money, especially to fee-for-service professionals like myself. Additionally, the search engine and filters have most parameter’s set at recommended, time-tested values so that it automatically spits out the top 25 stocks to look at, then goes through another technical process to narrow the choices. It also gives updated news info on the stock, and holds the news for 90 days. And with a CyberTrader account, you can make your trades directly from Investools, without having to open another window to log into CyberTrader separately.

  This appears to be the most sound investment system…but I’m not in it yet, so what do I know. I know that I found your article because I’ve been scrutinizing this thing hard. There’s a lot of garbage out there. I also looked at their corporate figures. Their gross profit and revenue numbers are great, but their net income is not…typical of a startup, lest we forget how long it took Amazon.com and eBay to return a net profit. Investools is spending a lot of money marketing for subscribers. And as we know, with a great product, the rest is upward history.

  Once I’ve traded using Investools for several months, I’ll come back to let you know how it is.

• 7. NASAfan  |  January 28th, 2006 at 8:41 pm

  I also attended the GET MOTIVATED seminar in Orlando (Jan 25, 2006). I was impressed with Phil Town’s presentation and signed up for the 2-day INVESTools seminar. They advertise the first day free and only pay the $2,000 if you stay for the second day. However, the paperwork I signed when I picked up the ‘free’ material says:

  Attend the workshop at no risk. If you are not fully convinced that SUCCESS Magazines’ Investor Education can help you to achieve your financial goals, simply return your materials by the end of the first day of the workshop, and your credit card will never be charged!

  I plan to attend the first day ‘for free’ but not the second day. My concern is this: If I open the DVD package, will they charge me?

• 8. Chris  |  January 29th, 2006 at 7:33 am

  Lee Barba of Investools emailed InvestorGeeks on January 22, 2006 in regards to the following statement in this article: “The company doesn’t look to be in terribly good shape based on their financial statements, but they’re viable and their sales are growing rapidly, so that’s positive.” While, our wording does place a judgement on the financial health of this company, with 5 years of actual net losses, and a debt-to-equity (D/E) ratio of 130% we believe our characterization was accurate. I have posted more information about pro forma results in my article “Pro forma Earnings.” What follows is Mr. Barba’s email:
  ————————————————————

  Chris, I am the Chairman and CEO of INVESTools. We appreciate any and all commentary on our Company and our courses as we have a diverse community of over 200,000 graduates. Phil Town speaks for Success Magazine, only one of our distribution partners.

  The only point I would like to make regarding your commentary is about our financials–INVESTools (AMEX: IED) is a very profitable Company and this is often misunderstood because of our deferred revenue accounting policy–in fact, we are a Harvard Business School Case Study on this point. We guide our investors to understand our financial progress by looking at a Reg G disclosure, a non-GAAP presentation of pro forma operating cash flow (all of this is in our Investor Relations package on our www.investools.com site).

  I appreciate that if you are not an accountant this is somewhat arcane, but it is factually inaccurate to state that we are not profitable–we reported Q3 pro forma operating cash flow of $6.9mm or an approximately 17% return on sales.

  I respect your opinion on our content and fulfillment, as we do all of our students. However, I did want to point out the inaccurate statement regarding our financial results. Our stock is approaching a 100x appreciation (yes, 100x) from the $.06 it rraded at 36 months ago….we have been one of the top performing AMEX stocks two years in a row and have some of the largest and best known mutual funds active in our stock, the surest sign that we are performing well against both our student and shareholder objectives.

  It’s all about the student….

  Thanks,

  Lee Barba

• 9. Jake Mazzaferri  |  January 30th, 2006 at 7:59 pm

  These are some interesting posts. I have yet to find any however that post the success users of investools are having. If you have been wiht investools wiht great results, please send a note. As far as Phil Town I would have to give him 4 thumbs up as he has answered severak of my questions in a mentoring manner without any profit on his end. People like Phil are what this world needs giving knowledge without a chip on the shoulder that says I’m special and thus I’m rich. I do know a guy personally that uses Investools and from what I hear he gets a 6% return on his money monthly.
  The key to investing is definetly part of rule #1 if not entirely. Finding a great stock at a discounted 50% because of market conditions is an all American idea I really dig that captures the heart of the truly studious investor that will not not succomb to gambling. God Bless. In him you will find salvation, joy, peace and prosperity.
  Jake Man

• 10. josh  |  January 31st, 2006 at 5:48 pm

  i too am supposed to attend a certain seminar…my father had attended and he was pleased…i decieded to check up on thise software and these companies doing this trading stuff….id love to belive taht hes not gullable…..but i cannot find information that confirms nor denys this being a hoax…

  thanks for the informations..and ill get back and inform you guys on how it goes…

• 11. KANTIAN  |  February 3rd, 2006 at 12:00 am

  I JUST REGISTER FOR THE “SEMINAR” ,AND MMMM. I’M NOT SURE IF I WANNA GO. I’D HAVE TO GO TO WORK LATE FOR THIS AND 3HRS OF INFOMARTIAL IS, YA KNOW… PLUS DO I WANT TO SHELL OUT OVER $2000?
  PS. USEFUL BLOG! THANK YOU.

• 12. Charles King  |  February 3rd, 2006 at 2:51 pm

  A few days ago I attended an Investools 4 hour (free) seminar in Houston, Tx. One had to pay $2999 to get access to the online Investools software, a two day free training course and an instruction book. No other cost package was offered.

  I think the $2999 fee is excessive so I passed on the opportunity.

  Other comments posted at this site mentioned lower fees, which would probably interest me.

• 13. Tim Wilson  |  February 3rd, 2006 at 8:47 pm

  I too signed up at at a Get Motivated Seminar in Orlando, and yesterday went to Day 1, but opted out of Day 2. The bottom line is that after 8 hours I really didn’t know anything more about how to actually do online investing than I learned from Phil Town during his presenttion.

  I did hear lots of anecdotes about the success of the instructor, ithe success of his wife, his son, their boat, their son’s Jaguar. etc. etc. They ask you to fill out an automatic renewal of the website subscription while you are there. One of the instructors said it was because a high percentage of people don’t renew after three months. In spite of all that, I plan to do enough research to make myself comfortable and if they really do have the best website, I may end up there yet.

• 14. Sophie  |  February 8th, 2006 at 3:05 am

  Great that I came to this site and read through the article and each comment.

  I went to the free seminar on 2/4 in Santa Clara, CA and also signed up for the $2999 education package including both on-line course, 2 days workshop and 6 months toolbox subscription. I still have some doubt about the education and the tools. Whatever the instructor said were just too good to be true.

  From what I read from their brochure and their website, it looks like the training may be teaching us how to use their tools. Can anyone confirm? Thinking about if I shall skip the training and just play around the tools myself.

  And I also want to find out the real price of the training. Is $2999 really a good deal? Q McFarlan mentioned he just spent $1000 something for the course and 6 months service. Not sure the same thing or not.

• 15. KJ  |  February 9th, 2006 at 12:19 am

  I just attended the get motivated Seminar in Sacramento and I too signed up for the Investing class. The class was offered at Sacramento and other valley locations for $1995. I signed up, firgured what the heck I can always back out and not be out anything. I don’t spend money with out doing my fair share of research so the first thing I did this evening was jump on the net and start looking for info on Phil Town and Invest tools. I found several blogs including phil’s and this one. The idea Phil presented makes sense to me. That old saying of “follow the money” came to mind when he talked about the big boys and the fact that they could move in and out of stocks quickly without making waves. If the big boys are moving, there is a reason. The stock market is a good ol’ boys club no matter how you look at it. Who gets the IPOs, the boys who invest A LOT of money with the various brokerages. Fund managers are in the know. I am going to do more research, read more, probably buy his book, skip out on the $1995 class. Thanks bloggers

• 16. ER  |  February 9th, 2006 at 4:19 pm

  Had the following chat conversation with an agent from Investools. Pleasantly surprised with the honesty. Changed the agents name to “Agent”, just to protect the innocent. The chat took 45 minutes. Mostly near the end, waiting for a reply.

  info: Welcome to Live Chat! An online representative will be with you shortly. You are number 1 in the queue. Your wait time will be approximately 0 minute(s) and 30 seconds. Thank you for waiting.
  info: You are now chatting with ‘Agent’
  Agent: Welcome to the Admissions Live Chat. How may I assist you?
  Investor: Hi. I attended the get motivated siminar yesterday and have a couple questions.
  Agent: Okay.
  Investor: Phil Town mentioned that we could go on the site and use the “play money” to see if we wanted to move forward. I want to do this but am concerned that if I open the softward and try it out, I own the $2000, regardless whether I like what I find or not. please advise.
  Agent: You’ll be fine. You only have to pay if you attend both days of the workshop.
  Agent: You can attend the first day and make your decision.
  Investor: Not sure that is true. The paperwork I received says that if I am not 100% satisfied, just return the materials at the conclusion of the workshop for a full refund. That implies the end of the second day. Can you clarify?
  Agent: That may be true. They just went to a 2-day format and so that makes sense. It used to be only one day, so you had the day to make a decision.
  Investor: Agent, you are being very helpful. Just one more question. I immediatly googled your company and Phil Town and found several blogs. One of the most frequent complaints was that half of the training class (which I am paying for) is spent trying to sell me more and very expensive training. I want to take the course but do not have a vast amount of resources to throw at this. Can you comment? Thanks again.
  Investor: Last Question while you type. If I cannot make the class or if I simply decide that this is not for me…..how do I return the materials? Would rather not have to drive to the class in that case.
  Agent: You’ll need to call Student Services. That number is 1-800-693-7460 ext. 8014
  Investor: for which question?
  Agent: If you don’t make the class and need to return the materials.
  Investor: Thank you. Can you address the first question? I am interested in the class but do not wish to pay $2000 to have someone attempt to sell me more. This is a common concern for your potential customers. In fact, even Phil stated in one of his posts that it is an issue. Just curious if that is trully the case. Please be honest. I am not wealthy and my time is valuable to me.
  Agent: I will be right with you.
  Investor: Thank you. Holding.
  Agent: I’m back. Sorry about that.
  Investor: No problem…I too am multi-tasking
  Agent: You are free to open the materials and log on and use the site. I promise you will not be charged until you have attended the full workshop.
  Agent: In fact, if you don’t show up, it is automatically considered a cancellation. But you should call the number I gave you to be sure and so you can send the materials back.
  Investor: Will do. Any comment on the percentage of time the instructors use in trying to sell me more? I understand that I am asking a bit of a loaded question and your supervisor may be advising you to avoid it. If that is the case, I understand.
  Agent: Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
  Agent: I’m sorry for the delay. Thank you for your patience.
  Investor: Not a problem. This is important to me. I appreciate your help.
  Agent: I’m sorry for the delay. Thank you for your patience.
  Agent: Sorry. I tried to get back before that happened.
  Agent: I would guess about 30%
  Investor: Thanks Agent. That is helpful. At least I will be going in knowing what to expect. I don’t suppose they tell you when they will be selling so you could show later to avoid it. Probably not. Have a great day.
  Agent: You too. And no they don’t.

• 17. Chris  |  February 10th, 2006 at 7:21 am

  All,

  I just wanted to tell you that Phil Town’s publisher, Crown Publishing, has sent me an advance copy of his book coming out this March. I am currently reading the book and will post a review on this site.

• 18. Hmmm  |  February 10th, 2006 at 7:20 pm

  Just called Success Magazine to cancel my attendance for the two day workshop in Sacramento. I explained that I did not want to attend and would like to know how I can return the materials. After being transfered 3 times, and waiting for 10-15 minutes on hold… I was finally given the address where to send back the materials. Should’ve done more research before signing up.

• 19. KJ  |  February 14th, 2006 at 1:07 pm

  Just cancelled my attendance to the seminar and they asked if I wanted to do the home course. The customer service rep said “you can take the home course if you like for $995″ Basically it is just keeping the material that comes in the box. She said the 4 DVDs in the box cover the same material they cover in the seminar. Ineresting that on the invoice for the seminar it says the 5 hour DVD set is $45.

• 20. Jury is still out on Investools  |  February 14th, 2006 at 7:41 pm

  I also went to the Sacramento Get Motivated Seminar and was impressed with Phil Town. He said things I have never heard before that make a lot of sense. But I am skeptical, and still debating what to do about Investools. In response to Hmmm, Comment # 18, what was the address to return the materials? It also seems the prices for Investools are all over the board. Check out the prices for INVESTools materials on EBAY - http://search.ebay.com//search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=investools
  I wonder if the Chairman of INVESTools would be willing to explain their pricing strategy? If I could access the tools and the training at an affordable price, I would really be interested. $2600, or $1995 or $995 is not affordable. however.

• 21. JH  |  February 15th, 2006 at 7:38 pm

  I’ve actually enrolled with Investools and I’m underwhelmed with the results. Here’s why: I’ve found potentially good stocks from their search results, of which there are many variables. Found several stocks that look like sure-fire winners according to their criteria; 3 green arrows/breaking thu ceiling/big volume, etc.
  However, here’s the kicker where reality sets in.
  If the stock does happen to rise that’s good; you might see a 10-11% gain (or the stock could just go down from there) and you set a stop loss per their teaching about 3% below the support….which is what you lock in! A loss or at best a significant decrease from the high. I’ve seen many of my stocks go up, but still no sell signal; when do you sell according to their program? Not until the stock drops down below support at which time, all previous gains have been wiped out.
  In class, they’ll retroactivelylook at stocks that gained huge amounts and make it look so easy; but looking BACK at stocks IS easy in hindsight.
  Invertool is sold as a can’t miss program, but that’s the marketing side. Very disappointing.

• 22. Charles King  |  February 17th, 2006 at 5:39 pm

  I’ve attended 2 workshops in the past two weeks. They are: 1) InvesTools and 2) Better Trades. I also ordered a manual sold by 3) Top Trader that teaches only Option trading.

  1) It appears to me that InvesTools offers excellent software, although expensive, especially if you buy their full package. The basic software is $2999, and advanced software is an additional $5000 or $6000 (I forgot).

  2) Top Trader teaches only Option trading. You may keep their manual for 30 days without cost. Instruction is provided only by phone. Sorry I forgot their price.

  3) BetterTrades provides basic software plus training at a 2 day workshop and and textbook self training over a few days prior to the workshop. The cost is $3000. Their approach is to teach complex Option trading. Better Trades is the only company to offer full money back if you don’t make $9000 during the training period. However, the money back offer was not in writing. Practically the whole workshop jumped up to pay the $3000 after hearing of the money-back offer.

  I would like to learn the InvesTools and the BetterTrade methods. It would be fun (and expensive) to sign up for both classes.

• 23. JWE  |  February 20th, 2006 at 2:49 pm

  I also attended the GET MOTIVATED seminar in Orlando (Jan 25, 2006). I signed up and have attended the 2 day seminar, which cost me $2,000. It would have been risk free if I had returned the material at the seminar.

  After that the investools software is $600 per year.
  To continue your education with respect to equities traiding, you then have 3 coaching options - Associates (5K), Masters (11K), PHD (23K). yes that is thousands.

  First let me say that the investools software does everything that it says it can do. I actually started using it before the seminar (between the GET MOTIVATED seminar date and the 2 day class date - 2 weeks) and made the 2k to pay for the seminar.

  Second, the 2 day seminar does have heavy “infomercialism” (if that is a word) in it for the coaching options mentioned above. However after reviewing the software and the instructional model they are selling I will proceed with the PHD (23 K).

  I believe in paying money to gain the knowledge on how to make money (teach a man to fish), I have made real money in real estate (no pun intended) here in florida, using similar instructional models. and I believe that I will have a 100% return on investment of this product within a year - and that leaves the rest of my life to profit from this education.

  However, that being written, this is not a get rich fast product, if you are the type of individual who will NOT put the time to learn financial education (I’m talking at least 1/2 hour a day), you know the ones, join the Gym but never go. Then the coaching is not for you, the seminar is still worth going to.

  If on the other hand you are serious about your financial education, then this is the product for you.
  Yes you can get similar capabilities and probably free from various other sites, and learn the material on your own from books, but this product will facilitate you becoming a equities investor/trader in an accelerated time. (Again you have to do your part) It gives you the tools (Investool) and the structured knowledge (coaching programs). If I have done it with real estate, I know it can be done with stocks.

• 24. Book Review: Phil Town’&hellip  |  February 28th, 2006 at 7:45 am

  […] Originally a rebellious, white water river guide, Town became a success investor and public speaker after being mentored by a financially astute client who he had rescued from a particularly dangerous run down the Colorado River. (find out more about Phil Town’s background). Within five years he turned his first $1,000 of borrowed money into $1,000,000. He is a sought after public speaker and currently works with the Get Motivated tour appearing on stage with Robert Kiyosaki, Rudy Giuliani, Bill Clinton and others. Town’s generating a good amount of buzz in the publishing world as the next big thing, and apparently received one of the largest book advances in history. […]

• 25. Tom VB  |  March 2nd, 2006 at 10:45 am

  My wife and I are currently members of the Investools websitte and I can tell you categorically that it is NOT a scam or MLM type of get rich quick scheme by any means.

  The higher “degrees” of educational programs they offer are designed in turn to give you greater returns on your investments. So as you invest more money into their system, you are expected to reap more financial rewards. They also have personal one-on-one coaching, on-line chat, and various other mentoring functions built into this thing.

  My personal experience is that your success with this tool depends almost entirely on your dedication to learning how to use it effectively and efficiently.

  All that said, the pricing is definitely steep and they do encourage you to upgrade to the higher levels of training during their seminars, so be prepared for that.

  One of the benefits of charging these prices is in knowing that by putting some serious $ on the line you will be much more aggressive in your drive to reach your stated goals.

  Remember, Phil Town didn’t get mentored by the unnamed investor for no good reason, Phil saved the dude’s life first. Nobody’s gonna just give you something of real value for nothing, it ALWAYS requires some sort of sacrifice…

• 26. Carol K  |  March 4th, 2006 at 12:13 pm

  We too, husband and I, are members of Investools. We became associated with them in 2004 when they were affiliated with CNBC. We have kept the website but have not gone on to the PHD level of education.
  We like to trade options and enjoy the ease of their listings, prices and the greeks.

  Over the year and a half plus- we have become more educated technically (self educated by reading and having another trader friend as a mentor of sorts) and have used other websites and software. Right now we like Telechart for their amazing charts and technical indicators. The Worden Brother notes included are also interesting. You can try it out for free for 30 days- lots of tutorials and scans available. We like metastock as well. They have a “game” function that allows you to test out your skills on a real stock with play money. You go long, short or neutral- no options in game mode though. We are also exploring tradestation as a trading platform. Very advanced and lots of variables can make it as simple or complex as you want. Professionals use it. If it weren’t for our trader friend, tradestation probably wouldn’t be considered for us.

  Our current feeling on Investools is (and we could be wrong) is they utilize one basic trading method for their green and red arrows. Hence, you can miss out on moves and opportunities you may find elsewhere. I agree with what JH said earlier. It’s almost as if you are entering a position after the fact. But it was a good education for getting us started and we do like their website but there are others out there that take it to a different level.

• 27. Joe J  |  March 13th, 2006 at 1:16 am

  I’ve seen a lot of different prices quoted for materials/education and the right to access the Investools website. The local seminar is 2999 and I was quoted 2195 for an online course. Does anyone have a line on where to get this for less money?

• 28. John B  |  March 14th, 2006 at 2:13 pm

  Joe,

  Try Ebay for the DVD’s and printed materials. But you will not get live instruction or access to the website- which is the main part of their deal. You can try to negotiate a lower price but I don’t know how that will turn out for you. Try Pristine.com for an awesome educational site. DVD’s can be had on Ebay for sure.

• 29. Joe J  |  March 14th, 2006 at 11:10 pm

  John, thanks for your comment. I’ve looked at the Ebay stuff and after talking to an Investools rep, it is clear that you cannot extend the subscription that someone else might sell with their books/dvds. So that is out. I really like the site and would gladly pay the fifty bucks a month to use, but the initiation fee is pretty steep, and some people posted lower numbers in this thread. The best number I can find is 2.2K.

• 30. Riz  |  March 23rd, 2006 at 11:43 pm

  I don’t have a comment so much as a question. Recently, I have also come across another data/charting/analysis software called TC2000. Does anyone have any experience with this? How does it compare to Investools? Some chatrooms compare it favorably to Metastock and Tradestation.

• 31. Riz  |  March 23rd, 2006 at 11:52 pm

  Sorry, TC2000 is the old name. Now it is TeleChart 2005. Worden is the publisher.

• 32. Snowshoe  |  March 24th, 2006 at 4:24 pm

  I attended a Get Motivated seminar, bought the Investools for $995 and attended a one day Success Magazine seminar last fall. The one day class was 30-35% infomercial for their higher priced products. I just purchased the basis package at the $995. I papertraded for one month or so and then made the cost of the course back on my first trade (130% profit). I haven’t had the courage to place big money trades yet, largest about $1,200. Made one very stupid mistake, got a little cocky but have learned a lot. I have only bought options so far and believe Investools is a very sound product. I have spent a lot of time in self-education, confused the heck out of myself by looking at too much information, but am developing what I think is a good, basic trading strategy. The logic behind Phil Town’s Rule #1 investing is tough to find fault in. There are no gaurantees but if you can stay disciplined and only purchase stocks/options that meet your criteria your exposure to loss is relatively small. One comment on a post by JH on 2/15: When you first purchase a stock you place a stop to prevent a loss. If the stock price goes down your loss is limited. When the price goes up and you get into a profitable position you then move your stop up or set a trailing stop so you will not lose your profits. You don’t leave the original stop in place. It sounds like you quit reading too soon. INvestools is a very sound, legitimate product. I just purchased the Basic Options materials off eBay for $300. I think that by being self-taught you learn better and probably more.

• 33. Rosalie Tackett  |  March 25th, 2006 at 2:09 am

  INVESTools (INVS) and InvesTools (IED). Maybe that’s the confusion on prices. I signed up for the 2 day live plus DVD course and 6 mo free deal. Lots of education built into the website, no additional cost. First day, today, of seminar very good. VERY good day. I thought would be just boringly going over where to find what on the site, but it was all about what info and how to use it - not nearly as basic as I had assumed. I did not think they did an over amount of selling, though further training was, of course, mentioned. But that’s ok. They gave out a brochure on further classes, so we don’t have to spend much time on it tomorrow, when they will go over prices. I say that’s reasonable.I was just surfing to find cost of further options training - but guess can wait til tomorrow!

• 34. Joe J  |  March 25th, 2006 at 7:05 pm

  Rosalie, I’d love to know the price you are quoted. I signed up for the two day seminar and quit at the end of the day to get the full refund because, though I found the method and the web site very good, I didn’t want to part with $2995. Since then, I’ve found that I can buy for $2200 including 6 months of the web site. That is still a big up front fee, compared to what Snowshoe got for $995 last year. I would sign up if I could find it for $995.

• 35. Rick  |  March 26th, 2006 at 1:13 am

  Where did snowshoe attended the get motivated program and on what date? $995 is a different price than what is being quoted today.

  Thanks

• 36. Lisa  |  March 26th, 2006 at 1:37 pm

  When the initial $2-3000 training and software package is purchased, does that include coaching?
  And can purchase of online, no seminar, package be made? I haven’t been able to find online course offering on their website.
  Thanks

• 37. Terance  |  March 27th, 2006 at 7:19 pm

  I just signed up for the Investools 2 day course for $1999 and the 6 month subscription. I’m getting some good info from this blog.. sort of eases my doubts a little. One thing though that I may have missed is where to get the login access for the site. I was told that would be in the package, but I don’t see where. Can I call them up and get it, or is it somewhere I missed? Anyone know this info?

• 38. J Beskin  |  March 28th, 2006 at 7:17 pm

  Better Trades does fraudulent advertising from TV ads which lure people by supposed great “system” and ease, where one does not have to use their actual money at first. . At initial seminar, one is told that they will learn paper trades after 2 day seminar (lie #1), that a kid can do it (unless genius, lie #2), and that $3000 is all one needs to spend (lie#3, you really need $6000 more) and final catchall or “trap” is that they refund the money with no loopholes guarantee that is chock full of loopholes too complex for victim to get money back from them… I NEVER GOT MY MONEY BACK FROM BETTER TRADES……IF YOU ARE AN EXPERIENCED OPTIONS TRADER, this might work for you……However MOST WHAT THEY USE YOU CAN GET FOR FREE with OptionsXpress…….. See Ripoff Report for similiarity with Optionetics scam .

• 39. J Beskin  |  March 28th, 2006 at 7:26 pm

  BETTER TRADES SEMINARS aka LONG TERM SHORT TERM LAS VEGAS NEVADA
  P.S. Buyer Beware……………Most of the students from Better Trades are telling me they felt taken, but alot bit the software bullet and are still trying to figure it out!!!……….Very few have actually MADE MONEY…..even students who have traveled to the constant “education” $99 seminars, included with original package….”Whoopie”…………I would only be somewhat impressed and give rebuttal if they actually paid me back for lying in the first place……………

• 40. gery  |  March 29th, 2006 at 9:42 pm

  Has any one heard about :Teach-Me-to-Trade?
  How are they?

  tmtt.com

• 41. Vin  |  April 1st, 2006 at 1:43 am

  This is a great site for information on Phil Town and Investtools workshop.
  I did attend one of the GetMotivated Seminars in Ft. Lauderdale, and they are promoting the Success Magazine Investor Workshop.
  Yes the price being quoted for the 1 day session is 995
  which includes.
  Workshop - 950
  DVD Library - 45
  6 months access - Free
  Spouse - Free.

  Thanks to the folks who have treaded this path earlier and their feedback helped me to look forward as to what the training is going to offer. Also an opportunity to mention that although you might attend a class and get knowledge, end of the day, its practice, patience and determination which gets you to the goal. Just think of like driving a car, you dont become a race car driver, by driving a ferrari or a days training.
  Me and my wife are going to the session tomorrow, will provide an update after the session is complete.

• 42. Drug valium  |  April 3rd, 2006 at 4:53 pm

  Casino cheap free online valium

• 43. AJ  |  April 4th, 2006 at 12:36 pm

  thanks to everyone who has posted….

  i’m a student a. without $2995 to pay for the investools site and b. with plenty of time to do independent research. for those of you that are doing investools, would it be possible to find similar information and do most of the same stuff using a couple of cheaper (or free) sites and a 1-2 hour chunk of time everyday?

  i only ask because i’m not sure if the idea behind investools is just taking a lot of good info and putting in one place OR if investools has some “new idea” that i absolutely have to get in on. thanks in advance for your thoughts.

• 44. David  |  April 5th, 2006 at 10:41 am

  For those who really wish to learn…

  The markets are dynamic, meaning they change by expanding and contracting. No “canned” progrom is going to be consistant! What works onetime may be totally different the next.

  You must develop you “own system” and its going to take years to come up with it. There is just no getting around it… period!

  You’ll need to learn how the fundemental side works and how the techincal works as well. Only you can decide how the combination will work.

  Some suggestions for the technical side of study would be… Elliottwave Theory, Cycle theory… based on time & price squared, W.D. Gann theory and numerous nonredundant ocsillators. Learn to work in nonredundant types of analysis that will give you a clear indication of where the market is going and you will be a winner.

  Remember 90% of the traders lose and only 10% win in the long haul. If you want to be one of the 10%… build your own system.

  It takes time and total dedication to be the 10%… Most people just think its easy, well don’t say I didn’t warn you.

  Good luck on your journey… should you decide to take it.

• 45. cwb67goat  |  April 7th, 2006 at 7:11 am

  I just attended the Success Magazine Investools 1 day seminar yesterday here in Parkland (Ft. Lauderdale), FL. It is true that they want you to move on to their Associate (5k) Masters (12k) or PhD (24k) program, however, I decided to just try out the site with the basic subscription. This cost me $995 and includes the 4 dvd set, manual and access to the site for 6 months. The class yesterday was very informative. I learned enought to place an options trade last night. I will let you know how I do in a few days. Investools is not a scam. It may be pricey, but not a scam at all. The extra education will help teach you to make money even if a stock is going down. Bottom line, don’t get hung up on the fact that they are trying to sell you more, you should really be looking at what you can do with the product and then decide if it’s worth the money for you. I only have $500 in the options trade that I just did, so look for another post from me and I will let you know how I do.

• 46. Gregg  |  April 9th, 2006 at 2:01 pm

  Having recently read his book, Rule#1, I can honestly say the guy is truthful, and not out to scam you. I have read zillions of other investment books, and his is truly a decent read. You owe it to yourself to check it out. And by the way, he pushes the use of free sites in his book……
  Good luck in your goals

• 47. Kyle McPeck  |  April 10th, 2006 at 9:15 am

  Phil’s book Rule #1 is the latest pick in Kyle’s Book Club

• 48. revChris  |  April 14th, 2006 at 7:59 pm

  I’m reading the Book, Rule#1, so far i think it’s very good, (not a get rich quick day trade thing, but longer term, which after doing both i know long term makes much more sense for most of us).

  I went to the investTools sales seminar but passed on the course. It sounded a little too black box, (green arrows / red arrows).

  Also, I’m turned off by Options schemes. I suppose some folks make money doing them, but I’m not that smart. I think you can do the same with stocks. If you think it’s going up why not just own the stock? Or if it’s going sideways why own the stock for a coverd put/call?

  If you want leverage use futures, single stock or broad index like Russell 2000 (which have way better tax implications on index trades).

  I’d love to hear more about the investTools site, and how it compares to Telechart, and Vectorvest, (both excellent stock search tools).

  I use tradestation for my broker. It can do everything you can think of for trading, Including development of black box trading programs. But it isn’t so great for sorting stocks based on fundementals.

  (BTW, I like this blog, thanks!!)

• 49. AJ  |  April 22nd, 2006 at 12:48 am

  I attended Get Motivated seminar this Thursday and came out with nothing. This was all about making money and buying their products. I like Phil’s speaking but I did not buy his program for $995. I think it was too much and he is the one who is making money not the public. I started research on him and found this blog. I am so glad that I did not go to his 995 seminar after reading these comments. I know information is not free, but their price is too high. They are talking about helping people, actualy they are helping themself to become rich.

• 50. AL WOODS  |  April 22nd, 2006 at 8:17 pm

  A FEW YEARS AGO I WAS GETTING INVESTOOLS ON A SITE CALLED WALLSTREETCITY.COM FOR $10.00 A MONTH. THEN INVESTOOLS BOUGHT OUT TELESCAN WHO OWN WALLSTREETCITY ETC-ETC-ETC. MY QUESTION IS I KNOW INVESTOOLS LIKE THE PALM OF MY HAND . IF YOU WANT TO SEE IT FOR FREE GO TO WWW.TIP@WALLSTREET.COM INVESTOOLS IS FOR BEGINNERS ITS NO BIG DEAL AND YOU DONT NEED ANY SOFTWARE THERE ARE LOTS OF VERY GOOD WEBSITES YOU ALL CAN USE FOR ONLY A FEW BUCKS AND SOME ARE EVEN FOR FREE. I SAY INVESTOOLS WHO.

• 51. Unkljak  |  April 23rd, 2006 at 5:47 pm

  Great Website - Appreciated all the info on Investools -

• 52. eddie  |  April 25th, 2006 at 11:24 pm

  Hello,
  We just attened the FT Lauderdale workshop 2 weeks ago. We did not purchase the program then, because we wanted to do more research into the whole package. We are particularly interested in the PH.D program,but before dropping 20k+ I called to see exactly what you are getting. Basically 30 1 on 1 telephone classes with an instructor and 2 years membership for the toolbox. There are several classes which intrest me like advance option trading, and some super support. I would love to hear from someone who has graduated from the PHD class and how it helped or didn’t help them. Was itworth 26K or isthe masters for 13k sufficient, or is that too much. I too believe that knowledge is worth a price and once taught, those tools will be with you even after the toolbox has had its run.
  Great board by the way
  Eddie

• 53. hitone395  |  April 26th, 2006 at 9:08 am

  Can anyone explain the red and green arrows??? I got all 3 green arrows for Lowes and the stock price went down….having a hard time understanding that….It seems too easy to just follow the arrows….Anyway, I am going to a free seminar for Investools in July….Do they show you how to use the arrows in the free seminar??? My guess is they don’t…

• 54. Servicewow  |  April 26th, 2006 at 3:01 pm

  Great blog - thank you to all. I am going to the free INVESTools seminar next week…..want to learn….don’t want to lose…hate hype and hard sell, so we will see how I do.

• 55. Larry Stay  |  April 26th, 2006 at 7:14 pm

  There is a not-for-profit group called Investors Alliance. They have very good software for fundamental and technical trading. They also have lots of information on their website to educate you. You have to do the reading yourself, and it does not have green and red arrows, but it does have 13 years of financial statements on every publically traded company, and every significant technical trading tool you can find plus the tick data to use them. It all costs about $200/year and there is no up front training fee. I’ve written about them on my blog, www.growyourfunds.com. You can find them at their website, http://powerinvestor.com. Look for their Power Investor (fundamental trading) and Power Tech (technical trading.)

• 56. Chris  |  April 26th, 2006 at 8:48 pm

  Hitone,

  You’re right to guess that you can’t trade on the arrows alone. You have to buy good companies at good prices and their prices will go up.

  I’ve posted an in-depth article about “the arrows” here on InvestorGeeks.

  Chris!

• 57. Matthew  |  May 2nd, 2006 at 7:42 pm

  I attended Get Motivated seminar this Monday and thought that it was pretty good. I liked Phil’s speaking and bought his program for $995. I have the one day workshop on Saturday, and I am looking forward to it. I have gone though the book and have started using the tools today. Everything sounds and looks simple enough. After this Saturday I plan on using the virtual option for a couple months and then start using real cash with Scott Trade. If I can’t recoup the $995 invest in the first six months I will just count my losses and move on. I have already used the information to help one of my wealthy friends on an 80,000 investment he made. I will repost and let everyone know how the one day event went and if I feel it is worth your money!

• 58. MaryB  |  May 7th, 2006 at 6:51 am

  There have been a lot of questions about what is the real price for INVESTools beyond the free event. I went to a free 3-hour event in Kansas City. I had watched the infomercial and it seemed to be solid, but they didn’t mention price, and I knew there had to be one. So I sat through their sales pitch and their samples of how easy it is to pick stocks that go up. At the end they gave us the pitch that ended up at a “get it today only” $2999. This included access to the Investors Toolbox, an on-line course that could be done at your own pace, and a two-day course that you’d have to attend at some place later announced.

  I decided I couldn’t afford to attend now, but now I was armed with what it cost. About a week later I was contacted by someone at INVESTools to see if I was still interested in the $2999 option. I explained that I couldn’t afford it. So he offered me an option at $2199. Then he offered me one at $599. The $599 included three months access to the Investor Toolbox, three online coaching sessions, and one month access to their hotline. If at the end of the three months I choose to proceed the $599 will apply toward that. This option, I believe, is to let you “get your feet wet” while not giving away a whole lot.

  In case you don’t know this already, the red and green arrows are not the only thing used to select stocks. There are about six other criteria that should be met (according to their instructions) before you pick the stocks that you are going to invest in. And no, after going to free event you aren’t prepared to pick stocks to buy with real money.

  Someone asked about when do you sell. When you purchase a stock you are instructed to purchase a stop loss which gives you the possible 3% before it sells the stock for you. If your stock goes up and up, you are supposed to reset your stop loss to protect what you’ve earned. Obviously, if you don’t reset your stop loss you have nothing protected and it could drop until you’ve lost all that you’ve gained.

  In my paper trading (which I was instructed to do in the coaching sessions I got for my $599) I purchased four stocks. One stock I bought according to what I knew at the time, and it dropped like a rock. It’s been in the red most of the time I’ve had it although it has popped $10-20 into the green occasionally. Two of them have gains in the range of 2-4%, and the fourth one has gained 52%. Obviously the one with the big drop was one I purchased before I learned about stop loss orders. Since it’s just a paper transaction, I’ve been watching it rather than getting rid of it.

  I hope this has been informative for you with the questions. I’m now considering whether to go for more training or to let my $599 be “the experience.”

• 59. janos  |  May 8th, 2006 at 11:07 am

  I find these posts very interesting. After attending this weeks wealth expo with donald trump and many other big guys. I attended this seminar and it seemed interesting. Almost every post here said the classes and training were $1995, but this time he was asking $955 for the entire parkage.

  It looked good, but too good to be true? Maybe.

• 60. zippychippie  |  May 27th, 2006 at 11:01 pm

  I attended the Get Motivated seminar in Des Moines on May 1st. Signed up for the one day seminar for $995, including 6 months of the Investools website. The seminar was packed with information. I am now viewing the DVDs and they are very similar to the in person seminar, although a little more detailed in places. I will purchase future seminars on ebay and skip the coaching.

  I read Phil Town’s book in two days–it’s good. Well written, very readable. By the way, Investools is not Phil Town’s company; it is merely one of the commercial online tool companies that he endorses as being more convenient than the free ones he talks about in his book. Maybe he gets a commission for demonstrating their website when he speaks, but he definitely is not an officer or founder of the company. In fact, the trading styles recommended by Investools, such as options trading, is not at all what Phil Town himself recommends in his book, Rule #1. That book is about investing in stocks only.

• 61. Vlad Mitrofanov  |  June 2nd, 2006 at 1:02 pm

  I just attended a seminar in Springfield, VA,
  and it looks pricey for such a training.
  I wouldn’t mind paying $50 per month with decent return but here’s the questions:
  If they are so sure that all of us will make money, why don’t they charge a part of $2,999 for training the moment when you make money as a proof you can do it, otherwise they don’t really teach you anything there.
  I have to say the criteria they suggest you you should be loking at do look reasonable.

  VM

• 62. K P  |  June 4th, 2006 at 1:22 am

  I attended the get motivated seminar in San Antonio Tx in mid May and was intereseted in the program endoresed by Phil Town. For $995 (a special price; normaly costing $4000+) you were given about a 2 week period to view the information CD on PC included video of how to use some of the software but not everything was covered.
  The day long workshop was good, but they do “butter you up” for the sale. and holy cow do they try to upsale! depending on the amount of coaching, 1 on 1 time with senior investors, and education that you wanted extra you could spend between , $5K for associate level 12K for master level or $25k for PHD level!
  (K = 1000)
  No kidding. I saw the invoices laying on the table at the Westin Motel at La cantera Blvd on 6/3/06

  I admit that these were some rich folk and could afford it. I had a hard time parting with the $1K and still haven’t. But after speaking with family and friends I feel encouraged to do it. If i had $20,000
  I would have spent the $1,000 and invested the rest. but I only have about 1k-3k to work with.

• 63. Shän  |  June 5th, 2006 at 4:02 am

  I attended a Get Motivated workshop some time ago in St. Louis and signed up to go to a seminar. The folks were really nice, but I needed to have a credit card (which I understand for business purposes on their end). At that time, I was looking at about $1k. The downfall, I was just recently unemployed and didn’t have the dough and my unemployment hadn’t kicked in. I’ve been trading using www.investorsleague.com which uses fake money to help you with your investment strategies (although all stocks are not listed and you don’t get as many tools). However, it’s a great site for the ‘I never invested in stock in my life and am just curious on learning how’ person.

  I know I heard one person who invested $1k by the time they had to go to the seminar (between Get Motivated and InvesTools seminar) and that was a really cool idea. I never thought of doing that. I guess the key is to make use of what you’ve got when you’ve got it while you’ve got it.

• 64. Shän  |  June 5th, 2006 at 4:04 am

  Sorry about that… they guy invested $2k. Still a good idea though.

• 65. AndyVA  |  June 5th, 2006 at 11:52 am

  I attended one of the “Get Motivated” seminars last fall, and was intrigued by Phil’s pitch. It did not seem to be a big hoax, but I’m a big skeptic, so I took it slow.

  A friend that went with me signed up for the seminar, and got the three month trial of the website service. Being a skeptic, I didn’t sign up, but I borrowed his website login to tinker with some investments. I was impressed.

  One of the recommendations gained over 30% in the few months that I held it. (OSK, bought 23 @ $42 in October, Sold at $61 in April) I made $500, over half of the cost of the seminar.

  So I decided that if I could make $400 with a thousand dollar investment, that I could recoup the cost of the class in a hurry. I made the decision to sign up for the initial training and get my 6 months access to the website.

  I was dismayed when I went to the website to sign up, and the price had changed. It is now $2995 to go to the training and get on the site. I was floored! On what basis are they tripling the price? Did they raise it across the board, or just for “special” people?

  Well, three grand is more than I’m willing to spend on something that was one grand a few months ago… If they decide on what the ACTUAL price is, I’ll sign up immediately. But unless there’s a coupon somewhere, I’ll wait.

• 66. LisaMA  |  June 7th, 2006 at 7:13 am

  I have been a student of Investools since last July. I went to the Get Motivated seminar, split the cost of the “1 day class” with a friend, went to the class knowing it was a pitch, and to my surprise, I signed up for the PhD program.

  I made the leap because I saw the potential. I took a second mortgage on my house to pay for it, and haven’t had one regret since then. I have travelled across the country attending advanced seminars, found existing user groups with whom to exchange ideas, started a daily trading room so that those of us who’ve become students can trade together, and have found that I am teaching others in these groups what I have learned.

  I closed my own business in October, and have been so successful with the tools I’ve learned from Investools, that my husband will be leaving his job in September.

  Now, to be perfectly clear, I did have some money that I inherited, so I’m not doing this with an initial portfolio of 5K, but I don’t have so much money that I could afford to lose my initial investment of 23K.

  My “one-on-one” coach has been absolutely terrific, and though we are finished with our coaching, we stay in close contact.

  Investools has also changed the one-on-one coaching program, and the change is a really positive one. They offer a weekly talk with one of their best coaches, and quite frankly, the most sought after (This is for “masters” students), and for the advanced classes, instead of a coach, there are 12 classes a week offered, lasting about 1 hour or so. These are by far the best thing that I have found the company to offer… You can attend the same class over and over again until you completely understand the topic (Price Patterns, Credit Spreads, Backtesting, etc.). It is comprehensive, and while I have not attended most of them yet, I’ve been to each of them at least once… I’m just taking my time so that I can become an expert in each of them.

  Investools is not for the lazy. I’m lazy and that is why I jumped in for the whole package. I knew that if the investment was a risk (and hurt), that I would work VERY HARD to make that money back. I have done that. While I could have paid my 2nd mortgage off by now (7 months later), I have chosen to keep that money in my brokerage account so that I can leverage it to make enough to pay off my 1st mortgage as well.

  I knew very little about investing, nothing about stop losses, and absolutely had never heard of options before. Today I trade options on the S&P 500. Since March 1st, I tripled my money (that which I set aside to invest in this underlying), lost it all, and made 1/2 of those profits back in the last couple of trading days.

  Investools is a powerful resource if you are willing to make the committment to learn. The thing I would say that is the most misleading is that they say that you can learn to trade in about 30 minutes a day. i would say that if you focus on learning the software, the techniques and study the stocks you’d like to trade, that after a few months of studying 2-3 hours/day that you can trade and manage your trades in about 1 hour/day. I happen to love watching the market through the day, have the time, and choose to do that… . So, I think, my education has been accelerated. I’m successful because I am treating this like my own business. Working full time, and frankly disappointed that the markets are closed over the weekends.

  This has been a great experience, and one that I have enthusiastically recommended to friends. Most never ask how it’s going, but in Sept., when they realize that neither of us is working, they may catch on. I have surrounded myself with other students as eager to learn as I, and also as committed as my husband and I are to leaving the “rat race”. They are the new friends on whom I’ve come to rely. We are all committed to trading full time, and we have Investools to thank for bringing us together. The company has allowed us to change our lives. You just have to be willing to invest in yourself.

• 67. Indigo218  |  June 7th, 2006 at 3:09 pm

  I hope LisaMA isn’t part of the investool infomercial. I attended their seminar yesterday and was so hooked so I registered to their $2999 2-day workshops. I am doing my research now and knowing that they have tripled the price raised doubt in my mind if I should go through with this. I haven’t checked the kit yet and I will today. They say we can only bring one family member to this program, I wonder if they will pursue this policy if I, say, bring my friend so we can split the cost. Does anybody know about this? I want to weigh all the pros and cons before deciding to go through with this. But if there is a chance for cheaper ways to go to their training programs I would love to know. Thanks for this blog. I also was interested in James Smith real estate investing pitch but there were some bad reviews on his classes on the net. Does anybody know anything about this guy? He seems like a decent guy from what he said but then you never know with salespeople. I am always skeptical of them.

• 68. LisaMA  |  June 7th, 2006 at 3:13 pm

  I appreciate your concern, but no, I’m nothing more than a student of Investools… I’ve never even seen the infomercial. Ha ha… I’ve just made it work for me. Good luck with your decision.

  As per the family member thing, I signed up before this was enforced… the problem with signing up with a friend is that only one of you can use the software (website) at a time, so you might find that inconvenient.

  You might also just try calling them to see what other options there are. I know they offer an online training instead of the live traingings, but I find the live trainings helpful because they use “live” examples… they are online while the market is open.

• 69. indigo218  |  June 7th, 2006 at 6:02 pm

  Thanks, LisaMA. And unfortunately I won’t have the resources to go on the PHD program you did. Do we still need use a separate software after the training to access the website or just the website? Can we share password with a group of people (on the condition of course we don’t use it at the same time)? Can we use the service using different computers? thanks again

• 70. Lynn  |  June 7th, 2006 at 9:52 pm

  Lisa - do you by any chance live in St. Louis??

• 71. chalupa34  |  June 10th, 2006 at 1:45 pm

  I found an awesome website that has TONS of information on Phil Town and Rule 1 Investing: http://www.ruleoneforum.com

• 72. tom  |  June 15th, 2006 at 10:44 pm

  Lisa, I have signed up for the PhD program in the SF Bay area. Since I am just starting am overwhelmed, how do you find a help group at the beginning level to work with?

• 73. Kevin  |  June 16th, 2006 at 1:32 pm

  Tom, I would love too see how you progress though the PHD coarse. I attended their Seminar in Reno yesterday. I had to leave to pick up my kids so I did not sign up to the two day session.

  GOOD LUCK

• 74. lsbeller  |  June 25th, 2006 at 4:54 pm

  I attended the Get Motivated/Investools 1 day $995 seminar in Mid May in San Antonio and purchased the $12k Masters program. I am interested in anyone in the SA area who would like to work together to learn this new skill set.

  LisaMA - can I join your daily trading room?

  Steve

• 75. LisaMA  |  July 5th, 2006 at 11:18 am

  To all who are interested in finding good local groups… go to the Investools site, support tab, user group search… http://pro.success.investortoolbox.com/smt/support/user_group.asp
  enter the state where you are, and you’ll be able to find a group in your area… The Investools site has a good message board going, but you can also do a Yahoo search for some of the other Investools sites that have user groups.

  Only people in the general MA, NH, RI area are in our group, but there are a lot of resources online. Good luck, and if you need anymore help, just let me know…

  lisa

• 76. LisaMA  |  July 5th, 2006 at 11:24 am

  Lynn,
  I don’t live in St. Louis, but I did live there when I got married in ‘87. I was there for about 5 years.

• 77. Grant  |  July 7th, 2006 at 11:58 am

  Great blog.
  I hope I’m adding some value with this post. I attended the Get Motivated seminar in Denver and signed up for the $995 seminar. I’m a skeptic, and decided to do some research on the investools prior to the seminar but didn’t have enough time to do the research that I wanted to do.
  I decided not to attend. I called investools and I sent the package back. My credit card was never charged (that made me feel better about whether or not it was a scam).

  A couple of co-workers were able to attend and really really liked it. One of which went for the PhD program.

  This is what I’ve found on pricing for the starter packages from talking with customer service a few times and talking with my co-workers.

  1. The $995 Get Motivated package is geared towards the lower price point. With this you only get Gold Access to the website. I was told by customer service that with the gold access you aren’t able to see Options. This gives you the 5-step program and 6 months of website access.I was told to upgrade to the platitum access from the gold it was going to be $1995.

  2. At $2199 you receive platinum access, online instruction, dvd set and 6 month access. I don’t know about live coaching. This is self-study.

  3. At $2999 you attend a 2-day seminar, receive access to Platinum, 5-step, minimal coaching, and 6 months access.

  From what I have found out, if you pay less at first, you’ll pay more to catch up if you decide to get more education.

  I hope this helps someoneeee out. I think I may call them back and see if I can try out the $599 starter package (that MaryB spoke of) that later applies to the $2199 price. May be a good way to go.

  I would love to hear more stories on success and failures with the system.

  Grant

• 78. TangoKiss  |  July 16th, 2006 at 3:05 pm

  hi, i went to the InvesTools class yesterday and was given a free book. i had not opened up my package yet. now that i have the free book, why should i pay the $995, i just don’t get it … if the website subscription is $600 per year, who wants to pay $995 for free materials ??? am i missing something, someone Please enlighten me!

  thank you!

• 79. swap  |  July 21st, 2006 at 3:30 pm

  Everybody is writing about the price of the seminar, and the tools, but nobody is writing about there experience with investools. I really would like to know if there are people who acually make money with investools. bye

• 80. AJ  |  July 23rd, 2006 at 7:58 pm

  good website - lots of info.
  question for those who are using this software or who know much about it -
  there are six rules for picking the stocks right - what are these six rules? i mean, if we know the rules/guidelines that investools follows, then yes, we will have to hunt for the stocks ourselves (as opposed to the software doing it for us for 3K), but that might be worth a shot - any kind hearted souls out there?

  also referring to comment #50 - Al Woods - you mentioned a website WWW.TIP@WALLSTREET.COM I couldnt get to it for some reason. did any of you get to it or know the right address?

  thanks a lot

• 81. Susan  |  July 24th, 2006 at 12:09 pm

  I just signed up for the $2999. The gal I was working with told me if I did not sign up right away I would be paying 10% more.

  I then went to the website after the next day and the price was the same. I am skeptical and I am researching to know if I should cancel.

  Anyone in Denver attend the 3 hour infomercial? Let me know your thoughts and if you signed up and found the same.

• 82. Trader systems Analysis  |  July 24th, 2006 at 3:33 pm

  the people on this board are way to concerned with price…if you are afraid to make an investment in youself, then this is not the right tool for you. You should focus on your own career or job and try and get a raise, b/c that will be free to you…

  For others, i believe that you should consider what an education costs these days. Going to college on avg costs almost 20k per yer (for tuition alone). And the cost of college is growing faster than the rate of inflation.

  To purchase Investools course is roughly $3k upfront (includes 1st yr subscription) and will last a lifetime. You will only have an additional $600 per yr to continue your subscription. All in all, its more cost affective than attending a pricey college (which will never teach you how to invest in the stock market).

  Also, if you buy the tools with the idea that you will get rich in 1 yr or will be able to leave your job in 1 yr, those goals are unrealistic. But you will DEFINITELY be able to augment your current income. THere is no doubt that i have been able to improve my investing (long term) and trading (short term) in the stock market. But it takes some effort on your part and some trust in the tools (like any other system). But you will make money in the market.

  Good luck, I personally believe the education is worth every penny and more! I spent the money for the master program and use the system for all my trades. it takes me about 5 hrs per week to do all the research needed on their toolbox website. I highly recommend it if you are the kind of person who will put in at least 5 hrs / wk to learn the ins and outs of the stock market and their system…Also, i do recommend joining the user groups within the toolbox once you sign up, they will help you learn how to use the system…Also, Yahoo Groups has over 150 user groups for us Toolbox users, which will help you immensely.

  This is just my opinion…and you are entitled to yours as well…just trying to be helpful for those “on the fence” people who see the value in the system but are doing some research before pulling the trigger….

• 83. AndyVA  |  July 24th, 2006 at 4:45 pm

  I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m not concerned with the price… I’m concerned with being ripped off.

  I am always excited to have a chance to make an investment in myself. However, I am not excited to pay $3000 when someone else pays $995. Or when you pay $2,000 today and $4,000 tomorrow. That would make me feel like a sucker, and I don’t like feeling like a sucker.

  This is not a sign of a big, stable company… This is a sign of a one man show that pays salespeople different commissions. If they can get their act together, I’ll get on board. But if they have a SPECIAL OFFER, TODAY ONLY!!! then they’re in the same category as the car dealership on the corner, or Carlton Sheets on a late night infomercial.

• 84. Trader systems Analysis  |  July 25th, 2006 at 9:33 am

  My understanding is that most of the reason that many on this board are quoting different prices is two-fold.

  1) Investools continues to raise its prices for the 2 day seminar.

  2) Investools does have some price discounts IF you goto the Get Motivated training and sign up for the 1 day Investools training for $995. Be clear that you dont get all the functionality that the higher priced 3k (and two day seminar) will get you….

  So different products and different price points and they have been increasing every 6 months from what i can tell.

  I dont think you are getting ripped off if it helps you manage you investments wisely over a long period of time.

• 85. Carla Schuchman  |  July 25th, 2006 at 3:56 pm

  Hello All,
  I just completed a two day seminar for Investools. It was very awesome and very informative. He spent no time telling of the advanced classes other than asking us to go talk with the other reps. to discuss this. He explained what they offered, but took very little time on it. The two day class was jam packed with infomation like crazy. I spoke with my accountant today and although he discouraged me from continuing or trying any of this on my own, he was impressed with my new knowledge. I have come from knowing nothing about trading to having a firm foundation to start from.
  For me it was worth every dime. As I move through this first phase, I will continue to educate myself.

• 86. Bob  |  July 27th, 2006 at 2:56 pm

  I’m going to be attending the 2-day workshop in San Diego this weekend. I haven’t decided yet if I will be taking the early out offered at the end of the first day, i.e. if I don’t like what I hear that day I can depart without paying the 3K. I have been exploring the INVESTools website and find it very impressive but then I’m just a novice. My initial feeling about this service is it may be a way for somebody with just a little knowledge, that would be me, of the stock market to get an education with some continued coaching. I think if you are already a savvy investor all the information that they are offering is already out there and most of it is free. The difference is you have to sift through it and come up with your own green arrows and etc. This program may be just what I need to get more fully involved in my financial future. I will give a follow-up message after the 2-day seminar has concluded.

  Thank you all for posting,

  Bob

• 87. JB  |  August 3rd, 2006 at 11:04 am

  Proof is in the pudding. Phil needs to publish his brokerage trade confirmations before I’ll believe anything out of his charismatic presentation. FULL DISCLOSURE is the price of my trust. He hasn’t paid that yet. The successful traders that I know GLADLY publish their accomplishments.

  If you buy any subscription without proof, you are a damned fool and you deserve to lose your money. A fool and his money are easily parted.

• 88. RL  |  August 10th, 2006 at 12:31 am

  All I’m reading are people going to the first seminar, finding out the price and bad mouthing the investools system. Whats up with that?? What did you think before you went to the seminar?? There are approx 3 that have used the system on this site and all of them like it. This is out of almost 90 comments. Is there any more using investools system? All I’m reading is negative from people who haven’t experienced using the investools system? This is an investment you can make back if you work hard and gain knowledge from using the system. Charles Schwab is teaming up with investools for a reason. I don’t think CS would ruin their reputation with a company that wasn’t on the up and up. Please if there are people who have used and gone thru the program could you leave a comment, Thank you!!!! And yes, I do think it is expensive but so is college and you don’t have near the up side potential, like freedom to work where you want as long as you have internet access, as you do with investools, if you work hard. There are people who are still paying off their college education after 10 to 15 years?? Think about this for an education bill, $100,000 - $150,000 after 5 years.

• 89. Bob  |  August 11th, 2006 at 10:09 am

  I attended the 2-day Stocks workshop and to my surprise I signed up for the PhD program. They convinced me that I could do this and take control of my financial future. As I’ve continued in this PhD program it has definitely reinforced my belief that INVESTools is very worthwhile. I think that even experienced investors could benefit from this program. The 2-day Stocks course probably could have been completed in one day which means that the remaining time was spent selling you on the more advanced programs. It worked on me but more importantly I believe it was the right decision.

  Good luck to you all,

  Bob

• 90. David  |  August 20th, 2006 at 9:15 pm

  Easy to make money in a 5 year bull market until last May/June. Sounds like mostly people caught up in the hype and dreams of making big money. Not a lot of reality here but hey if you have entertainment money why not try another infomercial (to make money) mental-exercise equipment? Yeah all the professional traders and advisors out there who have professional tools and are advising us still seem to have trouble making money the easy way or any way at all. Why is that?

• 91. Don  |  August 21st, 2006 at 5:41 pm

  I attended the one day(3 hours) training/sales class in Chicago this month. (August, 2006) The sales/training class was well presented and they mentioned numerous times that the toolbox is no qurantee to make money and they are not stock advisors. Just instructors for the Investools web based toolbox. The cost is $2,000 for a two day training session plus $300 every six months for access to the toolbox. There program sounds too good to be true. I do not know. There money back qurantee is as follows. You pay the $2000 before you leave the one day sales/training session. That will get you a password for the toolbox website for one week prior to the start of the two day class. If at the end of the 1st training session you are not satisfied with the program you return all their training material and your moneyh is surpose to be returned. The problem I have with the gurantee / Toolbox is that one week is not enough time to test it for satisfaction. If they were that sure of the program, I feel they would give a two or three month money back gurantee. If it works, you would be crazy to return it. If it does not work, the time period should be suffcient to determine that too. Oh, by the way they have many other classes after the entry level two class for you to attend in the future.

• 92. Announcing the INVESTools&hellip  |  August 23rd, 2006 at 8:54 pm

  […] We’re pleased to announce our new INVESTools forums. InvestorGeeks is one of the top ranking sites for web surfers looking for information on the high-end investing toolkit called INVESTools. Last year we wrote about the product in an article called “Phil Town and INVESTools.” In that piece we investigated whether these two new faces in the investing community were scams or merely fads. Not only did we find the reviews favorable, we concluded they were here to stay. […]

• 93. Chris  |  August 23rd, 2006 at 8:57 pm

  For those interested we’ve created a new INVESTools user group on our forums site. If you’d like to join our community stop by and have a look. You can also find more information about the forum on this site.

• 94. Rod  |  September 15th, 2006 at 11:23 am

  The Investools website says they have 248,000 graduates and 83,700 subscribers. That’s 164,300 dissatisfied customers (66%). Would you do business with a company like that? Not me.

  They have 87 seminars scheduled across the country in Sept and Oct alone. That’s over 500 per year. I suspect a large portion of the current subscribers they brag about were seminar goers in the last 12 months whos subscriptions are inactive but not yet expired. I would like to know how many continue with the program year after year; but they don’t tell you that.

• 95. William  |  September 16th, 2006 at 2:43 pm

  Rod,

  You are not correctly portraying those numbers that you quote. First off, everyone who signs up can be bring a friend or a spouse, as i did, for FREE. The 248,000 graduates include many unpaid free spouses. However, their household (like mine) only has one toolbox subscription, but both me and my wife got a graduation certificate…

  Also, secondly, many graduates go on to take higher level courses. Investools is double counting someone who takes the entry level course and graduates from that “degree’ and
  then, if they go on to take the Phd, they graduate from that and get counted by Investools again, and they receive a second graduation certificate.

  They have an investor presentation from their website www.investools.com that explains their sign up and re-sign up rates. SO YOU CAN DRW YOU OWN CONCLUSIONS.

  goto investor relations and then click on webcasts and presentations (on the right). You will see a PDF file titled Investor presentation that explains that their resign up rate of toolbox users is 80%. So they DO tell you that number, contrary to what you state. See link below.

  http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=104432&p=irol-calendar

  Get you facts straight before you pop off with your jibberish!

  I use the product and have been extremely satisfied with it!

• 96. William  |  September 16th, 2006 at 2:44 pm

  Rod,

  You are not correctly portraying those numbers that you quote. First off, everyone who signs up can be bring a friend or a spouse, as i did, for FREE. The 248,000 graduates include many unpaid free spouses. However, their household (like mine) only has one toolbox subscription, but both me and my wife got a graduation certificate…

  Also, secondly, many graduates go on to take higher level courses. Investools is double counting someone who takes the entry level course and graduates from that “degree’ and
  then, if they go on to take the Phd, they graduate from that and get counted by Investools again, and they receive a second graduation certificate.

  They have an investor presentation from their website www.investools.com that explains their sign up and re-sign up rates. SO YOU CAN DRAW YOU OWN CONCLUSIONS.

  goto investor relations and then click on webcasts and presentations (on the right). You will see a PDF file titled Investor presentation that explains that their resign up rate of toolbox users is 80%. So they DO tell you that number, contrary to what you state. See link below.

  http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=104432&p=irol-calendar

  Get you facts straight before you pop off with your jibberish!

  I use the product and have been extremely satisfied with it!

• 97. shelley  |  September 17th, 2006 at 10:41 pm

  I went to the free seminar, paid the $1900 on credit card for a user id and password. My first workshop day is in 5 days. I have a BBA and MBA in finance. I have been trading stocks for about 15 years. I am deciding to ask for my money back. Why? I think their investors toolbox is great. And if I could just subscribe to that I would. But, paying the $1900 for the workshop is turning me off. I can recreate the tool boxes technical analysis by using clearstation or yahoo finance, but it won’t rate the fundamentals. I have to do additional research to rate them for myself. However, for those people without an investment/finance background. $1900 isn’t too much for what you learn. I just wish I could subscribe to the toolbox without the workshop fee. Many of you may say, what’s $1900 bucks, and you are right. For me it is just the principle of it. I want to subscribe to their $50 monthly toolbox. Why should I have to pay the $1900 workshop fee.

• 98. Rory  |  September 18th, 2006 at 3:02 am

  I would like to hear from some of the people that said they would “report back” earlier this year. I went to the one day presentation offered by phil town at the “get motivated” seminar and left thirsty to learn more on my own… also the price they were asking for their classes were tough to swallow.

  So…let’s hear those results? numbers please… not just “it’s great”

• 99. Chris  |  September 18th, 2006 at 9:04 pm

  M. Jones and L. Lewis sent us this question:

  Shelly,

  I’m just getting into the game of investing.

  What sort of advice do you have for using stuff like Yahoo! Finance? (I have
  a Yahoo! account and just haven’t used their Finance section yet… I’ve
  been using Morningstar so far.)

  Thanks.

• 100. shelley  |  September 18th, 2006 at 9:36 pm

  My advice for a beginning investor is to not lose money. What I mean by that is do not put all your money into one stock. You should build a base portfolio of stocks that you know. Such, as IBM, Coke, Pepsi, etc. Look for dividend payers. The trick is knowing when to buy them. How do you do that. Go to yahoo finance, type in a stock symbol, then click on technicals in left hand margin. Click on 50 moving average, MACD, and Fast Stoch, to bring up those graphs. When the price crosses up the moving average, the MACD crosses up through 0, and stochasic crosses up through the 20%, it is usually a good time to buy. Once you have a base of “safe” stocks, you can then try to look for the more speculative ones. Another way to start. Look at the Dow 30. Try to find the ones that are better performing. How can you buy multiple stocks on a limited budget. Go to buyandhold.com and read about their program. Also, don’t be greedy. When you are showing a profit, take some of the table. What are sell indications. price falls down past the moving average line, MACD falls past the 0 line, Stochastic falls past the 80 line.
  But, remember what peter lynch said. Buy what you know. Also, remember what Warren Buffet said, you are buying the company, not the stock.
  Another cool site is clearstation.com, enter the stock symbol and click on 3 point view.
  I just gave you a bunch of ideas. Your question is a tough one to answer in a couple of paragraphs, and I am sure that other readers may disagree with some of my stuff. That is okay, because everybody has different strategies.
  Once last strategy…You want to make more money than your saving account is offering, but you don’t want to risk the money in the market. Go to yahoo finance stock screener, type in search for stocks with dividend yields greater than 5%. Then look at those companies. Try to find ones with stable long term pricing, will probably end up being utility stocks or oil trusts. The high dividend yielders are real estate trusts, but, they are too risky for me. I bought Frontline for the dividend yield.
  Hope you got something out of this.

• 101. Dennis  |  September 21st, 2006 at 11:46 am

  First, nice site, just came across it looking for information about Phil Town.

  I completed the 2 day course about 6 Mo. ago and have just renewed my online tool box subscription for another 6 MO. Course was $2999 (there about) and my wife attended also. I really enjoyed the course, learned a lot (knew nothing before about investing in stocks and options and mistakenly relied on others to do it for me with no understanding of what or why they were doing what they did (this is my fault, not theirs). Over the last 6 Mo. I have not used the tools as aggressively as I would have liked to (it does take time to learn the system, time to study, and time to put it to use). Just like everyone else out there I have family commitments, job commitments, community commitments, etc. etc. something always seems to take priority. For the time I have put into the system, I am vary happy with the returns I have received and the information it has provided me to make the changes needed to previously purchased stocks and investments. I no longer have others doing my investing (other then my 401K which through the program I have learned to take better control over also) and I am really going to try over the winter to take full advantage and utilize the tools to their potential. The trading I have done with the tools has more then payed back the price of the course for me, however even if that was not the case the knowledge and information I gained was more then worth the price I payed. From my experience thus far I can honestly say these tools work, BUT you have to make the time to work the tools. I think the instructor I had said it best: If you treat this as a hobby, it will pay like a hobby, if you treat it like a business, it will pay like a business.
  I have read through all these posts and the one major concern here seems to be the cost of the training and if it REALLY works. I can attest that it does REALLY work, but you have to put the time into it to make it work for you (something I am still struggling with). Given the correct amount of time investment, I could see people doing this for a living, I did not take the course for that reason, my objective was just to be able to understand the investment decisions being made for me on my behalf, so on that aspect alone the course has more then paid for itself for me.
  Good luck to you all, and for those sitting on the fence not knowing if the price you have to pay for this knowledge is worth it or not, I would recommend to look at it a different way. 1st. you need to set a clear objective of what you NEED to get out of a course like this. 2nd. you need to determine if you can make the time commitment needed to accomplish your NEED(s). After you figure that out, the cost of investing in yourself should not be an issue because if you can make the time commitment the information you will receive from the course will give you the knowledge to reap the rewards.

  Take care,
  Dennis

• 102. M. Jones & L. Lewis  |  September 21st, 2006 at 8:56 pm

  Shelly,

  Thank you SOOO much for the advice. I am copying and pasting it into a Word document as we speak (type). I also liked what Dennis had to say. It was very insightful from the perspective of a person who doesn’t do this often. I learned alot from your both and I look forward to more comments (I have them sent to me via email so that I can keep up with everyone).

  Although I haven’t invested into InvesTools yet, I do plan to keep abreast of everything you guys are saying and eventually be able to take the plunge (although I don’t want to wait too long).

  Thank you for all sharing your experiences and advice!

  Peace.

  L. Lewis

• 103. shelley  |  September 21st, 2006 at 9:39 pm

  I decided to cancel from investools before the workshop. All I wanted to do was try out the web site. The rep said I needed to put down the $1999 fee on the credit card and I could call back and cancel after a couple of days if I wanted. The free seminar was Friday, I cancelled monday morning. On tuesday an education counselor called me, on wednesday I received an UPS email saying a package was being sent to me. I contacted the rep I cancelled with on monday, and he said that I needed to speak to a cancellation department, and he transfered me. I was put to customer relations and they said they will send my request to the cancellation department and in 7 to 10 days they should get in touch with me. Today, thursday, I received an email saying that my claim is being reviewed to see if I qualify for a money back refund. I called visa and filed a dispute. I only agreed to the credit disclosure because the rep said it would be no problem getting my money back if I cancelled. I cancelled the next business day. So, I warn all those on the bench, be very carefull about putting down money and expecting an easy out and money back guarantee. Before putting money down, check out the cost of an investment class at your local library. If you are a self studier, go to clearstation.com
  Etrade has a section to their website that offers free online education.
  Prior to my current experience with investools. I was positive on their program for novice investors. But, now how I see how I am being treated for wanting my money back, I would warn everybody away from the company.

• 104. Art  |  September 22nd, 2006 at 1:36 pm

  I’m new to the stocks and investing, I saw the Investools TV add and days later the Wizetrade. I’m planning to attend maybe both free seminars. Does anyone know more about Wizetrade?

• 105. Dagwood  |  September 27th, 2006 at 11:27 pm

  My wife and I signed up for the PhD program during the 2-day event after attending the Get Motivated Seminar in Sacramento, CA back in February 2006. Yes, the price is daunting. Yes, it takes some effort beyond looking for “3 Green Arrows”. Yes, you have to study and do homework. Yes, you will spend some additional time and money attending seminars in faraway lands (other states).

  We’ve been in the program for about 6 months now. Each step of the way, my wife and I feel more confident, informed and better able to guide our own financial future. We’ve joined up with about 150 like-minded investors (Masters and PhD’ers) in our area who get together online (group email and discussion groups), and live (monthly meetings as a whole group, plus in-betweener meetings with sub-groups). Just like losing weight, giving up a bad habit, or creating a new, good one, having a support team is a HUGE help.

  With the Investools program, you will have access to live “trading rooms”, where you can learn about all aspects of trading, and ask questions (live) of the instructors.

  I would encourage anyone on this list to go to google groups or yahoo groups and search for “investools”. Read what the members of those groups are saying as they learn about the market and how to be excellent traders. You won’t find many (any?) naysayers there, I assure you.

  If you don’t like Investools, fine. Tell everyone on the list what your success plan is and how you’re doing with it. Griping is easy. Sharing positive knowledge takes effort. I wish everyone reading this the best of luck in whatever direction you choose to go.

• 106. shelley  |  September 28th, 2006 at 12:18 pm

  Thanks for the input Dagwood. I did not go through with the workshop and am having a tough time getting my money back. You sound like an informed investor. Can you visit clearstation.com (which I use), and tell me your opinion on how it compares to the investools toolbox. When you go to the site, type in the stock symbol and click 3 point view. You can later type in a couple of stocks into the portfolio then click focus.
  I liked the investools toolbox, but they wouldn’t let me use it unless I dropped the $1999 for the 2 day workshop.

• 107. Ray Han  |  September 29th, 2006 at 1:44 am

  Hello all. I’m happy to have found this site. I went to the Get Motivated seminar at the Pond in Anaheim in Oct., and signed up for the 2 day workshop for Sept. I paid $1500; their agreement is you may attend day 1 with a family member and after which you may cancel your credit card order. Day 2 is when I was charged $1500. Yes, it’s true, a good chunk of time was spent selling the Associate, Masters and PhD programs, which cost $4,999, $11,999 and $23,999 respectively. That’s way too much for me, as I’m just starting out in my professional life. If I could readily afford $24,000, I would enroll in the PhD program. Investools isn’t a scam, I know when I’m being scammed and this isn’t it; no one puts a gun to your head either. But it is expensive. Moreover, I’m sure I could enroll in the PhD program at a later date so I didn’t think I needed to so soon as I have no real stock market experience. Since the workshop, I’ve been reading my workbook, visiting the Investools website, and have made several trades with “paper money” just to get a sense of what I’m in for. I am very hopeful of this new opportunity in my life, and will diligently learn their system. Now that I am aware of InvestorGeeks, I will visit regularly and absorb as much as humanly possible. If anyone cares, I’ll be more than happy to give you all updates on my education and trading progress. Perhaps you all can share some of your pearls of wisdom with me, because I went into this with no real skill or knowledge about trading. I have one goal: to be a millionaire by next Saturday…no, but seriously folks…I want to trade full time by Christmas 2006!!! Can I pull it off?!?!?

• 108. Ray Han  |  September 29th, 2006 at 1:52 am

  Hey, it’s me again. The one service that I wanted the most from the PhD program is their mentoring program. I could definitely use a mentor, so if there’s anyone out there in InvestorGeeks land who wants to “pass it on” and be of service to a worthy upstart protege like me, I would greatly appreciate having a mentor. Please let me know! Thanks, Ray

• 109. K  |  September 30th, 2006 at 3:44 am

  My wife has been doing investools for almost 2 years now. I have a lot of knowledge on the subject and would be happy to drop knowledge on anyone who wants to know.

  duceonefive@hotmail.com

• 110. bigroxtar  |  October 9th, 2006