I am assuming that the original thread was deleted by accident, if otherwise please let us know. I am posting the recovered text here.

The original post was from TheBucksStartHere:

So, I just received the Technitrader home study course yesterday, and since there isn't a lot of information out there about it, I thought it might be of interest to some folks if I kept "running diary" of my experience with it, a la ESPN.com's The Sports Guy (though don't expect my writing to be as good.) Let me just say up front that I am in no way affiliated w/ TT, nor do I have any sort of bone to pick with them, so any comments will just be my unbiased opinion. I'll save a little space by not going into details about what TT is or purports to do, since anyone reading this has probably been to their website and maybe has watched their free dvd, both of which give plenty of insight as to the point of the course and what TT is all about.

Just so you know where I'm coming from, here's a brief bit of background on me: Despite knowing a decent amount about how the market works (undergrad finance degree/corporate finance atty.) and having a moderate sum in the market (about half in a 401(k) and half in a brokerage account) and consider myself to be EXTREMELY novice when it comes to trading. I haven't been trading in individual stocks for very long (less than a year) and have really just picked a couple of companies that are hot and stuck with them. No short selling, options, etc. It's this general lack of knowledge and the desire to eventually make more than just "some extra cash every year" that led me to start looking around for some tools that teach me how to find high-quality short-term trading opportunities. My goal here is to learn how to be successful in position trading, eventually move into short swing trading, and with any luck, someday trade full time. And you lucky folks? Well, you're along for the ride! Yeee Hawww! (don't worry, I won't forget you once I'm independently wealthy.)

DVDs 1 & 2

Monday night and I'm totally psyched to get started. Unfortunately I didn't get home from work until late, but a little lack of sleep isn't going to stand in the way of me and some good old American fortune building, is it? I didn't think so. So, I start the first dvd around 10 pm or so and wow, let's just say that neither Howard or Martha will be winning any public speaking awards anytime soon (no offense, public presentations just aren't everyone's thing.) In 4 words: Stilted cue-card reading. That's ok though. I don't need them to be dynamic, I just need them to teach me how to pick stocks and make money. Anyway, the first two dvds are pretty much snoozers, with quite a bit of rehash of the free dvd: What TT is about, how the course works, what you can expect, etc. They also go into some excrutiating explanations about how "the market" works, how trades are made, the history of Nasdaq and NYSE, HOW THE INTERNET WORKS (c'mon Howard we KNOW this. it's a seris of tubes. d'uh.), etc., etc. (I understand that there are a lot of people who will find this stuff useful, but probably not a lot of people who have reached the point that they are dropping a grand on a trading seminar. Then again, I'm probably just a complete a-hole.) Howard also walks us through the timeline of a company going from start-up to being listed on the NYSE. I realize that it's a VERY high-level explanation of corporate finance, but it's painful. Really. (And honestly, he's taking some pretty big liberties with some of the facts. "Where you building this plant, Howard? Dreamland??")

Some high notes, however, are the explanations about charting (the Japanese had this figured out 2000 years ago), a few subtleties about bid/ask, what caused the bear & bull markets of the past century and a few other tidbits. All in all though, not exactly riveting stuff, and not much that you couldn't have seen on the website or free dvd. The manual "which some students call their 'trading bible'!" has so far been a print out of the power point slides that are being used for the presentation. 2 dvds and I'm already 90 pages in. So much for being intimidated by the nearly 600 pages. . .

Anyway, I'm sure that we're only a couple of dvds away from some stuff that will turn my puny lil brain into a crumpled wad of paper, and honestly, I can't wait. I'm ready to start talking charting dammit! 11 dvds to go, only 10 roses. . .tonight, the most dramatic rose ceremony ever. . .stay tuned.