Guest Author - Guido Deboeck

How much should you invest in investment education? Looking back I do not recall my dad ever attending any investment workshops. He read daily a couple of newspapers, which in his days did not even include any financial papers, like the Wall Street Journal. His way of getting an education was to read and cut out financial related articles and collate those articles in "books". He assembled several books of economic and financial articles that constituted his knowledge base.

For several years I followed the same approach: cutting out articles from 2-3 papers and keeping those articles sorted by topic. I have assembled at least three thick folders full of articles. On occasion I rereading those articles because thinking about investments evolves.

In sum, there is plenty you can learn on your own by reading articles and good investment books. Nevertheless there are a few courses and workshops that provide valuable insights and where you can learn more in less time more than following the "cheap" approach.

Investors Business Daily offers several investment workshops on a regular basis around the country. The Monday May 14 issue of IBD again list a series of workshops on page A17 that will be held in the coming months. One of these workshops is worth your time and money. In this article I share with you the value of what I got out of attending some of these workshops.

The first level, Beginning Strategies , offered by IBD is truly for beginners. It is about discovering the rules to systematically pick stocks. The course enrollment fee for this one day workshop is $195. I never attended this workshop because after reading several of O’Neil’s books --which you can buy for less than the course fee-- it is difficult to figure what more one get out of this beginners level.

The second level, formerly called “How to Master Charts”, now called Intermediate Strategies is about spotting market tops and bottoms, screening techniques to identify winners, and how to read charts. I attended this one day workshop a few years ago. The course fee for this one is $1195. This workshop is worth every penny you pay for it.

If you enroll make sure you arrive the night before, and are well rested. Get to the workshop site about an hour before registration opens! The site usually fills up rapidely and for this kind of money you do not want to sit on the last rows in the class. This course provides you with an excellent workbook that will remain a valuable reference over time.

There is also a Level III workshop, now called Chart School, previously called “How to Master Charts and Manage Your Portfolio”. Maybe managing a portfolio was too much of a challenge... When I took the Level III course, two years ago, this Level III course largely overlapped with the Level II course. The only difference were some minor attention to portfolio management, selling short, and additional base patterns. I recently received the updated (current) workshop material of this Level III course and found little change compared to the course I took two years ago. The enrollment fee for this workshop is $2,995, almost tree time the fee of Level II. In my opinion this Level III is not worth the cost. Hence, I feel that attending the Level II IBD workshop on investing is more cost-effective.

IBD also offers a CAN SLIM Master’s Program involving two days of training, six break out sessions, four follow-up web casts for an enrollment fee of $8,995 (yes, you read that right…) On the web this program is described as follows:

“Lawyers have the bar exam, Accountants the CPA test. Brokers the Series 7. But until now, there's never been a rigorous, officially sanctioned exam to certify that an investor has mastered the CAN SLIM system. Now with the first-ever CAN SLIM Masters Program, you can objectively test and certify your CAN SLIM expertise. The exam will be challenging, and we can't guarantee everyone will pass. It will require detailed study and preparation. That's why the Masters Program includes an extensive online curriculum and participation in small group coaching sessions at an intensive 2-day workshop.”

It is important to stress that “officially sanctioned” in this description is meaningless because IBD is not an accredited educational institution. Legally, IBD can not issue Master diplomas in California or anywhere else. Any diploma issued by IBD has only the value of the paper it is printed on! This Masters program should not be confused with a CFA, CFP or a regular Masters in Finance you can get in graduate schools.

In sum, don’t let clever marketing deprive you from a thousands of dollars that you can save by reading regularly financial articles, occasionaly a good book on ivestments, and/or maybe attending one of IBD's workshops. You can achieve a lot in terms of your investment education by investing wisely..