Trading courses: what to check before you pay
Most people who trade for retail lose money, and regulators have repeatedly acted against courses that promised otherwise. We give you the checks, the official cases and the numbers. We do not name private people, and we take no sponsor money.
What the data says before any course
Sources and caveats on the outcomes page. These measure retail traders and day traders, not course graduates: no study of paid courses exists in what we found.
The 16-check scorecard
Answer from the seller's public pages. Each check is tied to a rule or a regulator warning, for example:
- Claims: It promises or implies a specific income (a monthly figure, 'financial freedom', 'quit your job') without showing typical results.
- Claims: It uses words like guaranteed, risk-free, sure profit or automatic income.
- Claims: Proof is testimonials, screenshots or a luxury lifestyle, with no statement of what a typical buyer earns.
- Proof: There is no independently checkable record of live results: no broker statement, no full year, no losing months shown.
- Proof: The record is a backtest, a demo account or the single best account chosen after the fact.
- Money: The seller earns from broker, exchange or prop-firm referrals, and does not say so clearly.
What regulators did
24 official cases and 14 warnings from the FTC, CFTC, SEC, FCA, ASA, AGCM, AGCOM, CONSOB and ASIC. In Italy, the AGCM fined two social-media sellers of "easy profits" in June 2025 (EUR 60,000 and EUR 5,000) and accepted commitments from others. CONSOB publishes blocking orders against unauthorised sites.
Compare offer types · See the cases · See the rules · How we check
Trading course questions
Is a trading course a scam?
Only a court or regulator can say that about a named seller, and we do not name private people. What we can show is which sales practices regulators have acted on: unsupported income claims, guaranteed returns, fake testimonials, fake urgency, hidden refund terms and unauthorised advice. If an offer shows several of these, treat it with the caution regulators advise.
Can a course really teach you to make money trading?
We found no independent study comparing buyers of paid trading courses with non-buyers. The best official data on retail traders shows that most lose money, and the day-trader studies find little evidence of learning over time. A course can still teach tools, risk management and discipline, but no seller can honestly guarantee income.
Do I have a right to a refund in Italy?
For distance contracts, Codice del Consumo art. 52 gives a 14-day right of withdrawal, with exceptions in art. 59, for example for digital content you agreed to start at once and acknowledged losing the right. Check the seller's terms and keep a copy of what you agreed to. This is general information, not legal advice.
Is selling signals or telling people what to buy legal?
General education is not advice. Personal recommendations and paid signals can require authorisation (TUF art. 1 and 18 in Italy, and similar rules elsewhere). CONSOB, ESMA and the FCA have all acted against unauthorised promotion by finfluencers.
Do you name the courses or people that failed this test?
No. We publish criteria and official cases. Where an official decision names a company, we show it as the decision does, with the outcome. For individuals we write name withheld.
How we work
We sell no courses on this page, take no affiliate or sponsor money, and publish tests of popular patterns, not the strategies we use ourselves. Education only, not investment or legal advice.