Is Jim Dalton a Scam – Are His Market Profile Trading Courses Legit?
Jim Dalton is a trader and trading educator/mentor with over 40 years of in-depth market experience.
For perspective, he’s been a member of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the Senior Executive Vice President of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and has written 2 classic trading books – Mind Over Markets (1993) and Markets in Profile (2007).
Several years ago – in order to provide a more up-to-date and immersive learning experience for those interested in auction market theory, market profile, and the other critical concepts discussed in his books – Jim Dalton launched Jim Dalton Trading.
Through the Jim Dalton Trading website, Jim Dalton now offers 2 main trading courses: Foundation & Application of the Market Profile and Market Profile Advanced Nuances & Exceptions – which provide recorded video lessons organized into various chapters.
But he also offers a seasonal Live Intensive that includes daily prep, review, trade identification/dissection, live commentary, homework assignments, and more. The recorded courses are for linear learning, but the Live Intensives are for real market immersion.
So based on Jim Dalton’s extensive personal experience as a trader, executive, author, and mentor – why would anyone call him or his trading courses a scam? What would lead certain people to be frustrated, dissatisfied, or angry about what he has to offer?
#1 Reason Why Certain Individuals Call Jim Dalton and His Trading Courses a Scam:
Most people who enter the trading arena are complete beginners looking for fast, easy answers to market success.
In other words, they’re holy-grail seekers. They just want some guru/system to tell them exactly what to do (where to buy and sell). They’re not all that interested in the actual work involved in being a trader – they just want the rewards/profits.
So when they go out and pay for a trading course/program, they typically want and even expect automatic trading profits through nonsense like text/email/chat room alerts – which they can simply receive and then proceed to blindly copy.
But this isn’t how Jim Dalton operates at all. He’s not offering some lousy service that generates “10 hot picks” each week/month, for example. All the newsletters and chat rooms that do this sound great in theory, but they’re largely ineffective.
Alert/signal services are popular because they present easy ways for hopeful traders to start making money fast. But they tend to be ineffective because they undermine legitimate trader development. Being a copy-cat/blind follower isn’t a sustainable approach.
So what Jim Dalton does instead is teach you how to think like a trader from a logical perspective – based on market dynamics and structure – so that you can effectively organize, interpret, and capitalize on the data yourself and become entirely self-sufficient.
The Wrap-Up – Is Jim Dalton a Scam or the Best Market Profile Teacher?
Since the trading education industry is full of get-rich-quick promises, it sets people up with improper expectations. It makes the masses think that incredible profits are possible by merely copying some guru (blindly following them in and out of trades).
But any course, program, or service that offers incredible returns with limited to no work involved on your end is complete nonsense. It doesn’t exist (at least not in any sustainable form). You might get lucky at first, but any luck will eventually run out.
As a result of this “spell” that the masses are under, most people don’t realize that what Jim Dalton provides is 100% authentic trading education. He’s not selling magical answers – he’s selling legitimate training (which goes against much of the industry).
In the absence of specific trade alerts, anger/frustration kicks in for ignorant traders – and that’s the main cause of “Jim Dalton Scam” remarks. But in my opinion, there’s no actual substance behind them – just an aversion to the real work required to be a trader.
As a beginner, would you rather: 1) learn how to properly think like a trader (which requires months of training) or 2) be promised massive profits with limited to no training involved. The masses are much more apt to choose option 2 (even though it’s ineffective).
Personally, it took me too long to realize that option 1 is the shortcut. Chasing option 2 is the harder/longer/more expensive path.
Written by Matt Thomas (@MattThomasTP)
Related Pages:
- What is Market Profile – Trading With Market Profile
- What is Volume Profile – Trading With Volume Profile
- Molding Your Market Framework – How Do You View Markets?
- What is Auction Market Theory – Trading Value vs. Price
- Top 3 Reasons Why Traders Fail at Such a High Rate (~90%)
Hey Matt!
I have heard of Jim Dalton. When I first started trading, I remember one of my mentors mentioning his name!
I do agree that most newbies who come into this space, they look for easy success and that’s just not going to happen. It takes work to become successful as a trader. Hard work and patience is key!
I do believe that Jim’s teachings are authentic. Thank you for sharing your take on it.
Hi Lorenz – Jim Dalton has over 40 years of in-depth industry experience (as an institutional trader and manager, CBOT member, CBOE Vice President, and more), and yet, his courses and training programs are still questioned by some as being “scams”. And the typical reasoning is because he doesn’t offer his students specific alerts or setups. He actually forces them to gain a deeper level of understanding in regard to the complexities and nuances of real markets – and learn how to pinpoint high-probability/good risk-reward opportunities for themselves, unlike so many other trading services that attempt to spoon-fed subscribers “hot picks” and “foolproof systems” (that never work). So what he offers is really the exact opposite of a scam – it’s legitimate education and training, but the actual study/learning/training required (which can’t be avoided if becoming a long-lasting, consistently profitable trader is your goal) makes some people upset because they want the [nonexistent] “easy” way.
This just goes to show how frustrating the trading education industry can be – because the vast majority of people don’t really want the actual education/training required to become skilled, self-sufficient traders. They just want shortcuts to money/profits. So of course that’s why there are so many nonsense alert services, chat rooms, and course sellers out there – they’re just offering people what they want (even if it’s largely ineffective). Sadly, this gives the industry a bad reputation – and also makes people skeptical of everything (rightfully so). But the worst part of all is that many of those offering legitimate education/training sometimes have trouble garnering attention because they’re not spewing nonsense and creating advertisements with penthouses, yachts, Lamborghinis, etc. The end result is that many of the worst trading services become extremely popular while many of the best have relatively small followings.