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Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions About Thomas Kralow and His Trading Program:

This is a detailed compilation of the top 10 questions I’ve heard in regard to Thomas Kralow and his trading program. I did my best to answer them based on my personal experiences going through his program, as well as dozens of others in the past.

Thomas Kralow Reviews and Testimonials - University Grade Trading Education

1. Is Thomas Kralow Real?

Yes, Thomas Kralow is real and Thomas Kralow is his real name. You can follow/interact with him on social media (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and especially YouTube) and see that he is, in fact, a real person.

2. Is Thomas Kralow’s Course Good?

In my personal opinion, I think Thomas Kralow’s course is one of the best currently available online. In fact, I hesitate to even call it a course because it offers much more than the average trading course you can find. It’s actually a full-blown learning program.

It doesn’t just fire information at you that you may or may not retain. It provides homework and tests after nearly every video lesson (roughly 150 in total) for active and deep learning. This kind of environment turns conceptual understanding into functional skills.

3. What is Thomas Kralow’s Trading Program?

Thomas Kralow’s trading program is called University Grade Trading Education – and it’s one of the only trading programs I know of that could rightfully call itself that. The well-structured curriculum and focus on skill-building is virtually unmatched.

There are two main versions of the program – Complete and Shortened. The Complete program is the full curriculum with 14 chapters, 167 lessons, 145 quizzes, and 82 homework assignments. The Shortened version is the same exact curriculum with just one chapter removed, Basic Technical Aspects of Trading, which covers candlesticks, timeframes, trends, channels, etc.

Thomas Kralow Review - What is Thomas Kralow Trading

Once you decide on the Complete or Shortened version, there are then three different options based on the level of assistance you desire – Standard, Assisted, or Assisted Plus. Standard is 100% independent learning. Assisted is 60% independent learning and includes support from a personal assistant throughout the duration of the course (including 30 days after as you transition to real money).

Assisted Plus is 10% independent learning and includes everything. Not only do you get a personal assistant just like someone with the Assisted plan does, but also a direct line of communication and one-on-one access to Thomas Kralow himself.

4. Is Thomas Kralow a Scam or Legit?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from using and reviewing trading courses, programs, platforms, and services for close to ten years now, it’s that there will always be haters and naysayers calling things a scam – whether they’re legitimate or not.

In the case of Thomas Kralow, there’s one major point the skeptics always revert to as “proof” that he’s a scam – the fact that he has mostly transitioned out of active day trading into longer-term investments and other projects.

To me, that doesn’t really prove anything. And this may come as a surprise to most people, but I actually think his program is more effective for his students because of it. If he were still actively day trading, I’m positive people would be begging him to live stream his account and send real-time alerts so they can blindly copy his trades. But taking such shortcuts is detrimental to growth.

Is Thomas Kralow a Scam or Legit? My Perspective as a Student

This sort of thing is what most other trading services do – live stream accounts in front of hundreds or thousands of followers and/or send out trade alerts. But what most people don’t understand is that this is how individuals who run these services make incredible returns while most followers don’t. Their track records are completely distorted based on the support of blind followers.

So when traders with chat rooms, newsletters, and alert services mention their track records, you have to be skeptical. If possible, find out what their track record was prior to opening a service because there’s a solid chance their current profits are distorted.

Coming back to Thomas Kralow, I like the fact that his trading program focuses on his students building proper skills, choosing their own approach, creating a personal trading algorithm, and refining it over time. There’s no dependency on hot picks or alerts.

This is what makes Thomas Kralow completely legitimate in my eyes. He already had his own trading success before launching his learning program. The focus isn’t on his profits – it’s on you building your own skills in order to capture profits for yourself.

5. Is Thomas Kralow’s Trading Program Worth it?

Based on numerous trading courses and programs I’ve been through in the past, Thomas Kralow’s trading program is definitely worth it. I’ve paid higher recurring subscription fees for services that weren’t anywhere near as intensive or educational as his program.

But I think you do have to consider the Standard, Assisted, and Assisted Plus versions separately because they vary quite a bit in price. In my opinion, the Standard version is underpriced at less than $1,000 and the Assisted version is fair at around $2,500.

The Assisted Plus version (which I don’t have firsthand experience with) is in an entirely different category of cost at over $15,000. This is 2-3X more expensive than any trading mentorship program I’ve come across ($5-10K is the highest I’ve seen before this).

But this isn’t to say that some individuals wouldn’t find it extremely useful and completely worth it. What you’re getting is individual assistance throughout the entire program, direct mentorship from Thomas Kralow himself, help generating your personal trading algorithm, and professional support as you transition into real money trading. This level of guidance isn’t typical.

If I stumbled upon a program like this and took it seriously at the beginning of my own trading journey, it would’ve saved me years of time struggling and thousands of dollars – not only in useless subscription fees but from avoiding massive trading losses as well.

In the end, whether or not Thomas Kralow’s trading program is worth it is a matter of opinion. But in my opinion, it’s something I wish existed years ago so that I could’ve experienced the benefits instead of thinking chat rooms and alert services were the answer.

6. Who is Thomas Kralow’s Mentor?

Thomas Kralow openly admits that he is not self-taught – he was trained by Alf Hoffman. He was actually on the path to becoming a lawyer when he met Alf through a family friend. Soon after, he moved to Switzerland to start training under his guidance.

Contrary to what you might believe, it was far from an easy path to financial success, even with the help of a successful mentor. He struggled with trading psychology and almost blew up an initial $17,000 account, but eventually found consistent success.

7. How is Thomas Kralow’s Program Different From Other Guru Courses?

Thomas Kralow’s trading program is different from other guru courses in a number of ways. But what stands out is his proper expectation-setting, supreme focus on trading psychology, and the development of legitimate trading skills.

Most other courses, for example, reel you in by making some absurd promise like “learn how to make $10K per week with one simple pattern”. And then their course is just a mashup of random video lessons and old webinars covering basic technical analysis.

Thomas Kralow’s program, on the other hand, is a full-blown curriculum that covers expectations, trading psychology, indicators, key market levels, depth of market, risk/money management, fundamental analysis, tracking statistics, and more.

Trading Courses Versus Learning Programs - What's the Difference

But not only does his program offer more information than the average course, it also provides homework assignments and tests to go along with it for deeper learning. Most other courses simply don’t offer this level of interaction and skill-building.

Overall, Thomas Kralow is far more transparent than the typical trading guru you might find online and is completely honest about the realities of trading. There’s no chat rooms or alerts to pump his own positions. Just legitimate training.

You might think his program doesn’t offer anything special like “magical indicators” or “foolproof systems”, but that’s because these things don’t exist. He covers the real path to trading success, which isn’t as glamorous as other gurus like to make you think.

8. Does the Program Promise That You Will Make Money?

No guarantee can be made that you will make money going through the program because the vast majority of your success has to do with your own actions and efforts. But it certainly provides an honest roadmap for what it takes to become a profitable trader.

Unlike trading courses, programs, and services that make ridiculous money-making claims requiring little to no effort on your part, Thomas Kralow tells you honestly from the start that the process will be intense. Trading is a marathon, not a sprint.

A full-blown learning program like this is much like a gym membership and diet plan. Most people don’t want to actually do the hard work of exercising and sticking to a diet – even though it’s in their best interest. They would much prefer a “magic pill”.

The magic pills in this case are all the chat rooms, newsletters, and alert services that people think they can join, blindly copy trades from, and instantly become million-dollar traders. But it turns out (not surprisingly) that these magic pills are ineffective.

What it actually takes to be a successful trader is doing the work, not taking shortcuts – and that’s exactly what Thomas Kralow offers within his curriculum. It’s about skill-building, choosing an approach, creating a personal trading algorithm, and more.

9. Does Thomas Kralow Offer a Money-Back Guarantee?

Thomas Kralow offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Most other trading services don’t offer any refunds at all.

10. How Long Does the Complete Learning Program Take?

This isn’t your basic trading course that only takes a few hours or days to get through. Thomas Kralow’s Complete learning program is designed to take around four months to finish (if you can commit around 5 hours to it per week), but it varies from student-to-student.

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Thomas Kralow Biography - Who is Thomas Kralow

|Read My Full Thomas Kralow Review For Student Testimonials, Pros & Cons, and More|

The beauty of the program is that you can go through each lesson, assignment, test, and chapter at your own pace. One of my fears was that I would lose access to the material after 120 days, but once you become a student you retain access forever.

Again, this program isn’t just about some magical indicator, pattern, or setup that will generate mountains of cash like clockwork. This is a comprehensive curriculum that teaches the realistic approach to becoming a professional-level trader through skill-building.

If you have any other questions or comments about Thomas Kralow and his trading program, please share them below.

Written by Matt Thomas (@MattThomasTP)

Related Pages:

Matt Thomas

Founder of TradingParadigm.com, Creator of the Trading Success Framework Course & Trading Paradigm Skool Community, and Intraday Futures Trader Using Auction Market Theory & Profiling (Volume & Market Profile).

14 Comments

  • Randi says:

    I am so glad I came across your website and this review! I am still not quite ready to purchase a training program yet but this seems to be an excellent choice when I finally do. I am a total novice but I recently finished reading “How I Made $2000000 in the Stock Market” by Nicolas Darvas and hope to start investing in the stock market soon. I am curious how Thomas Kralow’s methods compare to Darvas techniques? Thank you very much for the article and I am excited to dig deeper into your website as I continue my research!

    • Matt Thomas says:

      Hi Randi – I appreciate your comments!

      I can’t really speak to specific differences between Thomas Kralow and Nicolas Darvas because I haven’t read the book you mentioned (here’s a full list of the trading/investing-related books I have read). But I can tell you that Thomas Kralow’s course is mainly focused on day trading and swing trading stocks and futures. His methods can certainly be applied to other markets, asset classes, and products (like forex, options, and crypto), but the trade examples within the program itself focus on stocks and futures. You can also check out plenty more articles I’ve written about Thomas Kralow and his program in order to get an idea of what he’s all about. I hope that helps – take care!

  • Bushra says:

    Hi Matt, As we all know that learning any new skill takes many hours of study and practice. A single semester of University could cost you a lot of money. If we compare Thomas Kralow’s program costs with any business University course, it’s actually very reasonable.

    This trading program provides instruction for the various strategies and the foundational knowledge that a beginner trader needs to have.

    I think there are no shortcuts to becoming a profitable trader. In trading you have to be willing to follow the process. I have learned that you should either trade or watch but you shouldn’t do both at the same time.

    What do you think, how many hours a day a beginner trader needs to spend on this program to get good results?

    • Matt Thomas says:

      Hi Bushra – great question.

      In order to get the best possible results with Thomas Kralow’s course, I don’t think students should be putting in more than a few hours per day going through the material (video lessons, homework assignments, tests, etc.). It might seem counterintuitive, but we only have so much concentration to give at once. Directing our full attention and focus into something can’t be sustained for extended periods of time. We retain the most information in short spurts. So trying to binge the entire course all at once just to get through it isn’t helpful.

      That’s why the program is specifically designed to take the average student roughly four to five months to complete – and also why it’s far more effective than most other trading education programs out there. You can, of course, go a little bit slower or faster than normal – there’s no one forcing you to go faster and there’s no time limit on completing it. But the most important thing to keep in mind is your own comprehension of the material and then applying those concepts in demo trading until you fully internalize them. That’s where the real learning and skill-building takes place – not just from binging videos.

      Speed isn’t necessarily the goal here. Going too fast can actually be detrimental. The training process, as well as trading in general, is a marathon – not a sprint.

  • Jim says:

    Hi Matt. I have to admit that I don’t know a lot about trading, but an interest in it brought me to your site. When going to learn something new I certainly like to get the lessons from the best. It sounds like the Thomas Kralow course is the right one to complete to get into trading. I like the fact that you admit that this course won’t necessarily lead you to riches as that part is up to the choice of the individual. You can usually tell a scam by the dollar signs it puts in front of your eyes, and your article doesn’t do this. I will definitely be looking into the course you have mentioned. Jim

    • Matt Thomas says:

      Hi Jim – I really appreciate your comment!

      It’s extremely frustrating how most self-proclaimed trading gurus out there try to make day trading seem easy just because they’re trying to sell a course, program, platform, or service. So what I like most about Thomas Kralow is his transparency and proper expectation-setting. From what I’ve found throughout his YouTube videos and Complete Program, he doesn’t sugarcoat anything. He’s legitimately honest about how hard it is to become a consistently profitable trader – which a very small percentage of individuals who sell trading education are upfront about.

      But the reality of becoming a great trader, like you mentioned, depends heavily on how much deliberate practice and effort you put into it. It’s not about magical indicators, guru alerts, and foolproof systems – that’s just marketing. What it really takes to succeed is the acquisition of legitimate skills. Thomas Kralow provides a great environment with more than just video lessons, but homework assignments, tests, demo trading, and personal mentorship as well. But students still need to be dedicated in order to find success. Simply going through the video lessons isn’t enough – theory and practical application are two entirely different things.

      Just imagine reading a book or watching some videos about chess – they can certainly help you understand a few things, but it takes years of deliberate practice to become a grandmaster. If the chess analogy doesn’t resonate, you can replace it with any skill-based, peak-performance endeavor. If you read some books and watched a few boxing videos, for example, would you expect to become the next world champion without putting any training in? The same exact concept applies directly to active trading, but most people don’t realize it. They typically just use the market as an opportunity for thrills, gambling, and ego-boosting – and this approach always ends badly in the long run.

  • Rod Singleton says:

    I’m not sure why, but I’ve always been skeptical of trading. But I will say, I’m definitely interested in Thomas Kralow’s course. The fact that you say it’s a full-blown learning program makes me feel like I can actually learn something valuable. If the program really focuses on skill-building, consider me sold. Thomas seems like he has a legit program for sure. Just curious, but if there were three things someone should know about trading before they get started, what would you say they would be? 

    • Matt Thomas says:

      Hi Rod – I completely understand the skepticism. Having been through dozens of trading courses and programs myself, I can tell you that many of them are quite lousy – not to mention the false promises the gurus selling them often make just to get you to buy them. So solid, comprehensive programs like Thomas Kralow’s University Grade Trading Education are actually quite hard to find. Of course, what each individual student gets out of it depends in large part on the time, focus, and effort they put into it. But in my opinion, as well as many others who have been through it, it provides a strong foundation that you can then apply to virtually any market, time frame, or instrument of your choosing. And at the end, you create your own personal trading algorithm that you can continuously iterate and refine over time based on your trading statistics and market feedback.

      Also, you asked an amazing question about the 3 things someone should know before they start trading. I could probably write a book with that prompt, so I’ll try to keep my answer relatively short for now. But the overarching theme of my response will be that you have to change the way you think (perspectives and beliefs about the market) if you want to become a consistently profitable trader. The first thing I would say is that trading is a game of probabilities. Your long-term success depends on a large number of trades – not just 1 or 2 big wins. So stop being so concerned over the result of any one trade. Don’t take losses personally – they’re just feedback that you can use to improve your statistical or mental edge. When you have a system with positive expected value, your edge will play out over a large sample size. So don’t worry about short-term noise. For perspective, the vast majority of great traders make a lot of money with anywhere from a 40-60% win rate. That’s essentially like a 50/50 coin flip, but their average wins are usually much larger than their average losses. It doesn’t take an unusually large win rate to make big money as long as the reward on winning trades is greater than the risk on losing trades.

      The second thing I would say is that you have to adapt to true market characteristics – the main ones being that it’s dynamic, uncertain, impersonal, and limitless. Most people try to take their rigid views and force them upon the market – usually because they have too big of an ego that can’t accept being wrong or losing money. But taking losses is an unavoidable aspect – you just want to make sure they’re controlled. The market is constantly changing, conditions can flip on a dime, and it doesn’t care about your personal predictions or desires. No matter how much time and effort you put into researching and preparing for a trade, there are never any guarantees. There will always be risk of being wrong. There are millions of market participants that could potentially act in any number of ways at any given time, so you can’t possibly control every variable. This is why risk and money management are so critical to success. There’s a misconception that successful trading is all about market analysis and making predictions, but it’s not. It’s about seeing the market for what it is and safely taking advantage of opportunities that skew risk/reward in your favor. Be flexible with your expectations and rigid with your rules.

      The third thing I would say is that trading is an extremely difficult endeavor – especially from a mental perspective. Those on the outside looking in, and even most beginner traders, tend to think that trading is all about patterns and setups. But that’s only one small piece to the puzzle. When you add in your own emotions and decision-making process, the dynamic and uncertain market environment can easily cause impulsive and irrational actions. Things like removing a stop loss in fear of taking a loss, adding to a weak position because you don’t want to admit defeat, diving into a hot meme stock because you don’t want to miss out on the action, and any number of violations to your own trading rules often ends poorly. You might get lucky by cowboying into a trade or two, but the market will eventually teach you a painful and expensive lesson. There are also many people who don’t even have rules and just take trades randomly. But without structure, you have close to zero chance of long-term success. Even though people often act like they’re victims – the market can’t actually hurt you, only you can with your own thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Serious traders take complete responsibility over their entire process – no guru, newsletter, hot stock tip, or the market itself is ever to blame.

  • Grace says:

    Thanks for the detailed review of Thomas Kralow trading. 
    I had the opportunity to learn day trading few years ago, and I think the emotional ups and downs involved in day trading is the one that wore me down. It is no wonder that Thomas Kralow had switched to long term investment himself. I agree that his action does not necessary mean scam but rather just to switch his focus on something less emotionally taxing. 
    I am actually interested to know if he is also teaching value investment as well? 

    • Matt Thomas says:

      Hi Grace – I appreciate your comments and questions.

      The emotional aspect of trading is certainly something that most people struggle with. Generally speaking, it’s completely different from what we’re used to – going to work and receiving the same paycheck every week, usually for the same number of hours worked. But in the market, that link between time spent working and the profits you receive from it isn’t as clear. There will be days, weeks, and months when you might feel like you worked hard and not necessarily be rewarded appropriately for it. This is a tough hurdle for individuals who decide to pursue trading full time.

      In my opinion, the only way to resolve this emotional rollercoaster is to change the way you think about the market. Your mental and market framework need to be adjusted. In essence, a paradigm shift has to occur. And a critical aspect of this new perspective has to be the understanding that trading is a statistical game. There are no certainties on a trade-by-trade basis, but you can put the odds in your favor over a large sample size. This is called having positive expectancy. Most new and inexperienced traders care far too much about the result of their current trade when in the grand scheme of things one trade doesn’t really matter. Controlled losses and account drawdowns are part of the game. If you allow your emotions to ebb and flow based on the market (something you can’t control), that’s a recipe for stress, frustration, and bad decisions.

      To answer your question about whether or not Thomas Kralow teaches investing as well, he actually just added new chapters to his program with 35 additional lessons on long-term investing and wealth-building about a week or two ago. I haven’t had the chance to go through the added material myself yet, but I think it makes for a great addition to the program. Even when people join specifically to learn how to day and/or swing trade, it’s important to understand long-term investing as well. Many times, trading and investing are mixed together and used synonymously, and there is certainly some overlap, but short-term trading and long-term investing are drastically different approaches. Overall, this makes his trading program even more comprehensive than before.

  • Abel says:

    I like that Kralow is a real example of perseverance and that having a good mentor as Alf Hoffman was not enough. He had to put in the work himself too and there were many struggles to reach the point he is now. So different from what most “gurus” out there say, trying to act like they’re self-taught and special.

    • Matt Thomas says:

      Hi Abel – I’m glad you pointed this out. Yes, even with a mentor, Thomas Kralow still experienced quite a few struggles. Especially in the beginning, nearly blowing up a $17,000 account mainly due to the mental aspects of trading. It just goes to show how critical the inner work required for durable trading success is, even with strong guidance. There’s no avoiding the psychological side. Without the proper mental framework, everything else crumbles.

  • Cogito says:

    I’ve been looking for good training course for a while now, but its not easy to choose best trading product or service with so many options online. I read a bit about Thomas Kralow course, and to be fair opinions were quite mixed. But looking on your reviews that its trustworthy, detailed training with lot of useful components and fairly decent price. Looking forward to test it in practice.

    • Matt Thomas says:

      I understand exactly where you’re coming from. There are so many different gurus and programs teaching trading out there that it’s difficult to figure out what’s legitimate and ultimately choose where to begin. There’s also a certain level of individuality involved because the approach/strategy that one person likes somebody else might not necessarily be interested in. There are also so many products (stocks, options, etc.), markets (futures, forex, etc.), and time frames (scalping, swing trading, etc.) to consider that it takes a certain level of sampling to figure out what might fit your personality, cognitive strengths, and preferences. This abundance of directions you can go down within the trading space paired with the abundance of courses, programs, platforms, and services available is why I’ve gone on a continuous search to find the very best ones available. I try to dig into these products and services and share my thoughts to help others avoid an excessive amount of research. But even in my efforts, I’ll never come close to testing and reviewing all of them.

      As far as Thomas Kralow’s program goes, there are certainly some mixed reviews – but that will be the case with any course or program within the trading space. There will always be individuals who go in with the wrong expectations and end up disappointed. I don’t mean any disrespect by saying this (because I was like this at the beginning of my trading journey too), but the typical person searching for trading education is actually looking for some magical indicator, foolproof system, or self-proclaimed guru to follow that will automatically make them consistently profitable, without much effort. But that’s not how trading works. Fancy indicators, hot stock picks, and explosive profits are used in marketing in order to attract people, but the realities of trading success are far different than what you often see in advertisements. The truth is that consistent trading success is difficult and requires legitimate training. Simply reading books or watching some videos/webinars on a handful of concepts isn’t going to do it. You have to acquire functional skills.

      With that said, what I like about Thomas Kralow’s program is the focus on proper expectations and mindset right from the start. Many trading courses I’ve seen barely mention expectations and mindset. Some even completely ignore it. They tend to focus solely on technical aspects like price action patterns, setups, and structures (usually out of context, I might add), even though that’s only one component of trading. In my eyes, it’s a disservice to individuals trying to learn and develop the necessary skills to become a self-sufficient trader if the instructor avoids teaching proper trading psychology, risk and money management, journaling, tracking statistics, and more. All of this together is what allows traders to build strategies and refine over time – and this is what Thomas Kralow’s curriculum offers. It’s a comprehensive collection of critical trading concepts with homework and tests along the way for deeper learning and skill-building. It’s not the “magic” or “dreams” that other trading services try to sell you. It’s the real approach to achieving durable trading success. But for it to be effective, it takes more work and persistence than many people are willing to put in.

      If you haven’t checked out the article I published on the top Thomas Kralow complaints, then I highly recommend reading it. It provides perspectives from both sides – those who think his program is a scam and those who think his program is the best training for traders available online. In my personal experience, his trading program falls much closer to the latter. Take care!

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