Subject: Warning - Wade Cook

Last-Revised: 23 Feb 1998
Contributed-By: G. S. Reedy

Wade Cook runs seminars, priced around $3,500, that explain his strategies for investing, with emphasis on writing covered calls. Much of the same information is available in his book, The Wall Street Money Machine.

Don't be fooled by Wade Cook's book. I read it, did some studies of covered calls. Most cheap covered calls are written on stocks that are in the process of declining in price. According to postings in Dejanews, some people admit to having lost a bundle following Wade Cook's trading programs. When I read his book, some of it seemed too good to be true. And, as the old axiom says, "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is."

I had a conversation with a commodity trader several years ago. He told me that he was continually amazed at people who had demonstrated expertise in their respective fields, and were somewhat successful at their work. Then, they would read a book about commodity trading and think that they could start making a living at it. Basically, the same principle applies to trading stock options. Go slow, crawl before you walk, walk before you run. To use a baseball analogy, go for base hits first. The triples and home runs will come with practice.

You might also want to check the article elsewhere in this FAQ entitled "Advice - Paying for Advice."

For more information, check out these sources:

• An article by Dan Colarusso of TheStreet.com that appeared on 16 August 2000.
  http://www.thestreet.com/stocks/truthserum/1043588.html
• An article by James Surowiecki of the Motley Fool that appeared on Slate on 18 September 1997.
  http://slate.msn.com/id/2620/
• An article by Randy Befumo of the Motley Fool that appeared on 5 October 1997.
  http://www.fool.com/Features/1997/sp971006WadeCook97002.htm
• An article that appeared in the Washington Times on 30 December 1997.
• At one time Gary Wall maintained a collection of information about Wade Cook on his web site.
  http://www.garywall.com

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