Foreign exchange trading can be intimidating, especially to those who have no experience at all in trading. There are different online resources that promise to give you all the information you need to maximize your investments. The Swag Academy, founded by Chris Williams, claims to turn you from a forex trading rookie into an elite trader in just a few months.
What makes The Swag Academy different from the other forex trading programs? What are you going to learn, and are those lessons useful in the real world? Finally, will you be getting your money’s worth?
Let’s look at the founder, the program, how it works, and whether or not it will help you develop your forex and day trading skills.
What is The Swag Academy?
Chris Williams, the founder of The Swag Academy, has been trading for around seven years. He started day trading to make extra money. Eventually, he quit school and basketball to try his hand at trading full-time.
While “studying” to become a trader, Chris Williams appeared in Big Brother.
So, a reality TV star becomes a Forex trader…
According to information from Swaggy C, he is a successful trader earning more than a million dollars a year trading. He also launched a course so other people with a limited understanding of trading could make money just as easily.
That’s an obvious warning sign.
The financial industry is full of scammers who claim to make millions. To be clear, successful traders who make millions trading usually run investment houses. They leverage their smart insights, get institutional investors on board, and make billions.
They don’t launch premium online courses teaching people how to trade. It’s simply not worth their time. Keep that at the front of your mind if you ever plan to invest in a trading course.
I digress…
The Swag Academy is the product of Swaggy C’s seven years of trading experience combined with his unique, conversational teaching style. While most online programs for day trading come across as highly technical and inaccessible, The Swag Academy consciously makes an effort to demystify the science of trading through informative step-by-step video content.
If you’re an aspiring day trader, you might already be familiar with Swag Academy content through YouTube. With over 300K subscribers and 15 million views, it claims to be the fastest-growing Forex YouTube channel.
The Swag Academy training program takes videos from the channel and adds exclusive content, quizzes, and structure. It features a video library of more than 130 videos, a vibrant user community accessible through a mobile app, the ability to chat with other Swag Academy users, and exclusive learning events and webinars.
Well, those are the claims.
Let’s look at how The Swag Academy works.
How Does The Swag Academy Work?
The Swag Academy is aimed at beginners with no experience in forex trading.
Membership in The Swag Academy is free. Once you sign up, you can access free lessons and learn how to analyze forex charts. It claims to be a good foundation if you’re looking to start day trading as a hobby.
However, you won’t get full access to exclusive learning until you sign up for the Starter membership pack for a $499 one-time fee. The GOAT Academy consists of four modules for traders of different skill levels, from basic to advanced training:
- Series 1 (32 lessons): This module introduces forex trading. It also teaches basic trading strategies. If you have no idea about trading, it’s best to start here.
- Series 2 (31 lessons): This module teaches you the psychology behind trading. It also introduces the concepts of risk management and mitigation.
- Series 3 (33 lessons): This module focuses on more complicated forex trading tactics. It also dives deeper into the psychological aspects of trading and the things you’ll have to watch out for as a trader.
- Series 4 (38 lessons): As the longest module in the training program, this series covers advanced topics in taxation and risk management.
That sounds like a lot of content. In reality, you get access to about 10 hours of training videos.
Through the training, you will learn about price bars, trend lines, candlestick charts, and price bands. The GOAT Academy will also teach you to recognize scenarios, set psychological levels, and act on them. It also recognizes that each trader has a different personal threshold for risk and does not offer currency- or equity-based advice.
The Pro membership pack ($799) offers all the benefits of the Starter tier but adds access to older versions of Swag Academy content.
Both the Starter and Pro membership offer lifetime access to Swag Academy resources. The mobile app is exclusively for traders. You can also join groups to learn different trading styles, share your successful trades or look for trading signals, message other members for tips and advice, and suggest topics for future versions of the course.
The Swag Academy does not let you buy or sell trading signals, unlike other platforms such as Sellfy or Sygnal. While members can share their trading activity on the mobile app feed, they cannot sell their signals.
A Warning About Trading Courses
Successful traders rarely share valuable insights. If you share an insight that’s given you an edge with too many people, you can’t make money from the technique anymore.
They only share insights when they stop working.
A nice example of this is the infamous Sam Bankman Fried, the former CEO and founder of FTX. He used to make millions by exploiting differences in the value of Bitcoin between different markets. Now that the techniques he used to use don’t work, he freely tells people how he made money.
Sam doesn’t sell any premium trading courses, btw.
Is The Swag Academy any Good?
At $499, the Swag Academy Starter membership pack is a premium course. Even if it’s just a one-time payment, is the cost justified? If so, how much are you getting out of the program?
The Swag Academy is aimed at beginners with limited or no knowledge of Forex trading. You get access to around 10 hours’ worth of 10-minute videos. These videos cover the very basics of trading.
Swaggy does do a good job of explaining the concepts that he discusses. He’s a charismatic person, and he’s a good presenter. You will come away with an understanding of Forex trading. You will not be an expert or have the valuable insights you need to make money.
There is nothing questionable about the technical trading tactics you’ll learn through the online course. The program also warns that forex trading isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme and that profits aren’t guaranteed. Obviously, Swaggy C sells the idea that Forex trading is straightforward, and you can make millions of dollars just like him.
Ultimately, you’re getting just ten hours’ worth of training for close to $500. The knowledge you’ll acquire isn’t advanced. It really is an introductory course – and an overpriced one at that.
That isn’t a good ROI.
The Swag Academy: Pros and Cons
To summarize, here’s a look at the pros and cons of The Swag Academy.
Pros
- Swaggy C explains trading in an animated and engaging manner. He knows how to explain complicated concepts into bite-size pieces that a newbie can understand. You won’t hear a lot of jargon in his videos, even when he discusses technical topics such as risk management and technical analysis.
- Because each video lasts only a few minutes, it’s easy to digest. The whole course is roughly 10 hours long, which makes it good for weekend binge-watching.
- The Swag Academy community has people interested in technical trading. You can learn a thing or two from more experienced traders. Keep in mind some traders will share fake trading signals.
- Because the course creator is NFEC-registered, the training is fundamentally sound. You won’t learn anything questionable. You’ll learn how to trade legally and correctly.
- You only have to pay once to get lifetime access to the training modules instead of paying a monthly membership fee. You can get a refund if you feel the course isn’t the right one for you.
Cons
- Despite claiming to turn you from a newbie to an advanced trader in just a few sessions, Swaggy C only offers basic training in Forex trading. It’s fine if you have very little knowledge about the topic, but it won’t help if you already have trading experience.
- The GOAT Academy is expensive at $499, considering that you’ll only learn the basics of trading psychology and risk management.
- Much of the course is made up of content that you can access on the Swag Academy’s YouTube channel. You do have access to quizzes and PDFs, but they’re not worth the money you’ll spend.
- You need to temper your expectations with this course. Realistically, you probably won’t make any money. There’s a good chance you’ll actually lose money.
The Swag Academy Review: Final Verdict
The Swag Academy program has value if you know nothing about forex trading. The founder doesn’t teach anything suspicious. He expresses his thoughts in a clear, engaging manner.
However, the course is just not worth the $499 membership fee. You get a few hours of training videos that explain the basic trading principles. It won’t, as Swaggy C claims, transform you into a Forex trading expert.
There are better, cheaper online courses available if you’re really interested in Forex trading. For example, you can take the Forex Trading from A-Z course on Udemy that costs less than $100. You may also check out free options such as the DailyForex FX Academy.
Neither of these programs claims to offer community, mentoring, or live trading rooms. They give you the knowledge you need at various points in your forex trading learning journey.
Other valuable resources you might want to check out include books on trading, free if you get them through your local library, or YouTube channels run by people who trade for a living. Essentially, research the person and validate their claims before investing your money in a course.