How to choose a trading educator: red flags, green flags and questions to ask

Anyone can sell a trading course. The field includes experienced former professionals, careful teachers and useful communities. It also includes people whose main business is recruiting clients for brokers, selling signal subscriptions or marketing a lifestyle. From the outside, they can look similar.

Regulators have noticed. In 2026 the Australian Securities and Investments Commission joined 16 other regulators in a second coordinated week of action against unlawful financial influencers, issuing warnings to suspected unlicensed finfluencers over conduct that included promoting claims of guaranteed returns.

This guide sets out how to tell the difference before you pay.

Red flags

Guaranteed or “consistent” returns. No honest educator can promise profits from leveraged trading. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission lists promises of guaranteed returns among the red flags of fraud. Watch also for softer versions: fixed monthly percentages, “no losing weeks” or “risk-free” strategies.

Lifestyle marketing. Supercars, holiday villas and stacks of cash say nothing about teaching ability. They are sales material. Often the lifestyle is funded by course sales and referral income rather than trading.

Undisclosed broker or affiliate commissions. Many educators are introducing brokers or affiliates, paid by a broker for each client they refer or for the volume those clients trade. That is not illegal in itself, but it creates a conflict: an educator paid per lot traded benefits when students trade more, whether or not they profit. The CFTC warns that salespeople and social media influencers may receive referral commissions without disclosing them. If an educator insists you use one specific broker, ask why, and ask what they are paid.

Unverifiable profit and loss. Screenshots of winning trades are easy to select, edit or fabricate. So are demo account results presented as live. Anything you cannot verify independently should count for nothing.

Pressure and urgency. Countdown timers, “last three places” and invitations to move conversations to private messaging apps are sales tactics. The CFTC flags pressure to move conversations off-platform as a warning sign.

Signals presented as education. A service that mainly tells you what to buy and sell is not teaching you to trade. Depending on where you live, it may also be regulated activity that requires authorisation.

An educator paid per lot you trade has an interest in how much you trade, not in whether you profit.

Green flags

• Clear disclosure of how the educator is paid, including broker relationships, in plain view.
• Honest discussion of risk and losses, including the percentage of retail accounts that lose money with leveraged products, which CFD providers in the UK and EU must state in their risk warnings.
• A curriculum, not a promise. Market structure, risk management, position sizing, costs, record-keeping and psychology, taught in a sequence you can see before you buy.
• Verified or audited track records where performance is claimed at all, or a clear statement that the educator is not selling their performance.
• Openness about who they are: real name, background and, where relevant, regulatory status.
• Refund terms and a trial period set out in writing.
• No broker lock-in. Good teaching works whichever regulated broker you use.

What regulators expect

Rules on education and promotion vary, but the direction is consistent.

In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority published finalised guidance on financial promotions on social media, FG24/1, in March 2024. It makes clear that the promotion rules apply on every channel and to influencers as well as firms, and that promotions must be fair, clear and not misleading, with a balanced view of benefits and risks.

In Australia, ASIC’s Information Sheet 269, issued in March 2022, explains that people discussing financial products online may need a licence if they give financial product advice or arrange for followers to deal in products, including through affiliate links. ASIC also notes that most finfluencers are unlicensed and therefore not bound by licensees’ obligations, such as managing conflicts of interest.

Questions to ask before you pay

• How are you paid, by students, by brokers, or both?
• Do you receive commission from any broker you recommend, and how is it calculated?
• Is any performance you show from a live account, and can it be verified?
• What exactly does the course cover, lesson by lesson?
• Are you or your company authorised by any regulator?
• What is the refund policy?

A good educator will answer all of these without hesitation. Evasion is itself an answer.