Chapter 10 [The Road to Class Teaching]

Source: https://www.facebook.com/100063294665283/posts/521371719982646/

[James’ Origin and Today] Chapter 10 - The Road to Class Teaching (01/31/2023)

The road to teaching

Since I started studying investment in the United States in 1990, I have been very happy to share the concept of investment with everyone. When I often see friends getting together, I share investments, teach everyone how to invest, and understand how important investment is. He is just as enthusiastic as FRANK, talking to everyone and talking about investments at any time. This may also cause trouble to many friends. (One time when I was about to retire and leave Taiwan, I made an appointment with a friend to meet at Starbucks. The first thing he said when he saw me was pointing his finger at me and saying, "Don't talk about investment anymore." (This scene was so shocking. I didn't expect that talking about investment was so unpopular. This reinforced my belief in everyone's ignorance of capitalist aggression.) At that time, I had an epiphany. I was really nagging about investment. It causes trouble to others and ruins the atmosphere of the party, so sometimes I no longer attend gatherings with ordinary friends, because I know that I am the spoiler of the atmosphere of the party. This is the same as Andrea Tosconanni. He said that every family gathering or friend gathering is ruined because of him, because when they see him, everyone just asks for investment advice and stocks.

One time, the wife of a famous pianist invited Andre Tosconanni to a party at her house. He thought that he was very happy that this time he could listen to the pianist he admired playing live without having to talk about investments. However, he did not expect that during dinner that night, the pianist's wife kept asking him about stock investments, which made him feel that it would be difficult for him to have a good party in his life. Therefore, every time someone invited Andre Tosconanni to a party in the future, he usually declined, saying that I might ruin your entire party. (Now I personally suffer from the same problem, because when everyone gathers with me, they always talk about investment. In fact, I like it myself, but not everyone likes to talk about investment).

The first investment teaching course:

During my Ziwei Dou Shu hypnotherapy course, some classmates learned that I was retiring early and curiously asked me how I could retire early. I told them that I could retire early because of investment. Everyone was very curious. With the encouragement of my classmates and teachers, I gave my first investment class.

I was a hypnotherapy teacher at the time. In order to promote hypnotherapy and Zi Wei Dou Shu courses, he said that I could use his classroom to teach investment classes. The teacher designed a title "Spiritual Financial Management". After that, my teaching content would combine Zi Wei Dou Shu, hypnotherapy, and my investment experience as the teaching content and spirit.

In fact, I only had less than two hours of teaching content in the first class, because the knowledge I base my investment on is actually very simple, which is Peter Forest’s stock selection strategy. Choose companies that you know and are familiar with around you, companies that you can come into contact with every day. That’s how I started teaching investment. So in the initial investment class, I only introduced two companies, one was Starbucks and the other was Apple Computer. There were only five or six students in the class at that time, all of whom were my hypnotherapy classmates. This was my first investment teaching class.

CLEC Investment Curriculum Development:

After the first investment course, three more courses were held at the same place (the number of people increased from five or six to more than a dozen, and there were no seats available, and those who arrived late had to stand to listen to the class). Although the content was roughly the same, it included more and more content. Because it was impossible to teach the same course content all the time, I added financial reports. At that time, I analyzed Apple Computer's financial report and told everyone that Apple's stock price was quite cheap. At that time, Apple Computer's dividend was 2%, which was comparable to SPY's dividend. Although the teaching content has been increased, from the perspective of general investment teaching, it is really very poor. I still remember quite clearly that when I first started teaching investment and financial management courses, a student sitting in the corner of the classroom raised his hand and asked me, teacher, do you look at the moving average? I can confidently say that I never look at moving averages, they are useless. I think that student must have been shocked when he heard what I said. There is no one who teaches investment and financial management courses who doesn’t understand technical analysis. To be honest, I had already learned K-line charts at that time, but I almost never used K-line charts to trade stocks. I should say almost never. This is the same as my current investment (2018-present), I have never used any technical analysis and indicators.

Therefore, investing in the stock market has something in common with any knowledge learning. The stage of ignorance is the same as the stage where you don’t know what you know (master). (Dunning-Kruger Effect)

After that, for some reason, I no longer used the hypnotherapy teacher’s classroom. One student, who is the secretary-general of our CLEC today (Pao Chen), told me, teacher, if you don’t use the current classroom, I will help you find another classroom so that you can continue to teach investment.我说没问题只要妳找得到教室和找得到学员想来上投资课，我都可以教。现在回想起来非常感谢PaoChen，如果没有他持续的协助，我们CLEC 不会走到今天。 （当然过程中的几位教务处义工和讲师们都是我们CLEC 成功的支柱）。

After leaving the hypnotherapy classroom course, we had a small classroom that could accommodate 16 students. I remember that on the first day of class, 40 students were squeezed in. Some students had no seats and had to sit outside in the corridor because the space was small. Another student suddenly felt uncomfortable because there was no air circulation. Afterwards, he opened the window and it was slightly better. Our teaching started again like this.

At the beginning, we only had one class on weekends. Gradually, I thought that many housewives who did not understand investment and financial management would only have time to attend classes during normal times, so I opened three more classes one after another. I taught investment classes at a coffee shop (Panera Bread, Cupertino) every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. At that time, there was only one long table in the cafe that could accommodate 10 people, so we taught 10 people at a time, three classes a week, plus one class on weekends, a total of four classes a week.

Eventually, it developed to four classes on weekends (each with 100 students) plus three classes on Sunday, a total of seven classes a week (I taught it all by myself at the beginning, but the two classes on weekends were held one after another, teaching for six hours in a row).

The maximum number of students in each academic year was more than 500. At that time, registration for each semester was a very complicated task and a major event. Many people were mobilized, forms were filled in manually, and fees were charged manually. We only charge a classroom rental fee of US$60 per academic year. The registration was very enthusiastic at that time, but because the quota was full and the deadline was reached, everyone was very nervous, fearing that they would not be able to register. I remember very clearly that a friend rushed back to the United States from Shanghai and made a special trip to register. His registration was full but he was not registered. He begged me to let him take classes. Due to the entire system, I could not agree. The classmate’s eyes were red on the spot. At that time, many people did not register because the quota was full. I could not set a precedent because of this classmate, so many friends who did not register at that time had to wait for a year.

After that, our registration system further improved in online charging and online registration. We also used bar codes to scan driver's licenses during class roll call. Everyone was very nervous when registering online because we had almost reached the flash sales stage when registering and had to pay and fill out a form (At the beginning, PayPal called me and asked if our account was for online registration. I said no, we were registering for class. Because everyone paid, it would be paid at the same time). Some people had to sign up dozens of friends, and they were really nervous. (In order to prevent other idle people from getting into our organization, we only accepted registrations recommended by students at that time). There was another student who was an American accountant. He later returned to Taiwan. In order to take my class, the couple flew to the United States eight times a year. Each trip took two weeks to attend two of our classes. At that time, there were 16 classes a year.

Looking back now, I am really grateful for the support of all the students who participated, and I am also grateful to all my friends for their support, which has enabled our investment teaching to be promoted very smoothly. Of course, we are a drop in the ocean in the entire investment field and can almost be ignored. Our promotion and teaching of investment concepts still have a long way to go.

In order to encourage students to attend without any absence, we have set up a system. As long as you attend 16 classes and meet the requirements of the Academic Affairs Office, you can get a senior student certificate. In other words, I will regularly send investment newsletters. These senior students are all my service targets and will always receive my investment newsletters. Those who do not meet the required number of classes will have to retake it. Therefore, all students are very cautious in class and are worried about missing classes. Many students told me that they never took it so seriously when they were in medical school. It makes me happy.

Later, due to COVID-19, we switched to online classes, and finally opened them up completely to all friends around the world who like to invest, and learn free investment courses. This is how our investment class started with three or four students, and ended up with five or six hundred students. This journey has been very smooth. I think because we give nothing in teaching, there are no profit or organizational problems. All volunteers are very enthusiastic to assist our teaching, and everyone focuses on helping all our friends make investments free of charge. All our volunteers are free, and more importantly, our lecturers are all our former students. So far, all lecturers have more than ten years of teaching experience. Both the teaching content and their own investment literacy are very good. They can provide excellent teaching content and explain it in simple terms, so that everyone can truly understand the true meaning of real investment.

I returned to Taiwan to teach my first investment class

I retired in 2004 and returned to the United States. At that time, there was still Microsoft's MSN, and I often shared investments and chatted with colleagues in Taiwan on MSN. By 2005 or 2006, I had already taught investing once or twice in the United States. I remember my heart telling me "I should go back and teach my colleagues and friends how to invest." When I had this idea, I contacted Evon in Taiwan. I wanted to go back to Taiwan to teach everyone about investing and hold an investment lecture. She happily agreed. I initially said I would rent a conference room in a hotel, but she took the initiative to contact Acer's Desire Park and rented a conference room for me in the Acer's Desire Park. Because she and her brother also lived in the Desire Park, and her brother happened to be in charge of the restaurant in the Desire Park, so we booked a large conference room in the Desire Park that can accommodate more than 100 people, and provided free lunch, desserts, and coffee. I'm so thankful that Last Meal Evon only charged a fee and did not earn any fees. There are also many product managers from my business group who worked together to help with the administrative affairs of the entire teaching course, such as registration, class check-in, name brand production, arrangement of tables, chairs, and conference rooms, etc. These are all completed with the help of past working partners. Thank you again. This is my first experience of large-scale investment teaching.

At that time, in addition to being taught how to read financial reports, technical analysis was also taught. I remember that I simulated reading the market on the spot and used technical analysis to predict market turning points and future directions and trends, resistance and support, and when to buy and sell immediately. Afterwards, a friend told me, James, you are really accurate. Looking back now, technical analysis has some reliability, but it is definitely a very difficult thing to make you have extra profits, and it is almost an impossible task in the long term.