DAY TRADING ACADEMY (DTA): A REGRETTABLE TRADING COURSE

What is Day Trading Academy?

Day Trading Academy is Marcello Arrambide 's trading school , a school that has the honor of offering one of the worst trading courses I have ever had the opportunity to analyze.

Like other trading schools, this academy is characterized by its aggressive marketing campaigns, and clearly, by the hype surrounding them. Let's analyze Day Trading Academy, evaluating both its teaching strategies and the marketing tactics it employs.

Day Trading Academy reviews:

…I can only tell you not to throw your money away paying for one of these courses, it's not high quality, it's really not worth it, the only good thing I can highlight about this academy is the good MARKETING they do for their courses.

Kathy

Is it possible to make money in the stock market with the course offered by Day Trading Academy (DTA)?

Day Trading Academy (DTA) – TRAINING PLAN and Strategy:

Through a series of videos and live classes, the school proposes you scalp with Futures by combining a tick chart and 3 indicators:

• an EMA to assess momentum
• Keltner channels for searching for inputs and outputs (inputs are made in the middle band of the channel, while outputs are searched for in the upper/lower bands of the same)
• A MACD that works in conjunction with Bollinger Bands to confirm the market trend before we enter.

And while it's often said in trading schools that entries and exits aren't based on the indicators used, the truth is that the overuse of these indicators suggests there's little place in trading for price action-. You can see for yourself if you like; the complete strategy is on YouTube. Nobody seems to care, because nobody takes it seriously.

Eventually you may find that the strategy has been updated with some variations, but essentially, what is taught in school is what I'm telling you here.

I've even seen videos where the use of volume has been included, trying to somehow compensate for the gaps that this strategy presents, but it's not the most common approach.

Without volume, there is no trading

I must confess that Day Trading Academy offers a trading style that isn't my favorite. I feel much more comfortable looking at volume (which isn't generally used here), accumulation/distribution zones , and looking for breakouts and retests, but this is just a minor detail. My dislike for the system doesn't mean it doesn't work (nor am I saying it does).

Although, to be honest, I find it very difficult to imagine a professional trader using Keltner channels and a MACD to trade.

The community of die-hard fans

One thing that is appreciated is the large community of traders (students) that you can be part of, as well as the possibility of doing live trading with a teacher, although these teachers are not real traders and only live off the courses they teach.

Unfortunately, many DTA students fall in love very easily with what they have learned at this academy.

In fact, they almost seem like a religion because of the blind faith people place in their methods. It's clear that those who have never traded before are easy prey for self-proclaimed trading 'gurus'.

Faith, however, only lasts until the faithful notice that the promised results do not arrive (and never will), it is then that they look for answers in other trading systems and definitively abandon religion.

Investing in the stock market or the art of selling a trading course?

The academy's website is riddled with aspirational phrases, while they also heavily exploit social media to tap into our deepest desires for a better life (here's an example of what I mean). The video about 'the day-to-day life of a professional trader' is frankly a joke.

Traveling the world, trading from a hotel, or ladies in swimsuits serving Champagne. DTA doesn't skimp on details, and it gives you that famous 'financial freedom' we all dream of.

This 'freedom' comes to us in every article, in every photo, or in every video that the school shares on social media, always from some exotic beach, or luxury hotel.

Selling trading courses without actually trading

Day Trading Academy 's formula for selling its stock market courses is well-known: a simple trading strategy that everyone can learn in a short time, exotic locations, and fleeting success stories.

Interviewing people who know little to nothing about stock market investing and then putting together a video as soon as they have even the slightest winning streak seems to be the most effective way to sell a trading course. And of course, they'll endlessly allude to the lifestyle of DTA traders: travel, women, free time, and luxury.

Of course, they'll never tell you about the large percentage of students who have lost money with the DTA system; you don't want to know about that.

Clickbait and end-of-the-world marketing

Lately, videos of women in bikinis have been replaced by pre-market videos, the latter being just as unproductive, but at least politically correct and aligned with a certain gender perspective. Or do you think nobody sees those levels marked in the pre-market? (MDC Trading Academy offers the same thing; you can imagine how useful these analyses are).

Weekly market analyses won't be of much use to you when it comes to trading (this isn't fundamental analysis even though they try to sell it to you that way).

What you'll find in these reviews are videos of Marcello Arrambide (founder of DTA) reading the headlines of various news stories and giving his opinion on them (something your hairdresser might do while drying your hair). The clickbait borders on the ridiculous. It seems there's more interest in growing the YouTube channel than in improving the product offered.

Nothing Marcello says in these videos will help you understand how the market works, much less become a trader.

Despite everything, these weekly videos are the least of my concerns about the school's marketing; you just need to know that this isn't fundamental analysis and there's nothing in these videos that's useful when it comes to trading.

Let's be clear, it's not very helpful to be told that a support level has formed in the pre-market, and that the price's possible reaction to that support could be 'rejection, a breakout, or a false breakout' (if they told you the price could go up or down, it would be the same thing). Again, they're selling you the American dream (before with trips and women, now with technical jargon that a novice can't understand, but which seems to have some use).

It's really embarrassing that they promote themselves this way.

The trading of snake oil salesmen

There's no shortage of videos where Marcello talks about the scams behind the trades and how much his traders actually earn. He'll tell you he knows traders who have made money every single day for two or three months straight, or that the minimum you can expect to earn when starting with the DTA strategy is around $250 a month with an account of just $1,000.

He will never blush to suggest that going from earning $250 a month to earning $500,000 a month is just a small step, since he himself knows traders who earn that amount (what Marcello doesn't say is that none of those traders operate with the DTA strategy).

Day Trading Academy 's sales pitch is familiar: first, they'll tell you that trading isn't easy, that it requires time and sacrifice, and that you should be wary of online charlatans promising guaranteed profits . Immediately afterward, without you even noticing the contradiction, they'll sell you a dream of wealth easily attainable with just a few clicks through a trading strategy that even a child could understand.

The prevailing message is the latter: with DTA you can easily make a lot of money, the snake oil salesmen are the others.

Don't be fooled, Marcello 's speech is ridiculous from every angle.

When the trader is not trading

When Marcello Arrambide uploads a video full of luxury and glamour from the Maldives, what he seeks to suggest is that he has achieved this through his trading, and that, therefore, you can achieve it too.

But let me make this clear, Marcello pays for his by selling trading courses for $3,000 each, and not by trading with a scalping strategy that, as I told you before, can be found on YouTube and no respectable trader is interested in putting into practice anymore.

In fact, Marcello doesn't do day trading (he says he doesn't have time for day trading in one of his videos, thus avoiding showing results), and the reasons and excuses that Marcello Arrambide gives to justify this are of little importance.

If the trading system used were as profitable as the school claims, Marcello surely wouldn't have abandoned trading to dedicate himself to selling courses or being a YouTuber.

Let me be very clear about this, it's not wrong for Marcello to sell courses, what I don't like is that he sells something that he doesn't put into practice himself.

Would you trust someone who proposes a business in which he himself isn't investing? I wouldn't.

Anyone who tells you that trading will give you a stress-free life, where you'll work one or two hours a day from a tropical beach, is lying to you (especially at the beginning, when everything is harder).

The truth is that trading is something that demands a lot of effort, tolerance for frustration, and a stomach of steel (especially when scalping).

It's rare to achieve all this by trading from the beach. Even more so if you enter the market armed only with a moving average and a MACD, as DTA.

Therefore, I ask you to do yourself a favor and not buy into artificial paradises. If you're just starting out in this world, watch the live sessions of a world-class trading champion like Ferran Font on YouTube; you'll see how big a difference there is compared to DTA's proposal. 

Look for Enrique Valdecantos ' book called 'The Wyckoff Method'  before subscribing to any stock market course, and when you have watched these videos and read Valdecantos ' book , come back here.

Don't fall for the marketing the institution uses to sell its courses. Anything you can incorporate into your training is helpful, but not everything that costs $3,000 is worth it.

Price of the course at Day Trading Academy (DTA):

All plans include a substantial availability discount. Depending on the package you choose, prices range from $1,500 to $5,000. However, the price may vary depending on the country from which you request the information. If you say you are from the USA, the course price may increase by $1,000 to $3,000. Perhaps, when subscribing, it would be more advantageous to say that you are from a small village in Sudan.

What do the students think?

✅ The best according to students

• Structured and practical approach: Some students appreciate the course structure, which includes live sessions twice a week, assignments, and practical exercises that help develop a solid understanding of the market.
• Developing analytical skills: The course emphasizes understanding price action, support and resistance analysis, and identifying market patterns, enabling students to develop analytical skills useful for trading.

⚠️ The worst, according to the students

• Limited strategies in current markets: Some alumni mention that the strategies taught, such as the T1, V1, and V2 configurations, may not be effective in markets with low volatility or changing conditions, which limits their applicability.
• Lack of transparency and questionable results: Concerns have been reported about the lack of transparency in the instructors' results and the actual effectiveness of the strategies taught, raising doubts about the legitimacy of the program.
• Aggressive business approach: Some users point out that the academy prioritizes selling courses over effectively training traders, using aggressive or even deceptive marketing tactics.

Conclusions about the stock market course offered by Day Trading Academy:

Along with MDC Trading Academy, the trading course offered by DTA is one of the worst I have had the opportunity to evaluate (You can see the full list of analyzed trading courses here).

Ultimately (and simplifying a bit), they are just telling us to trade when: we enter the market on a pullback that reaches the middle band of the Keltner Channel (with its variations, this idea is not original nor the Holy Grail of trading).

The most remarkable thing about this poor trading strategy is that it is easy to package and sell (something that, as you can imagine, is only useful for schools).

A far cry from professional trading

You won't find anything here about Order Flow, Market/Volume Profile, how to trade Forex, how to hedge, or how to select stocks to build a portfolio. Nor will you find algorithmic trading or products for medium- to long-term trading.

It's a very inflexible and limited trading course. This is a big problem because, as I've mentioned before, not all traders are the same (whether due to personality, lifestyle, account size, risk aversion, etc.), so I believe a trading course should be flexible enough to adapt to the needs of different traders. DTA doesn't offer that possibility.

One of the worst trading schools?

My personal opinion? I think this academy and its marketing have done a lot of damage to the trading world. You'll never be profitable with DTA's approach; they'll just play on your hopes.

Marcello Arrambide 's former funding company , Speedup Trader , also didn't seem to offer a much better product than his trading academy . With almost 50% negative reviews on Trustpilot , it left much to be desired ( What is a funding company? ).

Having left this project, Marcello Arrambidenow promotes another funding company called Take Profit Trader. This company's CEO is a former student and professor of DTA who proclaims himself a master trader at Marcello's school.

Stories of personal triumph that don't move you

This is just another one of those supposed success stories about a former DTA student who wanted to enjoy his time with his family, and who, thanks to trading and Marcello, was finally able to see his dreams come true. It's truly a scam.

The truth is that this former student first worked as a teacher at DTA, although he claimed to be a professional trader.

I don't want to judge, but for a professional trader to prefer working for someone else instead of enjoying his time and family is frankly exceptional. How lucky Marcello Arrambide is to keep running into people like this. This person went from being a former student to a professor at DTA and then to CEO of a publicly funded trading company . Apparently, always with Marcello 's support .

Let me play devil's advocate this time and confess that I wouldn't be surprised if Marcello Arrambide owns a large part of this new funding company.

The eternal return of the same

This all smells like a rehash of SpeedUp Trader ( Marcello Arrambide 's former funding company ). It seems we'll be left wondering. Although, seeing how much Marcello promotes the company in every one of his videos, those doubts are dwindling.

But going back to the course offered by DTA, I honestly think that for the price they charge there are better options.

Alternatives to the DTA course

Specifically those where you work with volume, or pure price action, as is the case of the stock market course offered by the 2014 Trading Champion: Ferran Font.

To each their own

But it's not up to me to tell you which course is best for you; each trader will know what kind of strategy best suits their personality and lifestyle. Ultimately, if the DTA seems sensible to you, then don't hesitate and give it a try.

🛡️ Legal notice

This article is for informational purposes only and reflects personal opinions, user experiences shared on social media, and critical analysis of an educational product offered to the public. It is not intended to defame, spread misinformation, or damage the reputation of any person or company mentioned.

The images used in this article are illustrative, either public screenshots or images taken for critical analysis from freely accessible websites. Their use falls within the legitimate interest of informing and providing context.

We recommend that our readers research and compare various sources before making decisions related to financial products or services.

Norberto Viale( Trader and founder of Experiencia Topstep )

My name is Norberto. I've been investing and trading for over a decade. I'm also the author of the trading course Experiencia Topstep. If you want to learn how to invest and have any questions, feel free to contact me.

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