When the stock market crashed in 2008, business owner Michael Black decided to learn to trade.

“The crash had a huge effect on my management consulting business,” Michael tells The Local. “I wasn't sure if I should try to build it up again. And that's when I got an invitation to a seminar about trading with the company Learn to Trade.”

Michael had always considered the market to be a volatile thing, and though he knew lots of people were making money trading, he never viewed it as option for him.

“I thought it was a high-risk thing – like gambling. I went to this seminar to find out what it was all about and get some answers,” he says. “And it turns out the answers were fabulous and I decided to give it a go.”

It's easy to say it was one of the best decisions Michael ever made. Just six months later, his income from trading was equal to the income he’d been earning from his business.

“And at that point, in July 2009, I closed down my consultant business and focused on trading full time,” he says.

Michael's story may sound too good to be true – but he's not alone. People around the world, from all walks of life and with all sorts of financial situations, have transformed their incomes, careers, and lives thanks to Learn to Trade.

“Trading is an international business that you can do anywhere, as long as you have a laptop and internet,” Michael says. “For me, it's a lifestyle choice. My life isn't about trading, but it gives me the money I need to live the kind of life I want.”

Michael himself became one of Learn to Trade's top students, and now travels around the world teaching others the same skills. From November 29th to December 1st he'll be visiting Sweden and Denmark for the first time.

“I'm really looking forward to it,” he says. “I think the message I have and the experiences I have had are the very same things a lot of people are looking for: 'How do I get a secondary income that doesn't require a lot of work; that I can do wherever I am?'”

Register for the free Learn to Trade seminar

Michael plans on addressing some common misconceptions about trading, and helping others avoid the usual mistakes.

“People sometimes focus so much on making profit that they forget it's about managing risk,” Michael says. “The focus should be on being a consistent trader. If you manage your risk properly, profits come by default.”

And most importantly, people who want to trade need to get the right training.

“One of the biggest mistakes that people make is thinking it's easy, opening an account and getting a card out,” Michael says. “Trading itself is easy, but making money in trading isn't. You really need to know what you are doing and approach the market in a systematic way.”

That's where Learn to Trade comes in.

Michael says that in order to learn trading the right way and get good at it, you need to learn from someone who already does it on a regular basis, successfully.

“If you were to go online and type in 'how to trade', you would end up with 15 million hits – mostly from people who don't actually trade,” Michael cautions. “If you wanted to fly a helicopter, you couldn't learn that just by reading a book about it. You have to do it with someone who knows how and can show you how it's really done.”

Trading works the same way.

“Trading is such a practical thing that you need to have someone around you, someone who does it on a regular basis, successfully, to teach you,” Black says. “It's a skill that needs to be developed – but once you develop it, you have it forever.”

This article was produced by The Local and sponsored by Learn to Trade.