Top Dog Trading Review – Are the Courses and Signals Worth It?

Who Runs Top Dog Trading?

Top Dog Trading is an online trading education service that offers self-paced online courses, indicator add-ons, newsletters and private one-on-one coaching with its founder Dr. Barry Burns at $1,000-per hour. The site has numerous testimonials and their YouTube channel has over 70,000 subscribers. 

Dr. Burns developed his Top Dog Trading methodology as a former floor trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He has a doctorate in hypnotherapy and is a certified NLP practitioner enabling him to also factor in the psychological elements of trading in his training. He is popular speaker and author of “Trend Trading for Dummies” published by Wiley Publishing (Aug. 2014). He maintains a free blog on the site and frequently updates education video content on the site’s YouTube channel along with offering a free newsletter and course samplings for registered e-mail sign-ups. 

Styles of Trading

Dr. Burns methods are centered strictly around technical analysis of price action using candlesticks, price and momentum indicators as well as Fibonacci retracements with harmonic patterns. As a former floor trader, his penchant for e-minis trading is evident in his videos. His methods can be applied across most tradeable asset classes including stocks, options, Forex and futures. They can be applied to intra-day trading as well as swing trading by adjusting the chart timeframes.  His courses are designed to build a foundation of knowledge first with a thorough review of the components (charts, candlesticks and indicators) before moving on to the set-ups and finally trade management. He takes the time to explain the logic and mechanics of each tool and then addresses the application of the tools. 

Set-ups: The Rubber Band trade is an example of a set-up where traders identify price support levels on a sell-off and utilize the momentum indicators as the trigger for entry for a rubber band-like snap back bounce. Further refinements to improve accuracy and efficiency come from utilizing additional tools like Fibonacci retracement levels, pivots and wave counts. 

Timeframes: The Top Dog Trading methodology can be implemented on short (1-minute) timeframes to longer monthly timeframes. Scalpers will naturally utilize shorter while swing traders will use longer time frames. Dr. Burns is also a proponent of utilizing multiple time frames to derive a broader perspective of price action to improve timing.  

Trading Courses and Software

Top Dog Trading product offerings include the various trading courses as well as customized indicators, video newsletters, special reports, scanners and personal coaching. 

The Top Dog Trading System Course 1: Cycles and Trends

This is the gateway course to start building the foundation of knowledge and getting familiarized with mechanics of the methods. The viewer is taught how to identify price inflection points utilize cycle tops and bottoms to interpret market structure and trends as well as spotting nearly perfect entries and exits. The basic “universal” method is revealed in this course. This course also includes Trading Psychology video and manual content as well as Live Trading by Dr. Burns content. The cost is $495 and comes with a 90-day money back guarantee. 

The Top Dog Trading System Course #2: Momentum as a Leading Indicator

This is the follow-up course after the foundation building first course. It focuses on utilizing momentum indicators to further refine price interpretation and timing. It also introduces six new set-ups from trend reversals to channel trading and the Ex-Con Trade and introduces fractals. As a bonus, traders also get two live trading videos illustrating the techniques as Dr. Burns trade “live on tape”. This course costs $498 and there are no refunds.

There are two Top Dog Intermediate Courses catering to day trading and swing trading styles which cost just under $500-each. Secondary courses include Fibonacci Trading ($96) and Candlesticks Made Simple ($98). The Advanced Price Action course is $496.

The Top Dog Trading Custom Indicators have automated much of the legwork for spotting patterns and supper/resistance levels. This tool automates wave counts and draws Fibonacci levels, Floor Trader Pivots, “Second Chance Patterns” and integrates color coded indicators and trend. The software is composed of two “suites” compatible with NinjaTrader, Meta Trader and Tradestation for a combined bundled cost of $490-per year. 

Mentorship Service

Coaching and a four-week one-on-one personal mentorship training is available, but it’s not cheap. The rate is $1000-per hour billed in 30-minute increments. 

What Type of Trader is Top Dog Trading Best For? 

Top Dog Trading products are best suited for beginning and intermediate level traders. Dr. Burns has a knack for explaining sophisticated concepts in plain easy-to-swallow language and content. His “Trend Trading for Dummies” book should already to you that he’s is very experienced in helping newbies. Seasoned traders may benefit from the psychological content as well as adding harmonic components like Fibonacci ratios to their arsenal. 

Is Top Dog Trading a Good Value? 

The trading courses are reasonably priced and a good value for the large amount of content. The Custom Indicators are an amazing value as it takes the legwork out of tedious tracking and identification of wave counts especially. However, you should first understand how to manually plot them first before taking the automated route. The tools are excellent for seasoned traders to enhance efficiency throughout the day.

Pros   

• Simple to follow yet very information self-directed online courses
• Dr. Burns has a very comforting nature which comes from his experience as an NLP practitioner  
• No hard sell and great 90-day money back guarantee for beginner course
• Teaches compelling methods and set-ups that can be found daily in the markets
• Customized automated indicator software greatly enhances efficiency spotting, tracking and trading patterns
• Relevant and effective methodology for trading stocks, futures and forex markets

Cons 

• Personal coaching and mentorship is very expensive at $1000-per hour
• Custom indicators requires NinjaTrader, Meta Trader or Tradestation platforms