Of course it can hurt. Wasting time and money trading when this person needs to focus on graduating college. If you waste another $ 1 or hour trading, you should seek professional help for your gambling addiction. Trading is only good for those of us who already have an EDGE and the time and money to put into it. Most losing traders are deluded gamblers who are too stupid to realize they don't have a winning system. Trading is NOT gambling, it is a business that you use Stats to monitor your progress.
This person is already "hurting", I think, and that is why this person is looking for advice. Anything can hurt if you don't know how to use that anything properly. If he is able to manage his time then I don't think it is a waste of time. And wasting money is relative. We could have ordered a smaller portion of food as to not waste money. My point is, this person has the option to try The Wall Street Now's services. It is this person's choice. As to whether it helps or hurts is yet to be seen and/or determined by the results or the lack thereof. But I do agree with you that this person needs to focus on graduating college!
As a noob, think of the trading business you are attempting to step into as an imaginary large gambling table with 10,000 players. Of the 10,000, there are 100 top guns who are cleaning up everyone. When you arrive at the table to play, you are the latest noob, bottom rank, wet behind the ears. Your chances of winning and keeping your winnings are nil. In order to become the 1% top gun, watch, observe, learn, play on sim, read, make notes, get yourself a mentor, get yourself a strategy, this will take years.
At this stage I would recommend "Mastering the Grain Markets" by Elaine Kub. You cannot get more practical than this. However, this is not a recommendation to trade that way, you asked how the big boys trade and this is ONE example of that. Cash flow replication means that you look at one instrument and then look for a similar instrument that is priced differently but gives you the same cashflow/payout structure. You sell one, buy the other. Speaking of grains, you buy the spot product and sell the futures. Options? You buy ATM, sell OTM and hedge delta, because OTM is too expensive.
That doesn't mean to trade counter but never stick to a trend for long, and I will never recommend a beginner to start shorting the pairs. It needs skill.
This can’t be generalised. And it is no good to come out of a good trend too soon. Anyway it seems the OP will need to focus on other things first before paying heed to this discussion.