Online Trading Academy Review
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Value
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Versatility
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Ease of Use
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Quality of Education
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Quality of Support
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Actionable Information
Summary
Online Trading Academy is one of the biggest market education services. The company offers a variety of online and offline courses with a broad range of topics, including stocks, options, forex and more. Read this review to see if the service is a good fit for your trading style)
About Online Trading Academy
Online Trading Academy is a comprehensive trader training and education organization that has been in business for over two decades. They are a marketing powerhouse that markets their services and products through infomercials, television, and radio ads to draw people to their free live seminars. These seminars are used to pique the interests of the attendees who are then offered the opportunity to attend an advanced trading class and become further immersed into their training programs. They have trained over 200,000 students worldwide since their inception in 1997 as the training arm of Block Trading. The organization has grown to over 40 on-location training centers spanning globally from the Americas to the Middle East, Europe, Canada, and Asia. Most of the office locations are individually franchised, but all follow the proprietary curriculum.
While Online Trading Academy provides quality education, we recommend online services like Investors Underground for education and Motley Fool Stock Advisor for stock picks.
Trading Style
OTA covers all trading styles ranging from intra-day scalpers to multi-day swing traders to longer-term investors with an emphasis on explaining the hows and whys of market forces. They balance fundamental analysis with technical analysis techniques to provide students with a full range perspective of the markets. I’d say that as students progress through the courses, the emphasis leans more heavily towards technical analysis which favoring scalping and swing trading styles.
Trading Courses
Online Trading Academy is all about the courses they provide on-location at the various worldwide offices and online through interactive remote access sessions. OTA slowly transitions would-be traders from the free half-day presentations to discounted multi-day live and remote courses that progressively get more advanced and intricate as traders move forward. Heavy emphasis on technical analysis is covered with classic patterns, and many patented and proprietary indicators and techniques, including supply and demand lines.
The free half-day live workshops are the gateway introductions to OTA. These are often marketed through various media channels. Potential students are given the opportunity to continue their training with limited-time discounts at the seminars.
The pricing can vary depending on the individual’s experience and financial situation/goals. Once students pay for a course, they are allowed to re-take the courses anytime they find a scheduled opening.
They teach diversified strategies for trading multiple financial trading products, including stocks, options, Forex, and futures. The courses start from scratch educating investors on the basic working of the markets and market timing to trading tools and methodologies.
Core Strategy Courses
The Core Strategy courses are split between Income Solution and Wealth Solution, which basically differentiate between traders and investors. Income is more intra-day and actively managed trading compared to less aggressive and more passive mid to longer-term swing traders and investors. The path of each set of courses leads ultimately lead to the elite Mastermind Community program.
Remote Online Classes
While the on-location live training courses the most immersive ways to learn, OTA also provides remote training sessions as well. These sessions include a live instructor that shares his screen with live charts and notes marked up so that attendees have all the materials in place. Participants can communicate through the chat and ask questions.
XLT Courses
Students that graduate the Core Strategy program can extend their learnings through XLT courses. The Extended Learning Track (XLT) courses are a combination of remote live and self-paced and interactive training sessions that extrapolates and applies principles from the Core Strategy Course covering stocks, Forex, options, and futures markets. The All Asset Mastery course is the ultimate combination course that integrates all the tools and resources for the most ambitious traders and connects them with other students in the Mastermind community.
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The Mastermind Community Program
Membership into the Mastermind community is only given to students that complete three qualifying XLT courses. The cost is $15,000 for the first year and $5,000 per year afterward or $25,000 for the first year and access for life. Mastermind Community membership gives access to the XLT- All Asset Mastery training, Pro Picks from each XLT, Daily watch list, Market Screener and special trading chatrooms, and priority access to OTA instructors.
Specialty Courses
These courses cover topics like real estate investing and wealth management, which includes tax and estate planning to address more conservative long-term planning. OTA is always adding to these courses, which are a very diversified way to fortify the financial base outside of active trading for many students.
Power Trading Radio
OTA also runs a daily podcast called Power Trading Radio hosted various instructors, including Merlin Rothfield and Mike McMahon and Tillie Allison, after the market close. They interview various industry guests that provide unique insights covering the most active financial markets. A lot of good free information can be found in these interviews. Podcasts are available for download on Itunes and Google Play Store.
What Type of Trader is the Service Best For?
OTA has done a great job of simplifying the markets so that newbies can onboard easily and proceed towards reaching the level of a seasoned trader in time. These guys cater to every level of trader, including intra-day, swing, and long-term investors in a complete and comprehensive process-oriented education model. It’s one of the few organizations that have something for everyone. The specialty courses are a nice touch that lends towards integrating more diversification outside of trading for students.
Is the Service a Good Value?
The pricing for the courses can vary based on individual experience and financial situation. Each student meets with specialists to determine their individual goals and ability to finance the courses. The half-day workshops are free, and the follow-up courses apply in-person discounts ranging from a few hundred to thousands depending on how many courses are purchased. The Mastermind Community program is for the elite students that put in the time and money commitment necessary to gain acceptance. The quality if good, but the pricing can be lofty, especially when compared to basic investing programs like Motley Fool, GuruFocus, or Investing Business Daily. Similar programs provide trading/investing ideas and education for a much lower price; however, in-person classes are much harder to find.
Pros
- Very structured training programs and courses for all levels of investors
- Impressive roster of professional instructors
- Over 20 years in business
- Multimarket and specialty training courses help diversify efforts
- Innovative remote training platform
- Can re-take courses once they are purchased
Cons
- Pricing can be inconsistent by individual case
- Mastermind Community is expensive
From scheduling until the I left the building going to the “Free Half Day Class of On-line Trading” was something I never want to repeat again. Once you sign up, get ready for all the reminder calls, I actually did not go the first time because of all the annoying phone calls. I signed up again, I guess they teach their Customer Service people to really make sure we totally understand the date and time. I had a handful of questions and I was excited to learn, there were a total of 4 students and of course an instructor. Not sure if it was his first class teaching or if he had an argument with his significant other before class. Long story short, if you are looking for any trading information, it is not going to happen. The entire reason for the repeated calls to make sure you are going is because they want to pay for classes. First, I did not know anything about the money, you would think in all those annoying calls someone would have told me. The “Live Classes” looked great and the students were interacting with the instructors, that is what I wanted. Why did they put their weakest instructor on “trying to sell the school/classes” to new recruits? Why have have first day of “free half-day trading class” at all. It is a lie for one and if you can’t sell your product without deceiving people, you need to come up with a better marketing plan.
Its all about sales and not about teaching they couldn’t care if you are successful or not.
Plus $60000 is too much to pay for at best is a beginner class.
I heard that the education counsellors are on 10% of what ever they sell.
They trick you by making you feel that your life is awful and lie about results.
honestly i never made it to day 3…the fact that they “wanted” you to “put money down” on day 2 was a very basic, objective red flag for me. No company, product, or person needs to do this if this outcome is that exceptional. Thinks about that. f not for that I would have likely come on day 3 and ponied up money. Part of me is glad they gave me the cheap sales pitch on day 2.
Lizzie from reading your comment could not tell what they lied about. You may very well have had a bad instructor, but all I get from your comments is annoying phone calls. Yesterday I attend the “half” day class and did learn a lot. Have a lot of notes and could work at a basic level much better now than before. I am planing on going to the 3 day course and see what they have to provide there. I am not a fool and know that they ease you into spending money on courses. That is now a standard and proven success rate for most any sales. I would bet you get your furnace and or AC “cleaned and checked” if not every year every few years. Thats my field and your getting ripped off but don’t even know it.
Alex, how is your experience for the 3 day course? Do you think their course is worth the value?
Spent two and a half days with this company before i was told that tuition was “on sale” for only $25,000 !!! for their entry level of education.Prices ranged to $50,000 . Hard to describe how angry I was / am. My thinking is that if their plan works perfectly, the first 25 grand of profit would go to them, less taxes, unless i trade thru an LLC and BTW that class is $7,000 ! Warning, before you take these education classes (I paid $300.00) read these reviews.
Unfortunately, I did buy into a reduced plan. I would have been better off staying with a broker that managed my account, with my oversight. This is truly a scam, but I honestly believed that they had my interests at heart. Now, they have a pathetic trade platform called Clik. It has been a debacle. Schwab and TD Ameritrade (among others) have much better support. Do NOT get sucked into this scam.
What a scam. They make you believe you have potential to earn a lot of you take their courses which are thousands of dollars. It’s not easy to make the money they promise, you’ve got to work harder than any other job you may have worked. If you have a wife and kids, don’t plan on supporting them with what you earn here unless you are one of the 10% who does succeed. I found out that they set people up in their training courses to spark conversations with potentials on how great the classes are. People don’t leave negative comments because I think they’re humiliated they were sucked in to spend 10’s of thousands of dollars.
Galvin I hate hard sales, I’ve been in sales all my life, have attended more sales training courses than I can remember. I can also tell you that most everything you stated above you have NO proof of and your made at your on failures. I have only attended the half day class and did and learned a lot of very basic stuff in a very short period of time for free. If you can’t afford to train yourself move on and don’t blast what your are not a professional in.
i am laughing at you because you clearly work for or have an interest in this company.
you say you’ve been in sales your whole life.. so tell me what other profession has over a 90% fail rate.??? especially with educated people with money??
yet you’re trying to justify the high cost and high pressured sales tactics of OTA. who are in the business of sucking every penny out of you (just like the markets).
get a life! there’s a reason why so many people fail at day trading.. not because they’re not intelligent enough to trade the market.. but because the whole enchilada is specifically designed to steamroll the small guys/girls.
tell your lies walking.!
ps.. i do have experience to comment… i worked on the floor of the nyse for 20 years before sh*t hit the fan in ’08.
no its just fine tuned computer algorithms running the show.
Mike is right. Big financial institutions does more than 8-% of their trades via high power computing with AI algorithms. By the time you see the signs, it’s already too late.
OTA is a great resource. However, when caught three times on changing their ‘picks’, after they executed, I was told a variety of inaccurate responses. I documented all three and was discouraged from taking more XLT courses, because of this. Obviously, I was very disappointed.
I attended the half day and three day class. The half day was to give me an idea of the investment field and to see if I was interested in doing this type of investing. the second course of three days at $300 shared information on stocks, bonds, futures mutual funds, options, forex and typical mistakes retail investors make. the class was very rich in information and invaluable. No financial advisor, stock advisor or banking advisor had ever shared that information with me.
After the first half day class on March 31st I sold half my position the following Monday and saved myself from a -5% loss for the week. They did not tell me to do this but the information made led me to this decision. I have found that the information will continue to save my retirement and help me preserve my nest egg. The program is expensive and I am putting off buying a new car. But losing your life savings by investing in mutual funds and following the TV guys can cost you your retirement. When I am successful here I will buy a new car for me and one for my wife. Be ware this is not a get rich quick scheme or lotto. It is a system for investing and cheaper than going back to school. Success is built on dedication to the topics, working smart , practice, self restraint and doing your homework.
Would very much appreciate an opportunity to speak with you.
Likewise @Richard Royster
i need to talk to you before I take my 3 day.
I WILL BE TAKING THE 3 DAY CLASS ON MARCH 1ST-THE COST WAS $200. , I THINK I WILL GET THE KNOWLEDGE AND INSIGHT I NEED TO TWINK MY INVESTMENTS-I HAVE NOT INTENT ON SIGNING UP FOR THE TOTAL PROGRAM-I,M 76 YEARS OLD, SO MY AGE WORKS AGAINEST ME FOR LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP.
hi Richard, i saw that u attended 3 day course for 300 dollars at OTA.
do they teach u day trading basics with how to find stock scanners for pre market and how to pik the right ones and when to get/out. do they provide better tools than Warrior-trading and investors underground.
i plan to take half-day seminar this saturday. do u recommend it.
can u make living doing day trading after their 3 day course
how do u compare them with warrior trading and investors underground
do they have live chat room with live traders recommeding top gappers with best stock scanners based on trade-ideas
what kind of charting/halt tools they provide to help u become good profits on daily basis.
please help me
I invested $199. in the “free” seminar before reading these reviews! I have never purchased,etc. Should I continued?
i am taking my 3 day course starting Friday the 22nd. went for my hour interview yesterday (Saturday) and saw classrooms full of people. from all parts of the city. you dont get the patented process from the 3 day, it comes beyond that if you go down that path. i think they have something good here, whether its overpriced is TBD. if it works and with a little time becomes profitable, then it would be worth the cost of the education. can it be found elsewhere and maybe cheaper? maybe, but do they also have a patented rule based process? do they audit their instructors like OTA does? lot to think about..
@Harv, I purchased the most expensive program at OTA last year in December. Here’s a spin down on what the classes provide
1. The free half day class gives an overview of the potential OTA can offer, no material or techniques provided, just a few terms that most of us novices need to check the dictionary.
2. The second class was $300 when I took it and is called Market Timing Strategy which lasts 3 days (Friday through Sunday for me), they go over all the asset classes and what track is available, it does not cover any techniques
3. The third class is called Core Strategy which is a 5 day course when I took it, I checked the other day, it is a 7 day class now. This is where the professional instructors come on site and teach the basics of trading, this is the class where they start teaching you true technique. This class is a pre-requisite to all other classes.
From here, you will have the option of taking the asset classes you are interested in, which are
1. Foreign Exchange (Short term income)
2. Futures (Short Term Income)
3. Options (Long term Wealth)
4. Equities (Long term Wealth)
5. Proactive Investors (Long Term Wealth)
each class usually lasts 5 days, some asset classes have multiple classes.
For those who are interested, I went with the Master Mind Community, now is it worth the investment, I think it is highly dependent on your age. I am in my early 30s, so I have 40+ years of time to take advantage of this. Do note that they won’t charge you extra moving forward, unless you want to take more new classes. The Master Mind package includes 3 asset classes.
COMMENTHi Nike 284,
It has been 7 + months since your post.
Can you tell us how it is going?
Are the course worth the cost?
Have you made a portion or better back to pay for your education?
Did they negotiate the price at all?
What would you have done differently?
I just took the 3 day class and am trying to decide on whether or not to go forward.
How is the class working out for you? I just took the 3 day class.
I see people are still signing up for this. There is nothing tight here that can be found on the Internet for free. I took their course in 2015 never having traded before. I was foolish and believed the sales pitch that anyone can learn to do this and make money easily. After attending a few follow-up evening seminars I realized there are many students still struggling. Everyone wants to make money but the record of demo Trading they do is at best a 50% win rate. Then you add the 60% tax you pay and the many hours spent studying and staring at screens I don’t think it’s worth it. The Cadillac courses $50,000. How long will it take you to make that back? They have called me twice inviting me back for more. I have declined. I wish I had researched it before I spent the money. Like most of the Internet Google use they are making their money selling the classes. If they were making it trading why wouldn’t they be on their boat or Island?
there are a few people who are successful at trading, if trading was so easy, everyone would be doing it. Trading is not for everyone, which might include myself. I’ve seen successful cases, it really depends on the person and if it fits you. Everyone wants to be greedy and rich, but it’s not easy.
Exactly my thinking and that’s why I walked out at lunch on the second day… wonder if I can get my money back for sitting thru a sales pitch?
I’m posting this as like so many, I feel aggrieved at the service I received from Online Trading Academy.
Firstly, I signed up for a ‘free’ seminar that was hosted by a gentleman who wouldn’t be amiss on TOWIE….gave him the benefit of doubt as the Councillor ‘salesman’ was fairly knowledgeable.
I paid £200 for the all important next stage.
3 days at the same tired, old, depressing looking industrial unit.
I was constantly bombarded with calls and emails prior to the 3 day event. I was asked to complete a very intrusive questionnaire type thing that I found very odd. I was also grilled by my newly assigned ‘counsellor/coach’ (they couldn’t even make up their mind as to what they were called. Let’s call them sales prevention officers for the time being.
So, I attend the 3 day selling event where I am very entertained by the seemingly knowledgeable presenter. He doesn’t want us to get screwed over and showed us how we could be earning millions in the next 2 years by following their patented (but not in the UK) methodology.
All this comes at a cost that would make even the Hinduja family wince.
My coach, Jordan, was clearly not making any money from trading as why would he dress and look as he does and waste a weekend working to ‘not sell me’ this amazing education. Oh, hello, are you stupid guys. If he could make £200k pa trading do you think he’d be wearing battered shoes, terrible hair cut and even consider wasting his weekend working…….
A special mention must go to Pearl or Opal or Gem…can’t remember her name but she is the ‘finance’ person. What an absolutely rude, unhelpful and utterly ridiculous consumer facing employee. She alone was enough to put me off.
Big red flag from me. Not sure their selling techniques are even legal particularly their financing over promising.
Waste of money and time.
Had a cursory look at their accounts and they have filed losses amounting to over £2m during the last few years. Maybe the company itself should practice what it preaches and trade those very substantial losses away.
I did the three day course about three or four years ago. I decided not to continue because I judged that the cost was far too high. I’ve learned volumes about trading since then, and come to realize that trading is extremely hard. Very few are consistently profitable. I’ve also learned that with the rare exception trading instructors/gurus do not trade live accounts. If you’ve ever traded risky, highly leveraged products, you will realize that there is a qualitative difference between trading a simulated account and a live account. The psychological state in which you trade a live account is a factor that you have to experience to appreciate. If I were just starting out, I’d ask the instructors there at OTA if they are trading live accounts. Ideally, they’d put their company’s money on the line to demonstrate their confidence in their method. If I ever decide to go for formal education again, I’d do it at a proprietary firm where they place you alongside of the firm’s traders who are trading company capital.
HI Chris,
I just completed the 3 Day course a week ago and they said that they do trade live accounts and then or when or if I decide to join I will be trading with their Capital in the 7 day Core Strategy program.
Do you think that they lied or what?
Thanks
Ed
Did they lie? Of course. I knew everything about them just listening to the gloom and doom radio program Sunday mornings. The guy kept talking about bear markets, stock dips, and all the other crap associated with someone trying to sell you the Brooklyn bridge. It was hysterical in light of the fact that Trump will NEVER allow the market to go down or for a bear market at least until AFTER the elections next year. I’m totally in stocks even though I’m in my 70s. The clown on the radio kept talking about the mild correction last December which was caused by the Fed; Chief screwing up and nothing else. The announcer cited 7 percent losses or more. I guess I’m doing something wrong because my retirement fund shows a 26.8 percent increase in just this first quarter! Maybe I should start teaching investment classes? LOL
OTA has a policy not to trade a live account, now they will allow you to trade under the OTA simulation account. Their definition of Live account and your definition of live account will vary
Thank you for being the first person to write something worth reading, and without obvious grammatical errors. It’s tough to take anyone’s opinion seriously who spells every 20th word incorrectly.
The instructors do trade live accounts and are successful traders. Students know this because they have access to classes where it is being done right in front of them. Don’t know where you got your information. The school is expensive, but they offer many resources for learning and are dedicated to helping you succeed. The potential for success is high for those who apply themselves. It is not a get rich quick scheme. Success comes with continued learning and practice.
Agreed. I am a OTA student. It is the. est financial education I have ever paid for. I am a Forex student.
how much was the Forex program
How long before you earn your tuition back less 60/40 taxes?
Thanks everyone for these great tips. I was laid off from work this week and heard on local radio of the program ‘online trading academy’. At first I thought it sound really good then I thought I better research before I signed up for this free class. Here I am finding out like just the way I thought it would be. If it was so good why these instructors wasting their time teaching instead they should do what they know best and make lots of money and the hell with wasting odd hours and weekend teaching others. My mind is totally turned off after hearing all the comments. Thank you!
Coaching and teaching trading courses are more profitable then actual trading now a days, there are thousands of academy’s and people who are making more money in this field. They advertise first some thing for free and then they want to market $ 7,000 to $ 20,000 worth of courses no one works on live trading platforms. Tahir Gilani from Toronto
Amen Ahir, well said…. after being bilked out of my hard earned money for nothing but sales tactics… and a scam hidden in their fine print – I’ve finally learned to cut my losses with OTA and get out and never look back…. I can’t emphasize enough what a disappointment this ” training” was – -… never again!! I should have reviewed these online reviews before they slowly bled my wallet dry!
They seem like multi-level market scammers because they are! beware!
David in Sacramento
Do you know Rehman!? I just took the second day class, I don’t think I’m going back. I like him, but it became a sales pitch and made me sad.
I have a “if it sounds too good to be true ” attitude and thank the heavens I read these reviews, Christ. not one good one !
You are not getting any kind of day trading strategy. You can scale down the core strategy to a day trade time frame but you will not be profitable. In fact you probably won’t be profitable if you stick the larger scales. There are too many variables to place together within your personal time range that they say create winning trades. When those variables meet which are few and far between the chances that you will make enough money to sustain average living conditions are very low. Basically in order to have a successful strategy that makes money you first must have more wins than losses. At OTA they say you can have more losses than wins. Good luck keeping your head positive about your plan with 10 losses to 2 wins over the course of a month. What they do in the XLT is take a concept for the day an over emphasize it and say it’s the problem and everyone in the room is over complicating it. You will never see the full plan put together and used, because when you do put it together it really doesn’t work like they claim. You either don’t get filled, you get stopped out or you take a limited profit. More often than not you will lose, I did for years and so did a lot of people. OTA’s only solution is to dump more money into the Master’s program. Sorry but under preforming programs don’t deserve my money. When the market changes trend all those orders you’ve been putting on will stop out. Because the majority of traders want to go with trend, they don’t care about supply and demand. Instead we use those levels as precautions, places where there might be some resistance or support. I would never buy or sell at those levels because when they break I’m taking more positions and i’m counting on them to break and they do more than times than they reverse. Really OTA is teaching you to be the liquidity that I am absorbing. I realized it as a student for years, I grew tired of being the food for the big investors. So I moved on and started doing what they do. They look at chart patterns, volume and indicators. That demand that’s forming is called support for a breakout. All the information you need to know about them is on youtube. You won’t get anything better from the expensive school.
That’s the best description of OTA I’ve ever heard! It’s right on target. But I think it goes deeper than that. If you think about it how do they make enough money off clients to operate and pay salaries? I think they are trading their clients tuition on the higher time frame. Chances are the CEO probably operates a hedge fund or uses the services of one to rake in big money.
Well put.
My brother and I have both attended the 1/2 day seminar and the 3 day seminar…and 1 thing that has stuck in my head from the begining of each class was clearly told to everyone is ” THEY ARE PROMISING THAT YOU THAT ITS NOT A “GET RICH QUICK” CLASS, THAT REALISTICALLY YOU WILL LOSE SOME DEPENDING IF YOUR COACHABLE AND FOLLOWING THE RULES AND THAT IT IS NOT MEANT FOREVERYONE”
I’m very much interested in going however to I have doubts in my capabilities in truly being succeasful because I do not follow through with things if I know I can’t be number 1 .
But at least I can admit that….y’all seem to be blaming the school for your bad choices in investing. No one forced your hand…and you knew that trading has RISKs.
But what do I know… Im just a redneck who wants to learn something new.
Wendy, you didn’t say if it was helpful or not. I am thinking of taking the course, but I sure see a lot of negative comments. A couple I can see, but all but one are very negative. If you get this message, please respond.
Hi Dan, I just finished the 3 day class which was offered for free. I though it was very informative and the instructor Eric was very impressionable. I definitely learned many new things and would love to learn more however the price tag is my deterrent. I would definitely take the classes if they were $1K-$2k but they are much more. One of the red flag for me was how Eric made it seem easy to make $$$ but I know it is not as simple as he made it out to be. Hope this help.
I agree with Wendy. No body forced your hands. RISKs are norm of the day just like any other thing. Discipline is very important, so is accountability. I am a student at the Vintage Park location and enjoy every minute of it with the well versed instructors. I don’t plan to get rich overnight, I do plan to invest myself with knowledge that nobody can take it away.
I sometimes read reviews for companies out of curiosity. I alway’s find it amusing at how many people are willing to take the time to write bad reviews ands of few are good. I also know that many sites, I don’t know about this one, but yelp for example. Yelp and so many more are “pay to play”. The more you spend on advertising with them the more of your good reviews show. It as a consumer of advertising and former ad exec most of these sites could be likened to “fake news” unless you pay enough. I mentioned Yelp, its been a few years but after many phone calls and emails I was able to find the good reviews and was told how much it would cost to “move up” by advertising more. Same with Home Advisor/Angies List, same company now. You can only really make your own decision in a real face to face meeting and you have to not be a gullible idiot going in, all companies are trying to earn money. Do you really believe there is such thing as a “tuneup” on a furnace, there is nothing to tune. The latest I have heard in my field is commercials “calibrating thermostats”. I’ve never seen a calibration switch on any brand no matter the cost of a the thermostat. If your willing fail you will. All way’s be at least an educated sceptic. And why complain when you get information, good or bad for free that you chose to go get. No one in any of theses positive or negative comments knows the success rate of OTA and you never will. For now I’m learning something for free, even if I think the something is flawed it helps me separate the good from the bad as I move along or stay.
Don’t waste your time and money.
This is a pure trap where they will hammer you with calls and try whatever they can to bring you back and buy their courses with tens of the thousands of dollars that will never be retrieved back.
Frankly, if I had not attend the three training days and have the tuna sandwich, I’d still be believing I’d learn the secret of life and discover Ali Baba treasure so that paying them $55,000 would mean that I was fooling them.
Absolutely not! This is a scam. It is pure bait and switch. I have been at this for five years using they’re strategy and I have still not pulled back my draw down. Not to mention there is no hope of making money consistently. When you contact these people for assistance they only recommend dropping another $10k into another failing strategy. Here’s what they have done. They have taken aspects of the market and grouped it together. Then they sell it to you for a minimum of $5k. Then they reel you in while listening to this stuff about how they can offer much better results if you drop another $10k and so forth. These people don’t make their money off of trading. They make it off of sales. if they made if off of trading they would offer publicly viewed results. But no, you have to buy into another program to see the results of that system. BS! Here I will give you a strategy so you don’t have to waist your money. When price pulls back to the 20 Moving Average on a 4 hour chart wait until the price crosses below the MA then buy when price opens above the MA. Hold this for 200% of what you risk. Rick only 2% of your account a trade. Now I saved you $60k because you will get the same results as OTA. Yea I’ve done the comparison. You want to pick a guru go to one with proven results that they are willing to show you. Because if you pay attention to these results you can figure out the strategy and the guru won’t care if you do. But not with OTA. They have all of their strategies guarded behind 5 figures of payment. It’s like how they hide the headless woman behind the doors at the fair and the guy is on the microphone begging you to come and look, but after you pay and wait in line it’s only a stuffed doll.
Hey Jimmy,
thank you for your very honest accounting of OTA I do believe though you need to have your own YouTube channel,
I would definitely subscribe,
You are exactly right about OTA. Run…Run like hell! You will waste years of your time and money. BOTTOM LINE 5-10% of retail traders might make it so its NOT WORTH what they are charging. You would do just as well to slap a macd on the screen and just trade over bought and sold signals LOL. And save a ton of money in the process. They are whores. Ive spent over 30k and not made a dime and worked my ASS off. Lost at least one job over it too because it was affecting my job performance. NEVER spend that kind of money on trading education unless you know your getting a return and trust the teacher/mentor.
After the 1/2 day intro and 3 day Market Timing I’ve decided to enroll in the program. I learned more in 3 days than in all the webinars I’ve viewed. The hands on program approach works better for me than doing a class strictly online. They made it very clear that the program is not for everyone, it is not a get rich quick program, there are no guarantees and I’ll only get out it what I put in to it.
Hi, Phil. Did you end up taking the classes? Which city are you in?
Phil,
Could you contact me to discuss more? Thanks
Mark
I recently participated in the 3 day course. I was super skeptical at first, but ultimately super happy that I participated at the end of it all. I knew going into the course that this was going to be a big time “Sales Pitch”, therefore my defenses were fully up. I wanted to take the course because after 20 years of investing my portfolio had gone no where and I needed to know why.
I consider myself an seasoned investor, but my no means an expert. I know a great deal about stock trading (going long and shorting), options, and bonds. I knew a little a little about forex, but nothing about futures. I have a degree in Economics and have taken many business courses. The course validated several ideas that I had, theories that I read about and courses that I took years ago. It was inspiring and a great refresher. It opened my mind to a great deal of new ways to generate income through safe investing.
I would reccomend this course for anyone; I am even contemplating paying for my son to go through the course. Anyone should seriously consider looking this course.
Hello,
Curious what location you are in. I would love to take a trading course but super leary about this company because of what I have read. Reach out to me please so I can ask questions if your interested in clarifying a few things.
Thanks
Hi,
I would love to discuss with you regarding your experience. I just took a pre-class session and in the process to decide whether I join or not. However, looking at these all negative make me wonder and think twice.
I want to ask you few question if you are cool with it.
Cheers.
Hi Greg,
Would you mind sharing which location you took the class? I am also in a situation where I have to make a decision.
If they taught you so much information why not just teach him yourself rather than spend more money then invest that money in your sons account that you would save on the course?
Hi Greg, can we connect? I wanted to understand how it is working out with OTA? How much did it cost you?
A lot of negative “don’t waste your money” “too expensive” comments from people who haven’t actually taken the real course. I would like to hear from any of those people please. Anyone?
Go to the google reviews or to the website to see the actual reviews of real students. Satisfaction rating is around 97%.
I can tell you this: Online Trading Academy has put together a well organized, well delivered Program/s. It’s actually REAL KNOWLEDGE put together in packages and very prestigious trainers. No doubt that they know exactly what they are saying and doing. That is undeniable.
Also, remember this part of the world is very different from the working class; the one that believes in using their time for income. The one that only believes that the only way to being successful is through hard physical work. The one that believes that a person needs to work all their lives, give most their money to the government so that in the final part of their lives, the government feeds them back their own money the way they want.
This part of the world, the one that knows that this previous method is NOT THE WAY to succeed, requires another state of mind. Another level of discipline and skill cultivating. Is the one that knows that you will never become rich by working hard. That’s exactly NOT the way. The way is towards having long terms plans, giving yourself the time to invest in yourself; in skills you need to master the art of money. The one who dsnt care about the social security deposit they were making early in their lives. They can keep that money! I will learn what it takes to know exactly how to predict taking enough money out of the MONEY WORLD POT which is the stock market, invest that in real estate rentals, and have that income feed my on my retirement years, and not give money to someone else and then depend that they would be merciful enough to give me some every month. I decide to live life on MY terms. And the way is to get knowledgeable where all the money is: the stock market. But it takes skills. Long cultivated skills. MY personal goal is to be ready in 3 years, studying EVERY SINGLE day, and not only on classes. Remember it ALL DEPENDS ON what YOU DO with this knowledge. But this academy gives you all the necessary tools to know be on your own with a much WIDER direction towards knowing how to make money alone. How to trade and NOT GAMBLE, which most do.
All you need is the TOOLS. And then follow up with consistency and tenacity Wanting results TODAY or TOMORROW is exactly what the first part of the world wants. Fast results. If not, they rather jump in to another miracle promise and see if that new thing also converts them over night
Making money is all about learning money skills, and in this case TRADING EXPERTISE.
This school will give it to you. But all the work has to be done by you. And it will take long months and years. But they money you invest in you, followed by consistency, determination, enthusiasm, desire……will do the rest for you. But you have to believe it as well.
Once you master these skills your life will be part of the other part of the world. The ones who understand that success and money can be mastered if you put the time…
These people from OTA will hand you the tools. You just have to put in the work to learn, practice, make mistakes and keep moving forward until you become good enough to become independent. They cant and nobody can insert you the skill in your brains; that is something that you will achieve with PRACTICE and DEDICATION. So the tools are there my friends. And there is no doubt that the stock market itself is not a scam: people who believe in skill development don’t care what the skepticals are saying and rejecting: they are just going out there and becoming multi millionaires everyday. For the complainers, stop wasting time and go learn and persist. That money you invest in knowledge will come back multiplied and QUICK!
I was wondering, are you an OTA employee??? Because you sound like ONE! LOL
OTA lists their employees, a simple search can confirm that he is not an employee.
Emilio, did I miss it or did you say you are a paying student?
I didn’t read where you addressed the concerns from others who posted reviews. What about the MasterMind student who paid over 50 grand? He paid in advance for the Options class. Why should he have to pay another 5 Grand?
My husband and I spent ALL of our savings, giving it to OTA because of our “consistency, determination, enthusiasm, desire”, etc to improve our financial status. We did believe OTA would help us toward our retirements, and continue still to give it everything we have got. Almost 40 Grand!
Let me ask you or anyone else who purchased the ProPicks; did you make money or lose money? Or, have you made independent status and separated yourself from OTA? We see the same people after many years, still taking the Extended Learning Classes. Just how long should they be “learning”? Or was this system designed to keep others coming back and putting out more money?
Like any good educational platform, they should be passing on the tools to make others successful. A teacher should only see a student (after many years) to say hello and ask about their success. A doctor does not continue to go back to College once he/she graduates. Or, would you trust a doctor who has never graduated and continues to “learn” medicine? We have see very few who are successful. Very few who are now “practicing” their occupation. And, many who are successful are that way because they had previous trading experience before they paid OTA. Instead, we see people disappear.
Another complaint we have is watching instructors be replaced with students. How exciting that a student is elevated to instructor status and allowed to teach classes in the OTA platform. I don’t mind a couple of opportunities to see how a student has excelled and give a testimony, but teach? Where are the instructors? Or is this a way for OTA to get more bang for their buck by putting out free instructors? As was said by others, you can learn this material for much, much less. My husband has learned more from a guy on YouTube, than he has with OTA. Why does he stay (and I have asked him to wipe his feet and walk) because, he says, he feels terrible about our savings! And if he can just learn something that he can take away, he will feel better.
Wow thank you for the insight WB. I was considering in joining OTA, but not now. Do you know what Youtube guy your husband was watching?
I think the best way to put it is, the education is real, they teach you true techniques, the profitability is not guaranteed, and as a Master Mind Student, I do find the lack of value for it.
WB I also don’t believe in this course but would say that doctors,pharmacists,teachers all have to do continuing education courses. Also if you look at a doctors diploma it says they have the right to practice medicine had a old doctor in our clinic point that out to me.
11/14/2018
I am a mastermind student of OTA, who pays more than $50K to be in the program. Most mastermind students I spoke to are not making any profit from trading. I too lost a lot of saving from trading. That says much of the education we are receiving. I do take it as part of my learning experience to become a better trader but what really tick me off is that being their elite program as mastermind, OTA does not give me what they promised. In our agreement, OTA promises retake class for life time. I can never get into a class with a more advance teacher because I am a retake student. Also their Option class was not well designed so with much complaints from the students, their redesigned their Option class into a beginner and advance class. Now they are asking us to pay extra $5000 for the advance class. OTA can be only successful when their students are successful. If they cannot realize this, I will see this academy going downhill and I advise you to think twice before sign up.
The system itself is inconsistent and doesn’t work. Therefore you can never be a profitable trader. I bought into this years ago and have been trading using this system for years. You can never be profitable. The majority trades will be stopped out leaving only a fraction of profit if any at all and that’s if you’re lucky. I strongly recommend against using this system. It’s a scam. I have never once paid myself off my profits because there aren’t enough to keep my head above break even.
Will they give you the three day 229$ payment back as promised if you decide not to enroll in the school?
I signed up for 3 day class, high pressure selling of 25k course package kicks in on day 2. When I told the counselor I was not ready to enroll in the course and needed more time to decide, primarily due to the high price tag, then the conversation went confrontational, interrogating and uncomfortable. Day 3 the counselor kicked me out of the class and refunded me the 3 day class expense, I said I didn’t want to be refunded and would like to sit through day 3, he wouldn’t let me stay and just kicked me out, it was not a pleasant experience for me.
I’m glad this was out there. I was hoping to get some basic (not so basic) trading advise or techniques not a sales pitch. No there is not a good get-rich-quick scheme and this kind of sounds like what they want to tell you until your in the class then they tell you it takes work and discipline, that’s what it sounds like anyway. This is what everyone of these types of real estate/stock market schemes do. They lure people in with the quick/rich scheme but they keep people invested by telling them some day it’ll pay off. Long term, dollar cost cost averaging, etf, mutual funds is how those like Warren Buffet made it or real estate buy/hold or even flip strategies of real estate tycoons. Not sure I’ve heard of many options, traders millionaires or billionaires – just not a road often traveled. There may be a few but there are also lottery winners too.
there are good instructors at OTA, you just need to find them. OTA does limit what instructors can teach to maximize their business. However, I do want to emphasize these are all human beings, and most of them are wanting to help students under the OTA rules.
I’ve heard OTA’s advertisements for their half day training trap. One day I decided to check out their prices, and realized immediately it’s a con. There are many day trader teachers who sell their courses, mentorships etc for a fraction of what OTA charging. Many of the other instructors in the field of Day Trading charge less then $5k for their material and coaching. Compare OTA to other outfits like Warrior Trading, Investors Underground, Fous4 etc. OTA is playing on people being naive enough to not do their due diligence in research OTA prior to calling
How much money have you lost with your “less expensive” self taught methods.
Never again! My husband was suckered into using our Savings account for what could have been learned on YouTube. What irks me is the very instructors they utilize at their academy, are also on YouTube via FXStreet, teaching many of the same things. I sit and watch my husband in his classes and I think (I just watched Seiden use that same graph in FX Street)
We gave them over 30 Grand to learn how to “identify areas where Institutions have remaining orders”, but what I found is price imbalances. To add insult to injury we paid for a lifetime of ProPicks. Some would call them signals, but whatever you call them, we had the option of a year or a lifetime of receiving these signals. We were provided stats of the ProPicks before we signed up were quickly provided a sheet of paper that revealed the win/loss ratios. What we were not shown were the picks that had “disappeared from the list. In other words, the true ProPick lists have other tabs including “Closed No Entry” and “Closed Break Even.” Often times a trade was pulled after my husband had already entered and was not warned to get out. We paid extra for these lifetime of ProPicks in case my husband was not understanding their “patended” process of identifying levels. I was ok with him paying extra since we had already bought the farm so to speak and I was thinking the ProPicks may hedge are bets.
Sympathy? when my husband tried to complain to Corporate he was not allowed to talk to Mr. Jacobson. He complained to an instructor and was told the ProPicks are for “educational purposes” only. We were never told they were educational and would never have purchased a lifetime of speculation.
What really hurts is how they treat my husband when he is in their classes. To this day if he brings up the ProPicks, he is mocked and insulted and even ignored by other students who never paid the extra money and never experienced this loss. Sometime it appears to be a cult following b/c of watching their treatment of him
It’s sad you all are unfortunately not smart enough or financially savvy enough to realize that this is a life changing opportunity. If you went to a brain surgery class or a orthoscopic knee surgery class would you assume that you would have the skills to immediately succeed in 2 months? No. This trade also takes time, intelligence and smarts when it comes to numbers and finance. If you can’t hack it then go work for Uber or lyft. It isn’t for everyone. But those who get it do well and those who don’t fail. It’s cause and effect and Darwin’s natural selection unfortunately. Those of you who suck we make money off of. Nothing personal but I wouldn’t try to build a house because i have no experience. So don’t try to do something you wish was your forte without putting in the work. I am In Denver and I’ve had nothing but success and the best expertise and experience because i know what I am Capable of. Sometimes it’s ok to admit defeat rather than bash someone online.
Hi Rachel,
I’m in Denver too and getting ready to sign up for a couple of the courses this summer. I would love to hear more of your thoughts if you are open to it.
Thanks so much!
Jen
I just sign up. I was 50/50 i took the risk to find out for my self. I will post on progress I’m out of the California location.
Jen, have you heard from Rachel?
Pretty bad customer service right from the beginning. Nvm the company.
I thought there was a lot of good info on trading, however, I felt like Mr McMahon’s style doesn’t fit with me well. He is always talking to the crowd and calling everyone “people” or “you people “. It sounds condescending, I don’t think he intends this, but it just rubs me the wrong way.
I saw a lot of bad stuff written here about OTA, so I felt I should respond with my own experience. It’s very easy to bash something that you know very little about.
I am an OTA student and am very pleased with their program. Everything about it is professionally done. The people I have dealt with, and those who teach the classes, are top-notch, nice people. But at the same time, they are just normal people. Several have told me that if they can do this, so can I, or anyone else for that matter. That they are not particularly ‘special’, and if I will just invest the effort and follow the rules – rules that I’ve made for myself as part of my own Plan, that I can be successful with this too.
Yes, it is expensive, and no, it is not ‘easy’, but it is not complicated either. I have daily access to live and recorded classes for life, as well as access to the people at my center in Milwaukee that are more than willing to help when I ask. It has been my experience that the instructors are very much interested in the success of the students, and will answer any questions I have via email or in a live online presentation. There is also an expectation that students ‘do the work’. Success with this, or most any other worthwhile endeavor, does not just happen by itself. It takes time and dedication and a positive attitude. Anyone who knows anything about trading, knows that losses do occur. There is no system that wins every time. Such a theoretical system, often referred to as “The Holy Grail” of trading, simply does not exist. Winning trading systems are a function of probabilities and simple math, of winning more money than losing. That’s it. And of perfecting the skill so that more trades win and less lose. And those who apply this system as taught, and get very good at it, are richly rewarded. I know at least several of them, and they are just normal folks that I met in my classes.
The people who wrote all the bad stuff about OTA that went to a 1 or 3 day seminar have no idea what OTA is really about. The true content of their trading method is not discussed in detail during these sessions, so those who call it a scam or a rip-off based on that, or based on the cost, have no idea what they are talking about. They are just spouting off, or have some sour grapes towards anyone who may actually do this. The three day session includes a sales pitch – no question about it. But I did not find their sales methods degrading or intimidating. One is either interested in moving forward with their program or not. These discussions were held in private at the facility during the three days. These free or cheap seminars are used as a sales lead generation tool. What some who bash OTA do not seem to recognize, is that it is also a business, and they need ‘revenue’ coming in to support their staff and facilities for new students as well as those who have made the investment in the past but continue to receive the services now and in the future.
Am I making big bucks with this yet? – no, but I do pretty well with the trades that I do. Is that my own fault up to this point that I don’t make more? – yes. I should invest more time and find more trades – but that is my own choice and how I choose to use my time.
So often, people blame something or someone else for our their own shortcomings. It could be with regard to work or sports, relationships or money – almost anything. And it makes some people feel better when they pass blame, I guess. It upsets me that people say these nasty things about a good program in OTA when they have not a clue, in many cases. But I know that the OTA system is legitimate and, without question, it works if done correctly.
Well said Bob.
I am a graduate of OTA and that and 1.99 will buy me a trucker’s coffee at Starbucks. But no tip.
I did the free day course and was sold. Wow! What a great bunch. I was impressed.
I went to the 3 day course. Wow! What a deal. I learned all kinds of stuff about the stock market. Commodities, forex, daytrading in stocks. I had to know more.
I financed the course through their lender which was fine. Interest was about 400 a month on the 23k balance. I took stock training school and options training classes over the next three months. I learned so much. The food was awesome. The staff was great. The people taking the classes were awesome too.
The reality: after trading for 2 years, I began to understand what a waste of time and money this program really is. It’s crazy expensive and it is set up as an emotional high. The promise of making money from stocks, commodities, futures, options or forex. The truth is, making money from the markets is hard. Patience, knowledge, luck and timing. Like most anything. The patented strategy using orderflow is the basic premise of technical analysis trading. It goes back way before OTA was established.
I’ve always kept quiet about my mistake in going to OTA, mostly embarrassed about it, but I put 5k into a Tradestation brokerage account while in school. TS has a partnership with OTA. I went to get my 5k out last week and it was 2400. For 2 years they have taken a 99 monthly fee for inactivity. I’ve never opened the platform. I just always thought my money was in a savings account. It was a backup to my other accounts.
OTA response has been poor. The secretary at the Phoenix OTA franchise where I attended gave me the best advice: “you should have read your disclosure”. They are right. I should have. But as you go through these classes, your belly and brain are full. There is a bottomless pit of info regarding markets. No end to it.
I have called all my educational counselors who are touted as “lifetime coaches”. But nobody has returned a call. OTA corporate took my claim and was supposed to follow up in 48 hours. That was a week ago.
The truth is OTA is a rip. You can do better by spending 23k on bad trades. At least you learn something valuable. Once you are through the program you are on your own just like when u started. I can’t think of a single thing I learned in school that helps me as a trader today. The charting Supply demand model is a coin flip at best.
The hard part is the people that sign you up say: “Call us anytime you need help”. I tried three times and my sign up guy was always busy. Busy looking for the next sucker like me.
Tradestation sales team was extremely adamant to get my money. Calling 3 times a day. 7pm at night. I finally gave in. Gave them 5k, now I have 2400. The sad part: Its legal. Disclosure item #3.
If you are paying anyone to teach you to trade, you are doomed because you need that money to trade and make mistakes and learn.
Please take a breath before signing up. Don’t read reviews, OTA doenst have any bad reviews because they have 150 people working hard to keep their nose clean. They threaten suit against anyone with a bad review. They are very smart at what they do best: signing you up. Unfortunately the stuff you learn in school will get you clobbered in today’s markets. I have yet to meet a good trader who said: I learned all I know from school. Usually the other way. Hope this review helps 1 person.
Takeaways: watch “inactivity fees” from any broker (not just trade station). Read your disclosure carefully. It is not in your favor as a retail trader/investor.
OTA is not your advocate because they are a machine that must keep signing people up to survive. Not their fault. Just reality.
Thank you Todd! Your review, “has helped at least 1 person” …ME! I’m finished with day 2 of the 3 day Core class and I won’t be showing up for day 3 tomorrow.
I admit I learned a lot about what I didn’t know in trading. I would even recommend it (3-day) to others. The staff and instructor here are first class and super friendly and knowledgeable. However, I don’t think I want to put up with the harassment that I can probably expect tomorrow. OTA may be right for some, but I think I’d rather take my chances with my hard earned savings not going to them and not going into debt either.
Thanks again for taking the time to write!
Great review and seemingly honest. Thank you for taking the time!
Simply appalling. Nothing but a bunch of shysters in really cheap suits. Their $299 orientation is to sign you up for their $25k package for one week of classes. BUYER BEWARE WHEN YOU START ASKING QUESTIONS AND THEY REALIZE YOU ARE NOT AN EASY MARK YOU GET EXPELLED! It felt like the orientation and the one on one with the coach was an assessment of your ability to pay your tuition. Very disappointed especially in the fact that they used G-D and the Bible multiple times today to throw their “please trust in us” SALES PITCH! Simply unprofessional.
Total scam and ripoff. You have been warned.
Great 3 day course. The teacher was inspiring & I learned a lot. The questionnaire I had to fill out was highly invasive, so I put that I am rich, with a 500,000 $ portfolio. I described My typical day as beginning at the gym for 2/3 hours, then off to the library to read & study, then home to relax, etc. I horseback ride often, and in my spare time practice medicine. This was not questioned. I thought 20k plus was an extraordinary amount of money for a 2 week course, so I put money in a TD Ameritrade account & started trading on my own. TD has great education online. I’m doing pretty well, and of course I practice medicine on the side. And I’m rich.
Thanks Todd & Lena – your comments we’re very similar to how I felt when I returned home this afternoon. I have plan to do this course for a long time and went to the initial introduction today and at the end felt that I was dismissed because I need to start slow and build. I made this abundantly clear when I spoke to the person that called to follow up once I signed up and spoke to two different people about it. I knew there was what a class Beyond today’s but did not know about all of they very expensive classes at followed.
Todd, Also a bug thank you. I did the three day course. The information you had was balanced. And I agree they were mostly very classy and professional. I just couldn’t take out a new car loan for the class. Lyn
I am a man of few words, so if I take the time to leave a review, it is something I believe in. Online trading acadamy is a spectacular training academy. The program works, the instructors knowledge are decades in the making, and second to none. I am truly happy withmy decision to join this family. And that is exactly howthe make you feel. Like family. And this is a school for life. It is not a one and done. Online Academy is for life. You can retake the courses for refresher. And what got me tyre most, was that the instructors use their money, in their trading platforms, to teach you. Talk about skin in the game!
Adam
Yes, you can take this course for life. However, I only get 3 weeks vacation a year, so this does not help me one bit. if I was retired, it might be a good thing, but if i was retired, I probably do not need their courses. I have taken this course, spent the enormous amount of money and have since found multiple online (FREE) websites who teach much the same thing as I was taught at OTA. If I knew then, what I know now, I would NOT have signed up with OTA.
Online Trading Academy has been a wonderful experience. If anything, they are have over delivered. I am a paying student. My investment to study with OTA has been worth every penny. The student to student support at a national level, and overall culture at my center (Kansas City) can not be applauded enough. My first FOREX Instructor was Jody Wong. There likely will be books and documentaries about his passion to package each of the OTA students that he instructed with the capacity to reach the stars with their trading goals. It is fine with me if all the naysayers do not become students. Currently, the student population is not polluted. – It is still a free world in most places. Do what is best for you. I was never pressured or sold into anything at OTA. I was educated enough to know that I finally stumbled on what I was seeking. The Academy improves course materials and adds resources almost constantly. With all the added goodies, I paid once. I have not been asked to pay for the extras that get added. I wish I had discovered Online Trading Academy years ago. – Best of luck to each of you reading this – whether you study at OTA, study elsewhere, or are self-taught. I do wish you well. — Tess
3 day orientation course is absolutely worth $300 if you have no or very little experience. I’d certainly recommend it. During those days they had tried to sign me up for the core class and asset class totaling $25000. Well, I didn’t feel it sounds reasonable so I decided to just watch/read some more info available online for free. Also, I think, by investing $25000 to some brokerage platform you might be able to gain a lot more experience and learn a lot yourself even if you lose it all (which is highly unlikely).
The issue is not with trading education in general, but with our expectations.
I keep reading and finding people still looking for a golden strategy that is going to work 60% to 90% of the time. Such strategy does not exist.
If day trading is not your primary income, don’t play with any stock that does not have solid fundamentals. That way even if your day trade or swing trade fails you have better chances of getting out even or making some profit mid-term, unless the whole market crashes.
If your goal is not additional income, but long-term investment, nothing has beaten index based funds yet, so it doesn’t make sense at all to use day trading as an investment strategy.
I find day trading to be only useful when you have a small capital that you want to grow in the short-term before investing it in reliable investment tools. And keep in mind that only around 1% of day traders succeed in making consistent income out of it, so the first task for anyone interested is to figure out whether or not you are going to be among that 1% or not without taking too much risk.
With that orientation, if you are a beginner, trading education definitely helps in knowing the basics and avoiding known mistakes. It will not help you to find a golden strategy because it simply does not exist. The variables are just too many.
Their ‘patented’ strategy! PEOPLE WISE UP – if it was that simple then it would have been automated and away you go! Trading has about a 95% failure rate FACT. To become successful it takes years of experience and practice and real training…….what they teach you is NOT THE WAY TO TRADE! Do you really think its as simple as ‘when x crosses Y buy’ – Save yourself the money and the heartache!
This comment is mostly directed at Bob who claims there’s nothing wrong with OTA and the people who said bad things don’t know what their talking about. Well Bob…those people KNOW they were relently harassed, they know no one returned their calls, they know they were treated badly and worst of all they KNOW when they’ve been ripped off! I just caught their infomercial and was seriously think about signing up for their “free” class but after reading what a ripoff they are and how badly they treat their “marks” I’m not even gna call them now. I feel like i dodged a big bullet. I really hope all of that got ripped off band together, get a lawyer and file a class action lawsuit. I also hope you blast what a ripoff they are all over social media and dont be intimidated by their threats.
Great Value! I’m a student and have been for a long time. If you go forward with the program just put in the work. The support is incredible and getting better every year. I believe the people putting negative reports have not experienced the education past the 3 day class. If you’re reading this to see if you should take it or not just make sure you are going to be committed to it and trust me OTA is the best out there.
I purchased XLT, FOREX, OPTION AND MASTERMIND CLASS for 43k, it is not cheap but your success will depend on your dedication and desire to learn. It is not easy you have to work really hard but the good thing about this class you can retake classes over and over and you will have access to their website and offices ( where they held classes) for a lifetime. Anytime I have question, I can always call them. At first, I feel stupid of purchasing this kind of amount but all the resources and material are there for you to learn. I don`t have any knowledge about forex, options, I am completely a newbie but I put a lot of time and hard work and finally live on my trading. I just stick on my trading plan and risk management and little by little, I have gains and losses. And in time, will I think for me its worth it. But you have to put a lot of energy, effort, and time.
Good grief, thanks for all the information. I didn’t realize they had their own financing, which makes me feel that this is a, for sure, rip off.
I thought the nearly 4k for the first part of the learning was a ridiculous amount of money and 25k is definitely the way to rich for my blood!
I am so disgusted with myself for leaving a message asking for a call back to give me more information. Now I’ll be forced to remove them like a tick, I’m sure.
So far I have had a very positive experience with OTA. I have never received any harassment, as others have mentioned here. My local center has extremely friendly and helpful staff, who make you feel like family. Yes, the learning curve has been quite intense and requiring many hours. The educational resources provided by OTA are very extensive, and the OTA staff is available to help you navigate the education. There are an incredible amount of educational tools available, and almost every day there are live trading sessions to watch online and participate in, which are very helpful. This is not a quick route to wealth and success, it is a journey and a process. I would not recommend this to anyone not ready and willing to put months and many hours into learning the ropes.
Hi, everyone! After thinking about it, I decided to right a review about Online Trading Academy (OTA). If you want a clever advice, do not sign up even for the free classes.
I joined the first class, which was free. Then, I paid for another class, which was a couple hundred bucks. During that period, I asked to get out of the class to meet with the campus director. He was super pushy and convinced me to join the academy. Initial investment of almost $30k. They promised me so much. Told me that I would get this and that, that I would be able to pay the classes just with the trades that are shared by the instructors. Please do not believe in these promises!
I can tell you that their method is outdated and does not work. I have joined aNother academy, which does not cost me 3% of what I paid OTA and it is so much more efFective.
As OTA promises that you pay once but your membership is “lifetime,” and after my experiences, I contacted them to get a refund. They will not give me. Now, they have been also sued by FTC. So now who guarantees that you will continue to get the “education” they offer?
I have talked to a couple attorneys already, and am about to sue the academy get some of my investment back. I am also opening a Youtube and Instagram page to not just talk about OTA, but also to warn futures students/traders.
Please, before you think about joining OTA or any other trading academy, talk to people who are part of their community so you won’t make the same mistake I have made.
The campus was joined is in Raleigh, North Carolina.
So, you are thinking about day trading and are wondering if Online Trading Academy, otherwise known as OTA or simply TradingAcademy.com, is your best option for learning to trade. After all they are extremely expensive, and you owe it to yourself to make sure your will be money wisely spent. Maybe you are like we were. Our careers going away, our income less than half what it was just a few years earlier, older, and unable to find work that pays anything close to what we were used to. If so, you owe it to yourselves to read this in its entirety. It will save you many 10’s of thousands of dollars.
Do not believe what I am about to say? The OTA staff brushes off these criticisms as simply being from disgruntled students who did not take the time to do what they were taught. Again, you owe it to yourself to read this in its entirety and read through the FTC complaint of Online Trading Academy Fraud at the end of this story. There you can read for yourself the governments charges against them directly from the FTC website. It truly is a must read for anyone thinking of giving them money and was an “ah ha” moment for many students who were frustrated by the inability to take what they teach and make money.
I had been hearing the Trading Academy ads on the radio for many, many years and always thought they were a hoax. However, I figured that after all those years, if they were not for real, they would have been shut down by now. Knowing our financial situation was not going to change anytime soon and knowing our reserves were not going to get us into retirement, I responded to the OTA talk show on WISN in Milwaukee and gave them a call.
Their initial free 3-hour class gives an overview of the market and how it works. It is quite compelling; they are INCREDIBLY good at putting on a show and selling you their product. The point of that 3-hour class is to get you to sign up for their $299 3-day class which gives a brief overview of what they teach and the different asset classes you can sign up for; Forex, Futures, Stocks or Options. To someone who has dabbled in the market, this all sounded pretty incredible and it looked equally convincing. The whole point is to show you how easy it is and how you too can make a living trading. Next comes the sales pitch.
* Lifetime retakes of the classes.
* Highly skilled and experienced traders to teach you.
* Includes a year of “ProPicks” free, a daily library of trades that you can take to help you make money while you are still learning.
* Online sessions with instructors to watch and learn.
* You get everything you need to be a successful trader.
* Besides at this point in your life what other options do you have to generate income?
* And let OTA help finance that!
”All you have do is follow our training”, they say. They did not say it outright, but one thing I read between the lines was you need to invest the time to be successful. As I said, it sounds quite compelling and they know how to hit your trigger points during their sales pitch. That is why you need to do your research before signing up with them. There are LOTS of places online where you can read reviews besides this one. Just do a search of Online Trading Academy Fraud or Scam. Join some Facebook trading groups. Follow some successful traders on Twitter.
The cost at the time we signed up in 2018 started at $25,000 for either Forex or Futures. Another $5,000 if you wanted to add options training and another $5,000 if you wanted to add stock trading. Or you could sign up for their Mastermind membership which included most everything, for only $55,000. You read that right. After you sign up, they will enroll you in their “Core” class which teaches their supply and demand method of trading and how to find fresh “zones” to take trades in. After that week you need to sign up for the Forex or Futures training. It may take 6 months to get into a class. They only host them a few times per year.
I will say that after a class you feel pumped and confident you too can do this too. Although they give you a survey to rate the class afterward, the survey should come months later after you have had a chance to practice what they teach. After 18-months and countless re-reading and re-watching of the material (we put way more time into studying the material than we should have needed to), we just could not make what they teach work. We and everyone we stayed in touch with from the class were all losing money. Retaking the classes 2 more times did not help, but what you do start to notice is they are cherry picking the setups of what they are showing you. Yes, there are setups that work occasionally, but there are way more times they do not work. As they say, “even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.”
There are other problems too. Their ProPicks library of trades. They have been caught editing the trades to give a higher success ratio of wining trades. That just begins the stories of fraud, many of which the FTC lays out in their lawsuit.
Online Trading Academy may say they know people who are making money, but I can assure you from the people we know, they are not trading strictly based on what OTA teaches. In fact, what is really infuriating is that when you get to the FTC documents you learn that the instructors are only required to make one trade per year and that trade can be a simulated (not real) trade. The much-touted Sam Seiden the “inventor and patent holder” of the OTA method (who has since left OTA) cannot make money either. I do know a couple of OTA students who are making money, great money, but they have ALL needed to expand their education by spending even more money to learn what Online Trading Academy failed to teach. Trading Academy only teaches supply and demand. There is no price action, moving average, channels, RSI, Fibonacci, Elliott Wave, volume profile, … they don’t teach indicators, just fresh supply and demand zones and I assure you, you can’t consistently make money looking at just that. Yes, what they teach is valuable, but it is like teaching you how to drive and only showing you how to put the key in the ignition. It costs you a lot of money to buy that car, but gets you nowhere.
Complain the OTA system doesn’t work and ask for a refund citing all the fraud as described in the FTC Complaint, and they offered us a free Mastermind upgrade or they simply say “we taught you what we said we would teach you” … well, not exactly, you said you would teach me what I needed to know to make a living trading. All I did was lose money because OTA only gave us one very small piece of a much larger puzzle. To this day, we are still in contact with several fellow students who are all still losing money and are still looking aimlessly trying to figure out why. Probably because they spent so much money on this education that they can not accept the fact it does not work!
After realizing we were not going to make money doing the OTA method of trading we started looking elsewhere for more knowledge. I am happy to report you can make money trading and there are some excellent resources out there to help you learn. Please though, save yourself a boatload of money and do your research online and read through the FTC complaint of fraud and deceptive practices before giving OTA a dime, and that includes the franchise location in Milwaukee. If you still want to make a living becoming a day-trader, look elsewhere. There are MANY resources out there that work and are a small, VERY small fraction of the price.
Irving- I went to the initial free class, then signed up for the 3 day market timing ($200).
On the first day of that class, I was already being mistreated by staff. The lady at the front door was VERY mean (rolling her eyes and blatantly bullying me). 1 of the instructors is too salesy and acts “caffeinated” if you know what I mean. In class, he kept telling stories about different biases he has basically. He’s robotic and doesn’t understand how to interact with me (lack of social skills). He doesn’t like when I ask questions, but also doesn’t seem to like when I answer a question he’s asking to the class. He thinks I’m showing off how “smart” I am to the class I can’t win- this man clearly has a bias toward me. Maybe he should see a therapist. It’s like he wants me to kiss the ground he walks on. He seems to think I’m trying to challenge him simply because I ask questions. How can I challenge him if I’ve literally never traded before and have zero experience?! However, I’m not going to dumb myself down to please his ego. He shouldn’t try to make me feel guilty simply because I might actually know the answer to a question.
as a student, I expect to be able to openly ask questions to better understand the material. Especially if I’m spending $20k. Needless to say, I probably won’t be moving forward with OTA. They need to teach their staff communication skills.
It’s clear that I’m just a number to these people and they don’t care much about our relationship/the customer.
I had great experiences with 1 instructor, 1 front desk lady and my mentor who were all VERY friendly, respectful and helpful.