The United States Federal Trade Commission has finally exploded the Online Trading Academy.
On February 12, 2020, the FTC filed a massive 8000+ page lawsuit alleging that the Online Trading Academy ripped off thousands of consumers for a total of $370 million dollars, since at least 2014.
However, the alleged fraud is likely much larger and probably closer to $670 million dollars. According to a source that contacted TradingSchools.Org, the organization was not charged with the full amount because the statute of limitations only covered the prior 6 years.
The lawsuit filed in the Southern District of California is an absolute nightmare and essentially describes what amounts to a highly refined and well-orchestrated financial slaughterhouse where primarily elderly consumers were fleeced of their life savings.
Additionally, on February 25, the FTC was able to successfully obtain a Temporary Restraining Order and was able to freeze the personal and corporate assets of the company founders: Eyal Shachar and Sam Seiden.
As it currently stands, the fraudulent company is essentially on life support and making a last-ditch, “bet the company” legal strategy to fight the Federal Trade Commission in Federal Court.
Good luck with that.
The TradingSchools.Org Investigation
Since early 2019, TradingSchools.Org began to receive a steady stream of information from former company salespeople describing that a nascent investigation had commenced at the Federal Trade Commission.
We began to receive a tremendous amount of information that could have only come from someone working on the inside.
All the while, hundreds of consumers have requested that TradingSchools.Org write a review about Online Trading Academy. However, with the pending FTC investigation, we felt it best to wait until all the facts came out, and more witnesses were willing to come forward.
The Online Trading Academy is highly litigious. A search of state and federal court record databases reveals that they will sue pretty much anyone that negatively speaks or writes about them.
These lawsuits include suing and or threatening to sue the very people that they have ripped off. Their legal strategy has been to “spend whatever it takes” to keep the truth from coming out.
Finally, the FTC has taken bold action. It is good to know that the assets of the company founders have been frozen, and are pending the outcome of a trial in Federal Court.
In the following paragraphs, I would like to give a highly truncated version of events. Considering that the lawsuit is over 8000 pages long, there is way too much ground to cover. The following is short, sweet, and not perfectly accurate. Many witnesses were not willing to use their real names for fear of yet more legal reprisal.
The people running this company are very ugly.
Online Trading Academy: What, where, and how much?
The headquarters of the Online Trading Academy is located in Irvine, California.
However, there are also dozens of franchises located throughout the United States and several locations located outside of the United States.
The cost of a franchise depended on the territory and size of the general population in the area. The prices ranged from $300k to $750k, with approximately 10% of gross sales paid to the corporate headquarters.
What did you get for your franchise fee? According to our source, the Online Trading Academy pre-packaged a “business opportunity” that taught franchise owners how to fleece consumers with the well-worn sales pitch of “easily earn millions through day trading.”
Consumers would spend upwards of $60k per person to supposedly learn how to day trade from a purported “professional day trader.”
According to the FTC, the company had a special affinity for scamming the elderly and financially illiterate.
More on that later.
Online Trading Academy: The Early Years
Online Trading Academy was established in about 2001 by Eyal Shachar and Sam Seiden.
In the late 1990s, Eyal Sachar arrived in the United States “with zero money” as he describes in his personal biography.
According to people that know him, he is a life long con artist that fled Israel for attempting to sell fake diamonds to consumers.
Additionally, he is described as a “professional con artist” that has spent his entire life selling all manner of get-rich-quick schemes and financial whack-a-doodle.
When he arrived in the United States, “he didn’t know the difference between a stock and a rock.” In fact, he has never day traded successfully, holds no professional qualifications, and has been nearly convicted on multiple financial crimes in his native Israel, according to our source.
But Eyal Shachar quickly realized that American consumers had an unseemingly unquenchable appetite for “day trading” products and services.
About this time, he met a person named Sam Seiden. Mr. Seiden was also a professional con artist that had spent the prior several years selling books and courses describing himself a “millionaire day trader” and he would sell you his “secret trading system” for several thousand dollars.
They next devised a scheme where they would lure unsuspecting consumers into a professional-looking office replete with dozens of computer screens.
The office was made to appear as a “prop trading” office where professional traders were supposedly executing trades and earning hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
Consumers were allowed to walk and talk to these “professional traders” including Sam Seiden and they were told that “day trading is easy” but you “need a proper education.”
However, what consumers did not realize is that these “professional prop traders” were nothing more than formerly used car salesmen, timeshare salespeople, and generally people of low moral character.
Consumers were then taken into specially designed sales offices where Eyal Shachar and Sam Seiden would walk the consumer down a carefully prepared “primrose path.” In short, they were shown falsified brokerage statements and stories of “day trading glory.”
The cost to learn these supposed secrets was upwards of $60k per consumer. However, most elderly and financially illiterate are on a fixed income and typically financially desperate.
And so, they devised a scheme where the victim was offered the opportunity to finance their “day trading education” at 18% interest, which must be paid back over the following 6-months.
Knowing that these consumers were typically middle class, and their primary asset was their home, they encouraged consumers to leverage their home equity, borrow on credit cards, or do whatever possible to raise money to pay the educational fees, and open a trading account.
Consumers were led to believe that most people started a trading account with $5k and typically earned $5k to $50k per month by using their “patented trading strategy.”
The Patented Trading Strategy
To further extend the fraud, and to add a bit of sizzle to the sales pitch, they presented consumers with a fancy looking document from the United States Patent Office.
Both Sam and Eyal promised consumers that “This patent serves as proof that our trading strategy is legitimate.”
However, nothing could have been further from the truth. Obtaining a patent requires little more than paying a filing fee and submitting the idea to a clerk.
Have a good cookie recipe? Congratulations, for only $495 you can patent the recipe. This does not mean that your cookies are tasty.
But Sam and Eyal systematically convinced consumers by stating, “The United States Patent Office would not have given us a patent unless we could have proven that our trading strategy is legitimate.”
Once again, this is a blatantly fraudulent misrepresentation.
During the first several years of refining the sales pitch, and subsequently ripping off consumers for millions of dollars, they next devised the franchise scheme of replicating the fraud, and teaching others how to also rip off consumers.
The Franchise Scheme
In order for the fraud to be perfectly executed, Sam and Eyal discovered that the “key to the con” was in the perfect presentation.
It is one thing to sell a fraudulent product to faceless people over the internet. It is an entirely different thing when you can isolate the victim in a sales office, staffed with actors portraying themselves as professional day traders.
The magic happened when people were lured into the spider web of the fancy office, and presented with fraudulent information from highly trained “closers.”
Sam and Eyal perfected the sales pitch into what can best be described as “the perfect fraud” according to sources.
Additionally, they specialized in finding high-pressure salespeople with long histories of selling dubious products and services.
The key was to “polish the turd.” In other words, take a person with no financial qualifications, but with experience in selling used cars, vacuum cleaners, or timeshares and then give them the appearance of a “professional day trader.”
Former Male Porn Actor? Most definitely!
In essence, they were perfecting the art of replicating themselves. Like a virus that invades the host, changes the cell structure, and then releases itself unto the host until the host is completely consumed.
Sam Seiden and Eyal Shachar are not too different than the coronavirus in that they consume their victims, and then teach others how to yet consume more victims.
It worked well. Until the vaccine showed up.
Federal Trade Commission: The Undercover Investigators
Vaccines are a medical marvel. They serve one purpose, to track down a virus and destroy it. Some vaccines disguise themselves as weakened versions of a virus, which triggers the body into producing antibodies.
And yet other vaccines disguise themselves as potential victims in which the target virus unwittingly consumes — only to quickly discover that the vaccine implodes within the virus. Thereby destroying it.
In approximately 2018 and 2019, the United States Federal Trade Commission decided to finally take action against the Online Trading Academy. But how?
According to court documents, several former salespeople bravely came forward and provided the exact blueprint of how Online Trading Academy was operating as a sort of “viral franchise scam”.
They described that the “magic” of the $60,000 sales pitch was in isolating the victim within the inner sales chambers at sales offices and then making verbal communications that would be fraudulent, but hard to prove.
Online Trading Academy was clever in teaching the “closers” that the magical sales pitch should be fraudulent in form but concealed and presented only behind closed doors.
With this information, the Federal Trade Commission then armed a team of investigators with the needed information to worm themselves into these fraudulent sales presentations.
In short, investigators infiltrated several of the franchise operations and secretly recorded everything. What they found was unimaginable fraud and misrepresentation.
The Lies, the Fraud, the Misrepresentation
According to Federal Trade Commission investigative reports and submitted affidavits of secret investigators, the highly-trained closers within this financial slaughterhouse made the following fraudulent statements and actions…
All of the “closers” were instructed on how to present themselves as “professional day traders.”
They were encouraged to tell stories of how they typically earned hundreds of thousands of dollars each year from day trading. That they owned expensive sports cars, lived in expensive neighborhoods, and that their kids attended private academies and Universities.
All were lies.
That they traveled the world on private yachts, visited castles (yes, actually visited castles), enjoyed parasailing, giving generously to charity, and buying homes and cars for family members.
All were lies.
They were encouraged to tell stories that nearly all of the students of the $60k education were now earning between $50k to $250k in their very first year. That nearly anyone with a $5k account was virtually guaranteed to double the account, each and every month.
That they could expect to work only an hour each day.
The secret of the sales pitch all played within the storyline of the “patented trading strategy.” All a consumer needed to do was click the button when the software said “buy” and then click the button when the software said “sell.”
They showed victims copies of the patent and declared they have proven to the United States Government that “this is real, we had to prove it, else they would not have given us the patent.”
They portrayed the trading system as a virtual ATM or printing press where money could be obtained with simplicity and ease. But in order to obtain the secret trading strategy, you must pay a fee of $60k.
Of course, they would also finance the cost with a loan at 18% interest that needed to be paid back within 6 months. But assured that nearly everyone paid it back within 6 months with the profits generated with the “patented trading strategy.”
They encouraged elderly victims to sell their stock portfolios to pay the fee, encouraged them to take a second mortgage, or borrow from a family friend. They were clever, deceitful, and absolutely horrifying.
Additionally, they also maintained a relationship with TradeStation Securities in Miami Florida. They would push their victims to TradeStation to open trading accounts and be paid yet more fees and incentives to direct the victims to TradeStation.
Audited TradeStation Accounts: The Big Reveal
But the Federal Trade Commission was thorough…they subpoenaed TradeStation Securities.
The Federal subpoena was clear. The FTC wanted the names, addresses, phone numbers, and most importantly…the account statements of each and every victim of Online Trading Academy.
The FTC then proceeded to analyze the account statements of each and every victim. What they found was discouraging.
According to court records, the Federal Trade Commission individually analyzed 4,799 trading accounts.
The average account size varied between $5k to $15k. Of all of these accounts, 74.9% of the accounts lost an average of 94%.
Typically, the accounts were drained to nothing within 6-months. Which seems to perfectly match when consumers were required to pay off their $60k debt, at 18% interest.
Consumers that refused to pay, or could not pay were threatened with lawsuits and negative credit reporting.
One victim, in particular, lost his entire life savings of $1,364,337.
The Federal Trade Commission submitted “victim impact statements” from multiple parties and their stories are heartbreaking.
Many people were driven to bankruptcy, had to defend lawsuits for posting negative reviews on YouTube, were constantly harassed and threatened by creditors and lawyers working for Online Trading Academy, and the list goes on and on.
This was truly a nightmare scenario for nearly all. But a glimmer of hope for just a few as the FTC immediately halted Online Trading Academy from attempting to collect these debts, attempting to foreclose on homes, and otherwise further harassing the victims.
Wrappings Things Up
Well, this article took much more time than expected. Thanks for making it this far.
The thing that drives me most crazy is that the Federal Government is still only willing to proceed with civil actions. Not willing to push for criminal prosecution.
Undoubtedly, what these charlatans and con artists pulled off were criminal in nature. They should be jailed. And they should be jailed for the remainder of their lives. What they have committed over the past decade is to simply destroy the lives of thousands of innocent people.
The declarations of victims, contained with the complaint of the lawsuit is truly heartbreaking.
Once again, thanks for reading. And a big thanks to our sponsors and advertisers of TradingSchools.Org. Without your generous support, we would not be able to keep the reviews cranking out.
I’ve been with OTA since 2018.
They did promote making money with their system of trading,
which was louder in my ear than what they also were providing in educating me on the markets.
The selling point for me was this is a lifetime school.
I realized that this can’t be learned in a 6-month course.
So unlimited courses seemed very attractive to me.
I have to say that it’s a lot of work to watch and rewatch online videos to understand how to place trades and when to give up on it when it goes against you or to take profits when it goes your way.
Also understanding how the markets move and react to everything going on in the world.
There’s such a wide variety of instructors from OTA to draw from and choosing one or a couple to learn from and try their strategy for placing trades. Not every instructor has the same mindset as you do and understands and expresses differently than you.
I also heard that the instructor has to prove to OTA that they have a winning track record trading to be an OTA instructor.
The biggest problem with traders,
especially new traders, is overcoming emotion.
You get 2 or 3 consecutive winning trades, then you think you’re a master at trading, then you get hit with a reality check.
I’ve also been on 4 to 5 consecutive losing trades and said,
“That’s It, I quit!” I’ve already quit trading about a dozen or so times.
I don’t blame OTA for me losing money trading, I blame myself and I blame some of the broker platforms.
Sometimes the bid and ask is so wide that when you do win it’s only a small percentage but if you lose, it’s a much larger loss than you think.
I had this platform that as soon as the trading day was over the bid and ask was tripled or quadrupled,
if my stop order was within that range, it would stop me out, losing money. Then when the next trading session started the bid and ask would go back to normal and the price opening right where it closed.
This is something you need to learn from experience but something that OTA didn’t teach me.
I’ve also had other problems with different broker platforms, but I can’t blame OTA for that.
So, the question is, is OTA worth it?
Well, it depends on what you put into it.
I realized that this is not a get rich quick scheme.
And I don’t think that it’s a fraud company.
It’s whatever you put into it.
If you bought into this company thinking that they were just going to give you winning trades, you’re wrong!
Having access to professional traders in OTA is a plus.
You get to know the instructors and if they explain things the way you understand them, that’s a good thing.
If you want to be a good trader, well you need to hang out with good traders. This is where I think the value of OTA is.
Lifetime school.
I’ve found some instructors and are using their strategy and doing quite well. But sometimes I do something stupid and lose money, but I always have to remind myself to stay on course with rules.
OTA does its best to educate and it offers to such a wide variety of people with different levels of intelligence and trading experience.
It’s not fair to say that it is flawed for just one type of person.
There’s a lot of stuff OTA offers that I probably won’t take advantage of, but again that’s not OTA’s fault.
As long as OTA operates the way it’s been operating for the last 5 years, I will continue to support them.
I will feel scammed if OTA does shuts down or changes the way they have been operating.
And to judge OTA on one or two people that are scam artists it’s not looking at the big picture of the trading education that OTA provides.
Hopefully OTA has cleaned up their act. The FTC lawsuit was really ugly. All of the allegations were just terrible.
Regardless, hopefully they have some successful instructors currently, and you are learning and excelling at the craft.
I spoke with a guy who worked at OTA and who is a successful trader himself and according to him, OTA pays their salespeople and instructors pretty good salaries in order to present well to prospective purchasers. He told me also that Sam Seiden was audited and it was shown that he isn’t profitable. Speaking as a trader myself who has spent thousands of hours in front of the screen, the supply and demand strategy is indeed solid but it’s only one element to trading. I’ve watched much of Sam Seiden’s content on YouTube and I never liked how he made it seem as if supply and demand is all that you need in order to trade successfully. I also didn’t like how he relied heavily on hindsight analysis.
In addition to that, I spoke with a lady who was interested in learning to trade and she told me that she’d looked into OTA. According to her, they were charging somewhere between $25-30k. I don’t know how OTA operates now, but this lady told me that about 2-3 years ago.
I invested over $24,000 in an on line trading academy education that I never received due to unreliable internet connectivity. I live in a very rural location with only Hughes Net as a provider. Very expensive and limited gigabytes monthly. Was unable to stream the data required for the course. OLTA knew this and never responded to my request for technical assistance. Lost my entire investment
Hi Richard,
Sorry to read that these scam artists stole $24,000 from you. This is one of the bigger scams I have written about.
I believe the FTC just settled this case only a few days ago. I will include the press release below…
August 2021
FTC SENDS PAYMENTS TO PEOPLE ALLEGEDLY DEFRAUDED BY AN ONLINE INVESTING SCHEME
The FTC is sending checks totaling more than $5.4 million to 31,144 people who purchased an investment training scheme offered by Online Trading Academy (OTA) and its founder and Chief Executive Officer, Eyal Shachar.
The FTC alleged that OTA made misleading claims that anyone could use its patented āstrategyā to generate substantial income from trading in the financial markets and claimed this strategy could generate income in any market condition. Additionally, the complaint alleged OTA āinstructorsāā salespeople on commission who marketed OTAās training and strategy in live events across the countryā often falsely held themselves out as successful traders who had amassed substantial wealth using the companyās strategy.
If you get a check, please cash it within 90 days.
You can find answers to common questions about refund payments on our FAQ page. If you have any other questions, please call the refund administrator at 1-855-535-1840.
You can call the FTC at the toll-free number listed above. I am not sure how much you will be refunded. Probably not a huge amount, but at least its something.
Also, I want you to look at the bright side…most of the Online Trading Academy consumers lost not only the tuition costs, but also massive investment losses. The educational costs were trivial in comparison to what consumers lost in the scam.
It might also make you feel a little better that the FTC, in particular, is likely preparing one of the largest enforcement crackdowns since the last major crackdown in 1999-2001. I believe its going to be a doozy. Many folks are going to wake up and find their bank accounts frozen. But again, that’s just what a little bird told me.
Maybe they can use this article as a guide…
https://www.earlytorise.com/expose-of-agora-inc/
(One of the main players mentioned in here has completely stopped talking about his “billion-dollar client” on his blog, and now mostly seems to do maudlin book reviews.)
we all like to blame on other for our stupidity. if somehow you able to saved 1.3 millions dollars and lost it all in trading it nobody fault but your. the school only give you the tools. its you need to use it correctly. a gun in a right hand will do good. a gun in a wrong hand will do harm. so it is the gun or it come down to the individual. loser always wine about their best and it always someone else fault.
his new scam, the Pinnacle Institute ! https://pinnacleinstitute.com/
I’m on this. No way this guy is losing me. He is getting torched shortly.
Not bad. Couple of years back went in chicago west suburb one of their offices for an appointment. As usual bunch of baloney. Had a nice breakfast with nice coffee . paid off for the 2 hours brain wash. Nope didn’t shave my head there.
has anyone heard of “trade academy Ltd” by Jade Lynn or Hayden Bell?
I’m just now reading this article about the FTC action against OTA and it is October 29th 2020. I too was victimized. What can I do now? My name is Mike and I’m from North Carolina and my email address is:
navmike8@gmail.com. Thanks
Hey Mike,
Sorry to read that you got scammed by Online Trading Academy. I recently wrote a follow-up article which gives some more detailed information after the article in which you read.
Let me ask you a few questions about your potential case. And this is not to be construed as legal advice! But I have been bombarded by plaintiffs attornies looking for me to connect them with potential victims. There are several class actions currently snaking their way through various Federal courts.
When was your last purchase with Online Trading Academy?
How much did you spend?
Do you have any of your original paperwork? Contract, communications, receipt of payment, etc.?
Although the easiest way to obtain relief would be to join an existing class action, I would actually take a look at individual representation on a contingency fee basis. I have one lawyer, that I know, that is doing this. Please contact me at emmett@tradingschools.org
Emmett,
Please contact me as well, I am also from North Carolina, and the exact same thing happened to me. Only my deal was financing $20,000 – LOL Military discount I guess?
nickjoymba@gmail.com
Hi Nick,
Sorry to read that you got scammed by Online Trading Academy. I might be able to help you on this. Let me ask you a quick couple of questions:
1. About what date did you sign your contract with OTA? This is important because I need to know if you within the statute of limitations period.
2. In total, how much have you paid to OTA?
3. Do you have your original contract or a copy of the contract that you signed?
4. Do you fill out a “customer satisfaction survey” with OTA?
5. Have you been contacted by the Federal Trade Commission yet?
6. Have you been contacted by any other lawyers or had prior representation concerning your dispute with OTA?
Once I have this information, I can refer you to one of several lawyers that are currently at various stages of litigation with OTA.
Emmett
Thanks Emmet – I will contact you, too
I attended one of their franchise presentations in Minneapolis several years back. I really attended it to get the free Jimmy John box lunch and I was curious what and how they were peddling the snake oil. The presentation was looking at charts in hindsight to see how much you could have made, similar to all the BS artists on the internet currently. What was most interesting was the one on one hard sales pitch in the office. I actually enjoyed telling them this was not for me and thanks for the yummy lunch. They dismissed me pretty quickly, next…
The “Jimmy John box lunch”…OMG, I nearly rolled out my chair in laughter.
I did two of their presentations in San Diego. The first, I was a bit too aggressive and they sniffed me out quickly as a plant. They actually walked me out to my car and took pics of my license place. Apparently, someone spotted me taking pics and stuffing internal sales materials into my underwear. Not kidding.
But I am a persistent sort. A couple of months later, I arrived yet again but wearing a really bad toupe. Not kidding about that either. My teenager bought me a wig at a thrift shop as a gag gift. I sat through the entire presentation and recorded the entire scheme. It was a beauty. Every ugly allegation in the FTC complaint was revealed and similar.
What is crazy is they actually believe they can rebrand the scheme. Good luck with that! Of course, I will need a new costume.
The franchise I was at did have at least 4 former car salespeople each acting as a salesperson/education counselor/education coach. They get one week of training at the corporate office and then are ready with the sales pitch.
This is fake news and slander. OTA is loved by it’s students. Educate yourself. I hope they sue you.
If their students are loved and adored, as you say, then why are they suing Online Trading Academy? Have a look for yourself…this is a class action lawsuit (not the Federal Trade Commission Lawsuit) where much of what I have written in my article is also alleged in this very class action lawsuit.
https://www.cpmlegal.com/media/news/318_Jine%20et%20al%20v%20OTA%20Franchise%20Corp%20et%20al.pdf
I would remind you, that from the FTC’s very own complaint, student investment accounts with TradeStation Securities were audited and nearly every single student was a net losing trader. Perhaps you are one of those very students?
Additionally, I would also remind you, that the company founder — Sam Seiden — also had his trading accounts audited. And he is also a net losing trader. In fact, Sam Seiden has already admitted that the very own school in which he founded “Is a fraudulent business.” Not my words, his words. Those are his very own words.
Mary, I get it. I assume you are a student. And you have pinned your hopes and dreams on the product they had sold you. But you simply have to find the courage to at least examine this new evidence regrading OTA.
Here, yet another lawsuit against Online Trading Academy, this by the Attorney General of Massachusetts…
https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-healey-secures-relief-for-students-victimized-by-online-for-profit-school
Totally ridiculous.
They are still operating. They are running ads on Facebook and holding classes.
Great investigative reporting…
Hmm, given the choice to believe scammers or the FTC, who do you choose to believe? I am going to believe the party whose mission is to protect consumers, the FTC.
I am a former student. And I took Core Strategy and Futures trading.
My only problem with them is the sales tactics can be a bit much.
The material itself takes time and money to grasp
I gave up when I used most of my money to pay for and finance my courses. This was in 2014 and I opened a TradeStation Account with little cash. Could only trade futures.
I had the stripper guy in the picture twice as our instructor. He was very good at making some nice trades on the screen.
If you are new to it you really need to stick with it before you commit money to trading.
I didnāt. But I would love to hear of the people who did and how they are doing now?
I just never felt comfortable with learning the system well enough to pull the trigger.
Different time frames, using the platform, candles, all of these things were like diving into a pool filled with ice cubes. I think if I learned TradeStation platform to the point where I could pull up charts and the matrix and fire off a trade with confidence it might have worked but still I felt like I needed to know why we are doing what we are doing and I never felt that I could know enough. So for that reason I quit and went back to buy and hold which has suited me well. But would love a recommendation for another system that I could reengage with?
Anyone who paid money thinking they would make a fortune without effort deserves exactly what they got. When I invested in my education with OTA, I KNEW it would take a lot of time and effort to learn what I didn’t know about the market.
This education is IMPOSSIBLE to find unless you work in the markets.
I have worked my butt off to learn this material. There were a lot of people in my classes who just didn’t get it – and weren’t able or capable of learning this material. I STILL am far from an expert. But I have moved way beyond where I was when I joined, and the education was well worth the money.
I am disappointed with the FTC’s action, and strongly disagree that the information contained in this post has validity.
So glad something is getting done. They are a Ripoff . Over priced school with poor quality instructors.
So glad this school is finally going to be stopped from stealing from so many people. They sell something great and give you something so low in quality and overpriced. I spent over $30k for a 2 week course that was not taught properly and told I could retake it or do my own research… for $30k I was expecting the top quality detailed course taught to me
I, too, spent $30K and I have taken the introductory course THREE times (it takes more than once to “get” it) – and there is no problem with taking classes online. There are thousands of hours of further education available.
This stuff is not easy. It’s not for everyone. Give it another try, and see if it makes more sense next time.
I took the core strategy class , itās a week long , which you can never learn in that amount of time , the instructor was terrible , everything was taught way to quickly, never showed that the strategy actually worked in live trading, doesnāt surprise me they are being investigated
My husband and I joined Online Trading Academy in 2013. We feel we have gotten an outstanding education on many levels. We were never promised that just by signing up we would become millionaires. In fact, every class we took held a clear understanding that there are risks, they need to be managed, and you need to understand your risk tolerance. We were offered opportunities to upgrade our OTA membership, most of which we did not take and we did not feel any high pressure or misrepresentation. We’ve had many outstanding instructors – none of whom talked about their personal situations – no bragging about airplanes, yachts, mansions….
There are resources available to us that we haven’t taken advantage of, but even so we feel that we’ve gotten our money’s worth from the educational opportunities. We also continue to take courses, now online, and find them to be of benefit, refreshing our knowledge and learning new concepts.
The affiliation with TradeStation has been beneficial for us – we appreciate the platform. We’ve looked at other platforms and have come away feeling that TradeStation was the best for us. We belonged to an Investment Club that used Schwab and so we had a direct comparison. We feel that TradeStation works better for us as individuals.
Overall I’d say that we are happy with Online Trading Academy, do not feel duped in the slightest. We are “older”, and certainly not wealthy, but comfortable. We’ve tried many services over the last 7 years and would rate Online Trading Academy as one of the best.
Finally, part of what we were sold is a life-long access to training and support. We would hate to see that go away. That would be a shame for us and for many. Then we would have a beef – but it wouldn’t be with Online Trading Academy, it would be with the FTC.
I will say this… probably their sales tactics changed but in my experience it was straight forward pay for what you want, however I found the strategy decent but did not work in all assets as they claimed. I took it upon myself to further my education on my own and its been a long road. Fxcm was booted they almost blew up my account and the strategy FAILED me there. the instructors didn’t help when it came to fx because that was not an asset they really traded. during 1 class online i critiqued the instructors strategy as being incorrect and that it will lose due to it being on the wrong side of trend and the instructor coined me as experienced. Soon after the school was working on a strategy similar to mine and now its exactly as mine. So what alot of these ota students don’t understand is that they aren’t learning; the school is learning from them trading and reviewing their trades and getting paid all the while. As for payments in 6 Mos that is true. so ota can defend themselves. There is 2 sides to a story and if they are found guilty so be it.
Mr. Moore claims on the about page of this website 1) that he writes reviews 2) that he will “relentlessly search for the truth”
First, the post he made about OTA can not be called a review because he has never taken a single course from OTA. This is the same as if a TV reviewer reviewed a sitcom without ever having watched it, or a food critic reviewing a restaurant without ever having tasted the food.
I consider Consumer Reports to the the gold standard in reviews. They are totally independent. They buy every product they review. They have their own testers and, when needed, enlist outside testing firms as well. Then they survey 1000’s of consumers about every product they review.
Mr. Moore has done none of that. He has done zero independent research. He has done nothing in his claim that he will “relentlessly search for the truth.”
At best this post (I will not dignify his post by calling it an article as the word “article” implies professionalism and this post has none.) is gossip and at worse libel.
The post is not presented as an article of reporting standards. Instead it is filled with everything from outright false accusations and inaccurate comments to childish name calling.
Here are some facts:
1) I have been a student of OTA since 2014.
2) I have attended in person or online over 4000 hours of educational courses through OTA
3) In reference to the post and Sam as a day trader: I have watched, live, Sam Seiden present a 1 hour trading session nearly every weekday morning for over 2 years. Never ONCE did he call himself a day trader. In fact, he has stated on several occasions that day trading is not the best way to make money in the markets. In fact, he has said most day traders fail. He advocates swing trading.
4) In reference to claims about OTA sales tactics: I have never ONCE been told by any OTA staff that OTA will guarantee any returns or any winning percentage while using their system. This includes the founder (Whom I have met and spent time with) Eyal Shahar (Who’s name Mr. Moore misspelled.)
5) Up until last year OTA had no software of any kind in regards to trading. They are building a trading platform but it is still in beta. So OTA could not have any software that has a “buy” or a “sell” button as claimed in the post.
So much for Mr. Moore’s relentless search for the truth.
Finally, after being with OTA for 3 years, as an experiment, I withdrew $32,000 from my main trading account and opened a separate account. I used one specific trading strategy that I developed using the education I received from OTA. In 7 months I doubled the account.
Next I withdrew $1500 from my main account and opened a new account. Again, using a different strategy I developed using the education provided through OTA I doubled the $1500 in 8 weeks.
I have given both my brokerage statements and my trade confirmations to OTA as documented proof that they may use in showing prospective students that what OTA has to offer can and does make a profit.
I went to one of their free 3-hour trading courses. I am an experienced trader. This place put up so many red flags in their presentation it was obvious a major shakedown fraud operation. Period. No question about it. Who paid you for your comment?
No one paid me. Everything I said, I said because it it true.
Alan you are closed minded if a simple presentation scares you off. I am also an OTA student since 2015 and it has been a blessing joining OTA. I agree with ChuckP this article is a piece of crap put together by some reporter that was told rumors. OTA works and anyone that says otherwise are those that do not want to put in the time it takes to learn. This is financial education and is not meant to be a get rich quick or exciting process and OTA clearly explains to their students. If you want something that requires less effort go make money playing video games or youtube videos for a thrill… Finance is not a game. #SAVEOTA
Don’t mind these paid shills which most of them are, except maybe for a few still deluded newbs they successfully caught up in a sunk-cost mental block, even though it’s proven now most all ota students just lose money with the “teachings” and all the sham instructors don’t even trade for a living including the owners. OTA has long had a history of covering up their scam in past comment sites that attempted to review them, either bribed them to be compromised like ripoffreport is now, or flood any comment thread anywhere with their actored shills. OTA has done enough damage and gotten away with it for literally decades now. It’s time they were shut down for good and clawbacks from classaction ensue for due justice. Next should be Netpicks (when are you going to review them Emmett? they are legacy shamshow since the late 90’s also and are still duping and monthly churning newbs(!)), the Busby’s, and daytradetowin’s brazillian venture of Marcellos’ theDayTradingAcademy scam.
It’s obvious you have never taken a class at OTA. I would like to see any real proof you have of your claims. I have taken may classes at OTA and I have made many friends at OTA. Were are learning !! We learn the rules taught and FOLLOW the rules. If you went to any of the classes you would have learned it’s not how many losses you are your wins more than your losses. Your rant and ravings have no proof and no substance. Thank goodness there are thousands of satisfied students compared to the few whiners who are too lazy to learn. If you follow the rules you will never drain your account.
I’d heard enough , even years back about this shamshow from plenty of discussion on elitetrader by many who anecdoted how much of an upselling and expensive fraud it was. OTA’s day is over, even being legacy since the 90’s. LoLol. what rules?, shamshow sim trade, pretend scam hindsight , spreadsheet result “rules” and (car salesman) “stats”. When OTA gets taken down by the feds, maybe we’ll finally stop hearing from their shills like you here.
No body paid me for giving my opinion about OTA. If you are an experienced trader, you obviously still have a lot to learn. All the OTA instructors I have had were knowledgeable and demonstrated it through their teaching ability. I spent $100, 000 going through four years of college and when I was done they had nothing more to offer me – unless I gave them more money. I paid less than half that at OTA and now I have thousands of hours of online lessons available as well as the opportunjty to go back to any class for the rest of my life . .. … FOR LIFE AT NO CHARGE !!
Yea YOU have a lot to learn!
So that’s why I stopped receiving junk mail from OTA, after I canceled a scheduled seminar, at a local hotel.
Good.
This article is so dum. OTA DOES nkt ask 60k to start trading or entering THEIR SCHOOL
– it is 9k for their patenetdd strategy and
9K FOR ANY OTHER asset class that ud like to have FUTURES – forex – options or stocks- IF UR STUPID ENOUGH TO WANT THEM ALL and have the time to learn all 4 markets then u pay the sum of 5ok obiously.. but u have to have time TO ACTUALLY DEDICTE URSELF TO IT ppl went and bought bought but then what happened… Why dont u get people that have been sucesfull in OTA? That are rich now travelling the WORLD?
I feel bad for the people that did pay the 50k āMastermindā plan which included free EX CME PIT TRADERS AND CME ELECTRONICS trader Professional entries to the market –
Professional market screening articles daily
Live hour VIDEO SESSIONS RECORDED AND WATCHED AT UR CONVENIENCE (Over 11k VIDEOS!!!!)
– LIVE TRADING SESSIONS FROM MONDAY – FRIDAY EVERYDAY FOR 3 hoursā and all other shyt im not gonna mention cause is pointless now
Mother fuckers were trading without stop losses
Did not KNOW HOW TO FOLLOW RULES –
DID NOT HAVE More time than USUAL LIKE one would at a college or highs school to take notes And actually TAKE NOTES TO LEARN MORE and so some students got pissed off because it was too much and wasnt working st their OWN DESIRED TIME – i get it is stressfull
People expected, to be millioanres when in reality u gotta work to be millionsres in this trading world…
Yeah true thaf 18% bullshyt they had of paying back is / was some crap (no ones gonna pay back in under 6 months this thing… u know)
But basically
All the FREE FOOD
THE LIVE TRADING Sessions
The feedback of trades online
The MUTLIPLE (40k) ARTICLES TO READ
The YOUTUBE CHANNEL THEY HAD (POWER TRADER nation)
The general call – email support
The freaking on center veteran professional instructors
THE LIFE TIME RETAKE OF CLASSES WITH THESE PROFESSIONAL EX CME/NYSE pit traders/electronic professional traders ..
The on center meetings with important veteran traders that were not a part of OTA kinda sums up for 20k and that applies to all i got for 19k so stio with the crap
āāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāā
Everyone knew what they were paying for IF Ur STUPID ENOUGH TO GET BRAINSHWED THEN UR A DUMM ASS AND have not lived LIF3! … im a dude from the street no 1 is gonna brainwash me, cause IVe done it – OTA IS NOT A SCAM THEIR STRATEGY WORKS, no 1 pulled a gun to ur head and PRESSURED U too say yes, and sell and mortgae ur house for a 50k thing
When YOUhhh got kids and u got house and u got 2 jobs and u got no time to be behind tbe computer taking notes and learning how to speak another language… OTA IS NOT A SCAM the lazy peoppe could not, defeat the process .. and did not press on the fight got knocked down becUse THEY GET DESPERATE ā- THE PROCESS is a long one and peoppe wnna praise the RESULT before the process.. and so they get despert
AND Another thing is we HAVEE FEELINGS IN THE MANY MARKETS we put our money on WHEN We are not supppse too _and then u got PEOPLE MAKING their own rules so they fail and then they blame the teacher – in this case the school cause they so dum they can blame themselves….
OTa hopefully Wins the case BECAUSE THERE ARE OVER 70k students so where ARE WE GONAN GO ?? Whys gonna happn to us???
Some of us like me ARE READY to keep trading live and enjoying life as we do.. but still that life retKe and live trading rooms with instrcutors IS A PART OF THE TUITION WE PAYED and is always cool and vetter to have someone that has done this JOINT FOR 30 years or 40 years than someone that has done it for 2 years – we payed for this… so if they close the school down ? What justice is thT?? Punish the greedy bastards not all OTA students ! FTC!
– YES I DO AGREE that for their core strategy and for 1 asset class they SHOULD lower the volume of capital required to take the class… but hey ur dealing with rich MOFOS what chu exp3ct – greed and ambition… plus they gotta pay rent for their centerz, their workers, computers dont come free, cpus dont come free food doesnt come free, car rentals dont come free, paying an instructor to fly on a plane from texas to new york then to india doesnt come free… so jot those down too
These dum asses went to trade station (broker) and got a bunch of loosers beginners and said 94% Of then loose this is the proof we saw their accout jajajajjjaja my ass all the master mind members they winning 80% of the time makkng 5x mkore than they loose #NOUGH #Said #real #Talk
In few words OTA STRATEGY IS NOT A scam…
OTA patented core tecnique is not a scam either
THEY jusT charged too much, and got kicked in the back, for being too greedy and so the only thing ppl can say is āohh Strategy doesnt work and they got good speakers to sell to consumersā
Mann please this is bullsh**t
Two words: spell check
Im from NEW YORK – and give u 5 words
i dont Give a fu**
your response contributes absolutely nothing.
You’re the MAN bro!!! Truth makes people scatter like roaches when the light is turned on. I guess the streets do give a better education!!! Dumb ass, brain washed, misguided, miseducated sheep mutherfukkas. Streets teach you that you have to EARN EVERYTHING and NOTHING is EASY. People want to put success in a microwave for 5 minutes…š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£ #BlameGame #PowerOfPrivilege š¤” #SouthJamaicaQueens #QGTM #TradeOrDie #PipGetterz #OTAAtl
That is how they charge now but in 2016 it was different. You did not leave without paying $30K for three courses plus the “Professional Trader” (now known as Core Strategy). That was the minimum. If you wanted Master Mind it was $60K
Why then is the FTC investigating OTA?
The FTC is investigating OTA because some folks didn’t get rich in 30 minutes with zero effort and think they were taken advantage of. We live in a culture with a lack of personal responsibility. ‘I poured hot coffee in my crotch and got burned’ – sue McDonald’s. ‘I ate too many desserts and got fat’ – sue Sara Lee/Little Debbie/etc. I smoked cigarettes for 30 years and got lung cancer – sue the cigarette makers. Nothing is ever their fault. Rioters and looters are āprotesters that need to be heardā. No, theyāre thugs that are destroying someone elseās lifeās work, investment and livelihood and need to be either arrested or shot. They, much like OTA students, need to be held responsible for their own actions.
I have been a student of OTA since 2013. I am not a shill for them. I am not paid by them. I am one of those who paid somewhere north of $30 for a more advanced package. I feel very much like I got my money’s worth. I wish I had waited a bit and been a little more selective in what I bought but Iām not sure I would have ever known if some of the things were for me or not if I hadnāt tried them. And one asset in particular didnāt suit my temperament or lifestyle. Thatās OK. I made the choice.
When I came to OTA I was looking at retirement in the not too distant future with a feeling that I will likely not be able to do so. My experience is more mixed than some of the more positive reviews above but the problem with me and my trading has almost always been me ā my not following rules, my being greedy and not managing risk, my feeling like I have to make up for ālost timeā and take bad or risky trades or trades that were too large that I knew inside were bad/risky when I put them on but saw $ signs in my eyes and took them anyway. I will say some of the OTA marketing borders on crap but anyone over the age of twelve knows when they hear ānew and improvedā, ābetter than everā, āsave up to 50% and moreā that the marketing world is full of that kind of meaningless nonsense. My local center was particularly bad about the āyou only have to work 45 minutes a day and you can make a decent livingā schpeel. They never promised fantastic riches but they did promise and decent living with not having to work at it much. I have found that statement to be half true ā the first half at least. I am making money at this now but I spend a lot more time than 30 minutes a day at it but then I spend a lot more than 30 minutes a day on my day job ā why would I expect anything different from this? I have had to work very hard at this but it is paying off. Age-wise Iām not quite ready for retirement but financially I am and I *never* thought I would be.
I do think their target demographic is probably the 50-60 somethings as many probably have the same mindset about retirement as I did and, face it, they have money. What 22 year old can drop $10-15k for classes? The lure of āeasyā money is probably a swan song for many of 50-60-somethings too. āI can make rockinā chair money and not have to work at itā. And they all lived happily ever after. End of fairy tale. No instructor Iāve ever had said this was easy. I have set in a couple hundred online sessions with Sam Seiden and he will be the first one to tell you that day trading is, for most, a losing proposition. Heās an advocate of longer term trading as the probabilities are better. His view is there are many days when the markets donāt present opportunities to trade. On those days, you just donāt trade.
The fact you can take classes over and over again at no cost is huge for me. I have been in IT for 30+ years. I have taken countless classes in IT systems over that time as these systems change all the time. It seems like every 3-5 years hardware and software get complete new reworks. Every time I need a new class itās roughly $800-$1000 / day for a class – $5k for a week. Need to take it again because you didnāt understand it completely the first time? No problem! Thatāll be another $5k please. Family emergency when class is on and miss a day or two? No problem ā a mere $5k and you can take it again. New version software/hardware comes out a year or two from now and you need to learn a new versionā thatāll be another $5k, thank you very much. I have taken classes each of the asset classes that Iāve studied at OTA at least 5 times and have never paid a dime for any since the initial tuition paid ā probably 25 weeks of in-house classes since 2013. At my local center they even feed you breakfast and lunch every day. The ongoing, online learning offered by them is just as good as the in-house classes. They have between 6 and 12 hours every day of classes in continuing education that one just needs to log in to and attend. There is no cost after the initial lug when you first sign up. I have been doing this for years now. Takes effort and, for me at least, considerably more than 30 minutes a day but the opportunity to learn is there if you turn off the tv, set down the game console, log in to the computer and take advantage of it. Personal responsibility. Itās all there if you just un-ass your chair and do it.
Are there things about OTAās marketing I would change? ā Yes. Does that mean the whole school is a sham and should be shut down. Not in my view. I actually see a day in my future when I will be able to leave my day job and still be able to live comfortably doing so and itās all because of my association with OTA and the work that I have put in to what Iāve learned there since my attending their classes. Is this a āget rich quickā thing? No. Itās more like a ālive comfortably for the rest of my life but work at it dailyā thing. Itās better than my alternative at least.
If there is anything here that may well be a sham itās likely to be this site. I can put up a website, register a domain name and make it sounds very official and yet be doing all of it out of my parentās basement as a one person operation but no one knows that. If this reviewer hasnāt taken OTA classes personally then everything he says in his review is suspect IMHO. I can tell you what Iāve heard 2nd or 3rd hand about something but if I havenāt experienced it personally then itās just that ā 2nd or 3rd hand here say and needs to be taken as such. They write a sensational, controversial review and get lots of eyeballs to the site then they get lots of ad revenue. Easy to figure this guy out.
Thanks for the lengthy comment.
What I found most sad is that the FTC investigators discovered that the students all lost money. I assume you are one of those students.
Hey, if things don’t work out with OTA, I can get you a discounted copy of Trump University.
Mark – Reading your rant, I venture to guess that during your breaks at the OTA training sessions you listened yo too much of the right-wing talk radio station that they had blurring all the time in their break room – at least in Atlanta. Your arguments are terrible and ignorant – specifically about the hot coffee incident at MCD – you know nothing about it and make terrible statements typical of right-wing arrogance and ignorance. Terrible as those comparisons have really absolutely no relation to the tactics and activities at OTA.
Okay – not all work at OTA might have been fraudulent, true. But: I have not met in the four years that I was an active student at OTA anyone who really made money using their ‘system approach’ either. People I saw struggled generally with the didactics and methods taught there. Granted the instructors were very different personalities and that can be part of the learning issues.
I spend way too much money there, definitely partially my fault. But the high-pressure sales tactics of their “counselors” are a fact and I’m happy to tell that anyone in person, who might want to hear it. I met also both founders -Sam Seiden and Eyal Shahar – my first impression did warn me of those money-hungry guys. Why didn’t I listen to my inner voice… expensive lesson. I do hope sincerely both of those two con-man get now what they deserve!
Baruj I agree with you 100% I am an OTA student and OTA has been a blessing!!! #SAVEOTA
A protest would help so much in this case the judge is only listening to the FTC. We need to show the judge the FTC is wrong. Students need to standup for OTA and make noise so we can be noticed.
First of all…you canāt patent a trading strategy and expect continued functionality. To patent it would make it publicly accessible, and then anyone can alter it in the tiniest way and use it, making it obsolete. For example, if my strategy is based on 2% marginal separation between two averages and I patent it, everyone and their mother could use it based on 2.01% marginal separation. Anyone who mentions a āpatented strategyā is either playing you like a fool or is a fool him/herself.
The “patented strategy” is theoretical. It describes a computer based system that implements the core strategy. It does not exist as a product, at least not something OTA students can use. You can see it here: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8650115B1/en
The key is identifying supply and demand zones, which is manual and must be learned.
This article is absolutely absurd. No validity, no research, and the author has no idea what they are talking about. I’ve been a student with OTA for a few years now and have nothing but great things to say about OTA. I wonder if the author tried OTA and didn’t put in the effort to learn, lost money in the market, and then wanted to publicly whine and misrepresent what OTA is all about. Absolutely ridiculous.
So, the FTC is lying, huh?
there is so much more to the story than the FTC want you to know. The FTC does not want to give OTA a day in court and is trying to shut it down before they get a chance to defend themselves in court along with us the students. The FTC does not want the students to be heard because there are thousands of us that have actually put in the work to learn the program and are successful. It takes patience and attention to detail to be successful and many do not have what it takes to get there. Do not blame others for your failure because of your lack of commitment. I am a student and OTA has been a blessing. #SAVEOTA
You comment makes no sense. OTA will get its day in court.
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2020/02/ftc-sues-online-trading-academy-running-investment-training
What a part of the press release is incorrect?
I have no dog in this fight. I never enrolled in OTA, because my due diligence led me to believe the program is BS.
I have already read that article. Dont believe everything you hear on the news. I am a student and I am following the case. This press release talks about (earnings claims, advertises income, instructorsā claims of amassing wealth, misrepresents is has a patented strategy)… funny way to exaggerate, non of this is true. The classes start are as low as 10,000 and up to 50,000 and they advise to start with the minimum and work your way up. They never made earnings claims or promised any results they do have a strategy but in no way did they mention it was patented lol. I have been a student since 2015 and I am very happy with OTA. I love that if I run into an issue on the market there is always an instructor that can help guide in this life long journey they provide LIFE LONG ACCESS! You dont find that anywhere. #SAVEOTA
If you are not a student dont try to make it worse with assumptions.
YOU are really in trouble if you believe every thing you read in the paper>>> WOW, how ignorant are you ?? Don’t read the paper – read the court documents and find out the truth. OTA is well worth the money.
1. I believe a government regulator before I believe a con artist.
2. I learned how to trade on my own. I don’t need OTA.
3. Lastly, you haven’t provided any proof. So, you’re the ignoramus. Have a nice day.
Read the hearing documents. There were three people who bought the suit. Learn the facts before you make statements. I did and I saw that the whole law suit was perpetrated by a few people trying to get even. Guess what – it didn’t work !! It’s back in business and I’m back in class.
agreed Christian
I WANT MY MONEY BACK FROM THESE CON ARTIST!
How are they con artists? Honestly.
‘Derrick’, you and presumably everyone else over the years who were scammed by this OTA shamshow need to report your case to the FTC, contact Emmett etc. to help be part of the class action lawsuit. Their scam is egregious and even outdated compared to today’s shamshows with all the upselling to multiple tens of thousands. Considering all their stuff is just regurgitated crap easily found for free on the web in this day and age of the tradeucation wild west. And then que in the shills posting now, lol. If they’d hadn’t heard of tradingschools before, usually they assume the readership of tradingschools are a bunch of clueless newbs and are ignorant that hundreds of vendor scams had been exposed already on tradingschools, and OTA already has symptoms of one of the worst of the lot of the cockroached cesspool. Look at their fakery numbers of “8000” ‘happy’ customers on their site. This is what happens when a scam gets too big, they can use funding to buy out and corrupt review sites like ripoff report which has fallen and then make up a bunch of baloney hiring as many shills and fake testimonials as needed to pretend they have a satisfied customer following, lol. (Where are you RobB?? This past year has had reviews of some of the bigtime scams ever seen in the tradeucation industry that everyone jaded has known about for years!).I hope OTA and its worthless stink organization is clawbacked and oblivated for good which should be a relief. And hopefully the FTC, or FBI will subpoena , and do discovery and show how all the ill-gotten funds were siphoned to the top owners who don’t even trade for a living, exposed for all to see.
there is so much more to the story than the FTC want you to know. The FTC does not want to give OTA a day in court and is trying to shut it down before they get a chance to defend themselves in court along with the thousands of students. The FTC does not want the students to be heard because there are thousands of us that have actually put in the work to learn the program and are successful.
If the FTC is right then it wouldn’t have a problem going to court and prove its case. Why try to shut it down before we have a chance to speak? Why convict someone of being guilty before proven innocent? That is not the American way…
FTC has noticed the people are making too much money in the markets and is trying to suppress the people from learning and leave trading education only for Wall Street. It is a way to choke people out to restart the economy. Without financial education people will learn from trial and error and loose more money than the cost of education itself. FTC is the real bully open your eyes.
It takes patience and attention to detail to be successful and many do not have what it takes to get there. Do not blame others for your failure because of your lack of commitment. I am a student and OTA has been a blessing. #SAVEOTA
Sheez. You shlls are just clueless about tradingschools. Many of the readers are wised up jaded and many have spent years to finally learn the shamshow cess pervades this so called vendor education industry. You really believe the same old tired excuse of “not spending enough time and work” on the “methods” taught is going to fly here? lol. For your information I have my own success after years and practice of trading, and it has NOTHING to do with OTA or any of these scam shamshows reviewed here on tradingschools. I didnt’ get snooked by OTA, elitetrader and forexpeacearmy old reviews helped warn me years back. But I did get duped by a few of these shamshows reviewed here, but I never had to pay as much as this long legacy scam OTA ripoff. Shilling won’t help here. OTA just want to try to get out of a court order to pay refunds and restitution back to the thousands they duped. I hope due discovery gets the proof that OTA owners and instructors never traded live in any substantial amount, much less can even trade for a living. So h0pe all of the OTA victims get their day or voice heard remotely in whatever manner in court. Shilling won’t help here, or any excuse making , or any tiny attempt to convince on the smallest bit of reasonable doubt, even though I see all those shill posts on the recent forexfactory thread “Sam Seiden goes DOWN” : https://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=991901 . where are you RobB? You must surely have known of the OTA long infamous scam. Missing your chance to call them out here! lol
You are another person sounding off with absolutely no objective evidence to back your statements. Quoting other people and web sites doesn’t cut it. Show me court documents. Oh, wait, you can’t, because court is over and OTA was found innocent.
You are another person sounding off with absolutely no objective evidence to back your statements.
This article is filled with fallacies. While the basis of OTA’s teachings is now Seiden’s Supply and Demand strategy, it was not always that way. Sam did not join OTA until 2007. The company was founded by Eyal Shachar and a former partner in 1998. They were running a trading floor with a mix of prop trading and individual traders. Sam did not start the school nor was he even involved until it had been operating for 10 years.
The school popped up as a result of a need to better educate and train the traders coming to the floor so that they would be able to protect their money. It was in a small storage area near the back of the trading floor. It then expanded due to its popularity.
The presenters of the workshops are trades. Unfortunately, their levels of success may not be as high as you want. There are requirements for all instructors in order for them to qualify to continue teaching. They must make a minimum number of trades in the asset class they teach and must be profitable. Records are requires to be turned in every quarter.
There may be some questionable sales practices over the years but in addition to the bad people, there are many great ones too who truly wish to help others. Please be sure to get your facts right when reporting. You owe that to your readers.
Well, I can agree that not every single aspect of the Online Trading Academy is horrible.
However, I just don’t even know where this company goes from here, or if the brand can possibly be salvaged. This is a perfect storm for a class action in California…a State where consumer fraud, class action lawsuits are as common as homeless people sleeping under bridges.
Its a mess.
https://vimeo.com/419428124
This company will continue to fight for their students and fight to have their day in court. It is ironic that the FTC has pledged to protect the consumers who have been ādupedā by OTA yet if they prevail and shut down the company what will happen to the thousands of students who want and need their education. They didnāt ask to have the FTC take their education and in fact are fighting to keep it, yet the FTC will not listen to them. Alan Dershowitz, Mark Eisenhut and OTA student Laura Owens are asking for OTA to have their day in court.
Nice damage control propaganda video.
Alan Dershowitz oha oha ? Run run run – And has anyone noted what type of people are behind this pro-OTA group??
Supply and demand is a bogus strategy. Virtually all stocks have enough float on outstanding shares to have plenty of shares to buy. So never a lack in supply. Buying and selling drives stock prices, not supply and demand. That was the first red flag OTC throws up in their free 3-hour class. Sieden is a con man scamming ignorant people.
Your ignorance is showing. Take an economics class and you will learn that buyers ARE demanding product for their money. If there is no supply what can be bought? Your just giving more erroneous information. Your why there is a need for OTA
A number of years ago I went to the OTA in Northridge CA and spent a couple hours listening to the sales pitch. It was pretty smooth and polished. The office had about a dozen computers and desks. There were verbal assurances of success, and stories of grandeur, but no real proof. At the time I felt like it was a scam and did not sign up. Emmet’s description of their franchise model seems pretty accurate to me.
Insightful article, although I agree that the author seems to reiterate the FTC filings. Trading schools.org has made a statement that they will write only truthful reviews. It is hard to know the other side of the story, if you go to Trading Academy.com/jointhefight another side is presented. Is the author in fact a student who has consumed the education? If not then this can not be a truthful honest review, but ones personal opinion. Which he is entitled to.
Thank you FTC. It;s about time. I was a member to find out from an institutional trader that they are what you found out to be.
You are another person sounding off with absolutely no objective evidence to back your statements. Sure institutional traders will tell you that. They don’t want you to trade on your own at a very low cost to you. Institutional traders want you to buy from them because they make money by charging you large fees.
I’ve been with the Online Trading Academy for 8 years and I can’t believe these allegations. I know that too many people thought it was a given, pay and complete the course and you’ll become a successful trader. I have 2 friends who think they’ve had a bad deal but, when I ask them if they have a written trading plan, the answer is no. When I ask if they log all their trades to learn from their mistakes, the answer is no. It does require quite a bit of personal work to master this way of trading. Your article resembles a disgruntled customer trying to get revenge. If they had put as much effort into learning to trade, they may well have made it.
You know Don, the FTC is going to issue refunds for the victims. At least try and be coy about your real name…you might be in line to get your money back. Unless, you come onto public forums and start singing the praises of OTA, which will be used against you later…during settlement negotiations.
Be careful, the owners and stakeholders of OTA read this blog and your own words can be used against you.
Were you scammed? Were you defrauded? At this point, you are clinging to false hope. But that sad and simple truth is that I have little doubt that OTA was a fraud. The FTC evidence is one of the biggest cases ever investigated. They expended huge resources to bring these characters down.
Best 200 bucks ever spent on 3 day two meals a day and friend to share (6meals).
The ‘meals’ of long term retiree considerations were worth the first workshop ALONE 1st) like pbs $70. gold box for your records safe keeping, by the shouting lady restating what ZigZigler and many others teach,,,…
~Moore useless info for those who picked up on DISCIPLINED RISK MANAGEMENT- in other simple words: if your last trade had a sell-stop limit of even 10% instead of the frequented 1% to 3% that scares newbies thinking they “WONT GET INTO A TRADE PROFIT”
-even 10% stop limits means YOU CAN NOT EVER DRAIN YOUR ACCOUNT. and I did not use the A in calculus to see that, of my 3.85 Engineering Sciences… 2 years.
REAL: Profitted DOING as suggested in short workshop–WITHOUT ONE CLASS PURCHASED:
~ Don’t stare at the screen more than an hour! Instructor read me like a book by the 3rd day!
~ Get your rules/ TO FOLLOW as we guide. THEN USE THEM!!!
~ All two people I showed Put-Short-OPTIONS trading techniques by the short OTA presence I had, those 2 folks did EXACTLY WHAT I SHOWED THEM TO NOT DO, per OTA; and never set a stop-limit; and never placed their trade WITH Stop-Limits OUTSIDE the anticipated market trend to engage !!! So what if ya lose 2-4% 5x’s to each gain of 20% to 200% capable with any options trading.
One trade with ‘ratcheting’ sell-stop-limit travel, last week, : GP 80%.
OTA also explains “1 for them 1 for you” about few get to keep 55%-70% of their Gross Profits of all trades/tax/involved with fees BY GOVT
How can you blame others trainiing, for the losses of unresponsive traders who refused tools to use…?!
GO CHECK LOSSES OF the other 49/50 Day-Traders ANYWHERE not using LOW-% stop limits !!!
In sales INTERVIEWS they determined for my financial picture, rather than borrow, “come back to us later…”
What Profits?
Best with low-% STOPS/limits handled as implied by OTA:
I haved followed detailed rules:
~3500 to 18,000 in 3 weeks:
some trades held on only 90-seconds and tripped me out @ PROFITS [ 18 trades: longest ~ 2hrs/ when I bypassed stop-Training and lost a couple at over 20%, but STILL : 5x the investments? and many trades were with thousands, to make as little as $6., “to trade another day” with all $$$ !!!
last Trades (following traing aided by free evening seminars available TODAY STILL): since APR 12/ 22:
2500 to 6200+ and paid overhead last 3 months to boot, trading OTA way.
I find IN ANY VENUE day-trading is 1 of/50 folks following ALL the strategic rules and setting stops as RISK-PREVENTION not peculiar to OTA !!
Yes HVAC techs at your home are only as honest and good as they will act.
If you are one who knows any ‘morality’ is NOT the imagination of mankind, then honest folks battle to do what’s right facing what is a GIVEN from the design of a Giver.
At least OTA doesn’t say “WE HAVE TO SIGN IT ‘IN’ TO SEE WHAT ‘Affordable Care Act-TAX’ has in it…” – Speaker Palosi said. Keep talkin’ Mr Moored. The article will have some FTC alleged-proofs to refute, along with nothing criminal…
perhaps as YOU have been sold by those not following the leadership, as well.
Tell us you profit from this site.
Whoever wrote this article is slanting the story. Back in the early 2000’s I took a number of OTA classes, sometimes two or three times. Trading is definitely something that requires education and discipline. We all know it’s not “easy”. I think that OTA did their best to provide students with the best educational material and resources possible. The way this article is written is wrong. Simple example is to look at any of their course books from which every class followed. It’s a legit school. Of all the complaints does anyone talk about how they lost money? What responsibility do they take? I agree that OTA courses cost a lot of money, and I don’t know much about their financing. Maybe they did “sell” people on enrolling. All I know is that I wanted to learn about trading and they provided the classes in a professional environment. This lawsuit is misrepresenting what OTA is.
I attended OTA in NYC on Broadway 3 years ago. Fancy office, good computers, trading class with huge screens – everything look solid, I paid #300 for 3 days introductory course, actually there were 2 days, and 3rd day was just sales pitch by 2 or 3 salesmen.
I did not feel that it’s a fraud, but their system looked too simple for me – just buy when big guys are buying and sell when they are selling based on order flow. This system definitely did not worth 15-30K they asked, so I opted out.
I feel good now about it.
Thank you, Emmett for clearing out another scam.
Clearing what ? Do the do and trade with rewards vs risk-stop-limitations set in your trade…
and the post about supply and demand ???
“red car” Car that is Red” ” thars a Red Vehicle down yonder”..
Supply=Available at a selling (ASK, ASKING) price.
DEMAND= Desired-to-purchase as priced (BID) buying price.
whats the matter with semantics?
Are you guys the National Enquirer of whatever it is you do?
Not inquiring at all. Sound biting and spitting it on non-student folks without the science/=knowledge…
just theories of criminality, but statements without evidence of using OTA to some-hiding lack of trading boundaries, and failed using any trading trainers “Here’s what a Stop-Limit is ” “Place trade OUTSIDE but in suspected ‘path’ of the trend of the Option/Equity”.
No author… super legit š
Hello is it too late to join the law suit. I am in huge debt to to these jerks. I am 65 years old and short of a miracle i will never see the money that these crooks took from me. My life is in taters. I am supposed to be enjoying these years, now they are a stuggle.
Contact me I’m part of a WhatsApp group that is filing out complaints to the FTC and contacting the Lawyers. My email is Saned.ziad@gmail.com
Prepare documented sell-stop-limit excersised as OTA trains. All platforms I have seen record if you placed limits or not, and times, which prooves when and where outside the mark your trade was placed, risking 1% 2% or 3% as a boundary to trade…
please show the stop-limits used in every trade; and show trades not placed right in a mark-pricing…
I went to this place in DC. The porn star was our instructor for our futures class. He would make a trade early in the morning and basically allow us to mess around on our computers. He actually taught their technique of trying to find the places where banks are buying and selling. Some students really seemed enthusiastic and must have been trading for awhile. Others like myself had no idea what these terms meant because I was not given the financial training. They said time frames were usually for daily but you could do weekly or next day. Based on your zones that you are more comfortable with. Some of it makes sense. But not 25000 dollars worth of sense. The financing was awful. But we managed to pay it off. The people that worked there were nice and tried to accommodate your questions. But learning how to use a trading platform is a big need. Not just a formula. I should have been weary when teachers changed for each class I took and their classes only focused on content for about the first hour of a 8 hour class
I thought their formula had some merits.
Wanted to believe itās what the big banks are doing that cause the prices to move. But finding those levels is a bit more complex than they make it sound. I would love to know if students will get compensated?
Show what you did not do , to lose.
Way to much risk in owning the whole company. I’ll buy a millionth of the company though. I’ll own a millionth of thousands of companies to limit my risk of any single one going out of business.
.. ppl; .. There are no ‘academies’, brick n’ mortar type places .. the only one i’d be associated with is if you can check the guy really was pro – a registered dealing rep in Canada ..
If want to trade join a bank or prop firm
There is a new time in the world..truth is coming out; in all, multiple fields in politics, fake news, in finance litigous fraud ..
The sad thing is, that, ppl sitting in there actually thought they were getting somewhere ..
Once was attending one webinar .. was commenting ( in public so out loud so it shows) trade eminis as opposed to etfs .. if want to trade join a bank or prop firm the mod >p pretty much was ignoring me at this pt ..
;P well he wouldn’t know the difference b/ween a rock š if attempted to transact in fraudulent such, but ..
Seiden apparently was at the CME what he describes as – order flow – holding the orders in his hand would see them evaporate as the day went on till there were none ..
ya, then the thing is prop firms..don’t recruit elderly ..you can know great trendfollowers 40-70 ..take me building a track record there is no way in hell could I enter as a trainee (in their 20s) anymore plus, I can’t code ..
I mean it’s true that it’s not rocket science; and you absolutely need the education ..it boils down to psychology 90% of the game, like hockey (Joe Thornton) is mental, but ..
This is true; if someone came to you w/ a mill and said, i wanna trade – great; stick the 995k in T-bills, give me the 5k/open an a/c and let’s go .. Thing is (more ‘cos need margin should deposit the initial not even maintenance margin for shortterm trading) , can earn 300k/year on 400. .. so making 150 a day, ofc you nvr hear abt that, no one tells you; first, the bs meter goes up ..
For some reason , ppl didn’t make their money there, but elsewhere, think can just come/walz right into the financial mkts and ..it’s a field like any other, ya, w/ a lot of shit, but this is why (they think); basically, money is looked down upon ..
oh, and btw, i can point you to ppl via my firm who would do that for ie. 279/mth and then if don’t like it ,fine, ok, bye ..money back guarantee too ..There is no patented strategy.. I ‘m gonna tell you smth all you need, really .. price. What moves price? Vacuums/magnets. Like what Sam purportedly was doing ‘filling paper’ you’d be able to do that because price would seek you out ..if the book was stacked on the bid is price gonna go up? No! It’s gonna go down ..
*sound.. mind blown ..
ya, whenever i’m somewhere and i see them start to sell smth..sadly, even by the way of Larry Benedict have I seen this; :(which is sad, š I like Larry ..he’s (was?) legit Mkt Wizard too ..
Then there’s this what I call podcast circuit that I don’t like ..:D Bill Clinton does the lecture circuit; this is the equivalent of (tho perhaps far less noble) that ..
I think this is the first time I’m sick reading a review ..
you can have stuff that doesn’t work then ppl with whom you genuinely disagree ..Then there are those peddling bullshit (as in, scamming) ..
vaccines don’t track down they act as a buffer/shield for the invading virus ..
D3, vitamin K; zinc .. herbs; minerals .. antivirals https://twitter.com/MichaelCoudrey/status/1241354642417577986 this is the fix .. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1241367239900778501
screw the vaccine; you know how that works; inject you w/ a live virus ..why shouldn’t I just go out there and get it, then? ..
Point is to AVOID it ..(Ya; not to mention not only is the Chinese cure banned by the FDA, it also was discovered more than 10yrs ago ..)
š i’ve visited castles and you wanna give, back .. You can do all that provided you have the funds ..
I mean it depends; 2hrs a day, 2-3 .. pros come in, execute then that’s it, done for the day .. others stay into the close firms work well into post-market ..This part is real. They don’t deliver bullshit sales pitches ( well, to manage DDs if wanna have a trader training business but legit)
This industry I’m not kidding is so convoluted ..If you don’t listen to yourself and even for me it’s difficult at times ..I’m not surprised ppl fall for it if only go left brain..
..here’s a protip; never borrow money from family, or manage theirs either..latter isn’t worth the hassle; fmr well now you’re putting undue pressure on yourself ..
I know of a guy at my firm who was w/ OTA then came and got funded ..maybe took a diff avenue or ..
Why are some brokers complicit in this? ..
The irony is that there are highly reputable firms out there that service the retail sector, but many donāt know about them because Iāve found that people generally donāt do their homework on the reputability/size/age of the firm theyāre handing their savings to. I had to get my college degree in finance, get licensed, and go through several rounds of interviews and successful trade pitches to break in to the trading advisory industry. Then again, some do so little research either way that the reputability of your career/firm holds no water anyway. For instance, I work for a subsidiary of one of the worldās largest and oldest futures commission merchants, one of the founding members of The Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Unlike these āapplicationā processes you see through guru businesses that everyone undoubtedly passes, I have to pass my clients through a real application process required by my Compliance Department. Many donāt pass, but some do. The irony is that once itās revealed that my firm wonāt allow me to work with someone they deem financially unfit to handle the risks of futures trading, sometimes they will then lash out and want to doubt my firmās reputability without having done any research in the first place. That seems like flawed logic to me, but weāre all entitled to our opinions.
ya; i’m not showing up here either ..
ya; my longer comments aren’t showing up either for some reason they require moderation Emmett you have a filter (link/char lmt) or Akismet is processing them as spam ..
.. now this is uber bizarre; not the site/my replies/thread is showing up in one browser but not another ..
Oh, it got caught in moderation because of links. I approved it.
Ok, thanks. Can you pull my reply from above (‘uber’) as well one of my double entries? Wanna >) keep this tidy ..
.. ppl; .. There are no ‘academies’, brick n’ mortar type places .. the only one i’d be associated with is if you can check the guy really was pro – a registered dealing rep in Canada ..
If want to trade join a bank or prop firm
There is a new time in the world..truth is coming out; in all, multiple fields in politics, fake news, in finance litigous fraud ..
The sad thing is, that, ppl sitting in there actually thought they were getting somewhere ..
Once was attending one webinar .. was commenting ( in public so out loud so it shows) trade eminis as opposed to etfs .. if want to trade join a bank or prop firm the mod >p pretty much was ignoring me at this pt ..
;P well he wouldn’t know the difference b/ween a rock š if attempted to transact in fraudulent such, but ..
Seiden apparently was at the CME what he describes as – order flow – holding the orders in his hand would see them evaporate as the day went on till there were none ..
ya, then the thing is prop firms..don’t recruit elderly ..you can know great trendfollowers 40-70 ..take me building a track record there is no way in hell could I enter as a trainee (in their 20s) anymore plus, I can’t code ..
I mean it’s true that it’s not rocket science; and you absolutely need the education ..it boils down to psychology 90% of the game, like hockey (Joe Thornton) is mental, but ..
This is true; if someone came to you w/ a mill and said, i wanna trade – great; stick the 995k in T-bills, give me the 5k/open an a/c and let’s go .. Thing is (more ‘cos need margin should deposit the initial not even maintenance margin for shortterm trading) , can earn 300k/year on 400. .. so making 150 a day, ofc you nvr hear abt that, no one tells you; first, the bs meter goes up ..
For some reason , ppl didn’t make their money there, but elsewhere, think can just come/walz right into the financial mkts and ..it’s a field like any other, ya, w/ a lot of shit, but this is why (they think); basically, money is looked down upon ..
oh, and btw, i can point you to ppl via my firm who would do that for ie. 279/mth and then if don’t like it ,fine, ok, bye ..money back guarantee too ..There is no patented strategy.. I ‘m gonna tell you smth all you need, really .. price. What moves price? Vacuums/magnets. Like what Sam purportedly was doing ‘filling paper’ you’d be able to do that because price would seek you out ..if the book was stacked on the bid is price gonna go up? No! It’s gonna go down ..
*sound.. mind blown ..
ya, whenever i’m somewhere and i see them start to sell smth..sadly, even by the way of Larry Benedict have I seen this; :(which is sad, š I like Larry ..he’s (was?) legit Mkt Wizard too ..
Then there’s this what I call podcast circuit that I don’t like ..:D Bill Clinton does the lecture circuit; this is the equivalent of (tho perhaps far less noble) that ..
I think this is the first time I’m sick reading a review ..
you can have stuff that doesn’t work then ppl with whom you genuinely disagree ..Then there are those peddling bullshit (as in, scamming) ..
vaccines don’t track down they act as a buffer/shield for the invading virus ..
D3, vitamin K; zinc .. herbs; minerals .. antivirals https://twitter.com/MichaelCoudrey/status/1241354642417577986 this is the fix .. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1241367239900778501
screw the vaccine; you know how that works; inject you w/ a live virus ..why shouldn’t I just go out there and get it, then? ..
Point is to AVOID it ..(Ya; not to mention not only is the Chinese cure banned by the FDA, it also was discovered more than 10yrs ago ..)
š i’ve visited castles and you wanna give, back .. You can do all that provided you have the funds ..
I mean it depends; 2hrs a day, 2-3 .. pros come in, execute then that’s it, done for the day .. others stay into the close firms work well into post-market ..This part is real. They don’t deliver bullshit sales pitches ( well, to manage DDs if wanna have a trader training business but legit)
This industry I’m not kidding is so convoluted ..If you don’t listen to yourself and even for me it’s difficult at times ..I’m not surprised ppl fall for it if only go left brain..
..here’s a protip; never borrow money from family, or manage theirs either..latter isn’t worth the hassle; fmr well now you’re putting undue pressure on yourself ..
I know of a guy at my firm who was w/ OTA then came and got funded ..maybe took a diff avenue or ..
Why are some brokers complicit in this? ..
vaccine is not live. thats just truth. BTW is your truth absolute or relative? Is it our Creator’s truth or the imagination of human thinking?
live or parts of a dead one, ffs/o’ fuk mi; boils down to the same thing ..
There is only one truth.
Bravo Emmett. Another victory that would never have happened without you. If as you say you want to compensate for your former sins, you are really giving a service that is badly needed. Hat off to you.
Hi Nadina – I like Emmets work. But what has Emmet/TradingSchools done w.r.t OTA investigation? I say, NADA. He just jumped on the bandwagon after FTC filed the lawsuit. Being a fan girl/boy is one thing. But I think we need to give FTC due credit on this.
Yes, but to Emmettās credit, these guys unfortunately had a lot of fire power and built a reputation for suing anyone and everyone they could. It seems like if he wrote a review prematurely without the FTCās backing it could have resulted in a pricey legal battle.
Hi Sunny
I am no fan of anyone. This website and I go back a long way. In 2015 the situation was so much more different, FTC was not at all active and we were all on the receiving end of trading education scammers and could not do anything about it. We were helpless. And than Emmett started this website. I remember the day I found it. It provided a meeting place and a chance to get organized against scammers. It provided information how and where to complain and more importantly – that you actually CAN do something about trading fraud which many people did not know. And like I said CFTC was all but non-existent at that time in terms of addressing the problem.
In 2015 Emmett reviewed one of the biggest scammers that ever lived, Simon Jousef of Global Trade Room, now called The Trader Institute. This prompted many of us to complain to CTFC and Jousef is now being brought to book. Emmett has since reviewed many trading industry fraudsters and many of them have ended up being charged by the CTFC as well, as a result of people finding this website and filing a complaint with the support and information they found here.
Of course Emmett does not have legal power and CTFC does. I am very grateful to CFTC and everything they are now doing to bring scammers to justice. If you want to talk about being a fan, both me and Emmett are fans of Steve Kim, one of CTFC staff. That guy means business and I would not like to be a fraudster that he investigates.
Emmett may have “jumped on the bandwagon” in this case, that is he wrote about it and informed us of another scammer who bit the dust. But in many other cases he wrote a review first and CFTC investigation progressed from there because people unified and complained. Indeed in many cases they complained first to Emmett then to CFTC. But kudos to CFTC, they are great. If they were this active 5 years ago many-a-scammer would have thought twice before opening a trade room and conning people out of large sums of money.
Absolutely Nadina. The “tradignschools” effect can not be underestimated and is national. A first real blunt of the shamshow cess tradeucation “industry”. Droves of prior victims finally wised up and jaded are motivated to report to the CFTC and SEC and authorities because of tradingschools as Emmett reports receiving hundreds of emails each month about being scammed. All the other “review” sites were compromised and corrupted and bribed, even ripoffreport with OTA. But Tradingschools also under watch by the authorities was and is the catalyst of the retailer agency of due diligence and exposure of all this sordid scam industry. It all results from the good work example and effectiveness of tradingschools did in exposing these scams and all their sordid tricks revealed for the last six years like you said yes, one “CAN do something” about these trading scams, frauds and shamshows!
Yeah, true. Because I read legal journals and pour over FTC suits and rulings everyday then reread them twice on the weekend. Emmett shouldn’t get any credit for agrigating this stuff or desemanting it to us readers.
hello am sarah i was also screwed by this.i couldnt withdraw my funds for over 6 months,tried everything possible but no way.i explained my situation and she introduced me to hacker.long story short i got all my funds plus my interest.contact me if you need help.
atomsarah758ATgmailDOTCOM
It is about time these Trading “educators” were held to account for the damage they have caused to peoples lives. The trading education frauds are happening globally. In the UK author Mike Elvin in the book Financial Risk Taking tells a story of a fraudster who called himself “Chief Wizard” scamming millions from UK citizens. The authorities did nothing to hold Chief Wizard to account.
Well done FTC in USA š
If anyone tells you theyāll tell you about their strategy that should be a big red flag. Iām a professional trading advisor myself, but Iām extremely tight-lipped about my strategy. To reveal the details of my strategy would entirely devalue me as a strategic advisor.
Hi S_Cubed
Perfectly reasonable that you are tight-lipped about your strategy. Why would you want to produce many more winners when trading depends on the other side losing? Except you are doing just that as a professional trading advisor.
And so I am just wondering: before you take the money from your clients, do you show them any kind of proof that you have traded profitably long term? Or do they just have to take your word for it? Like when you go to see a doctor you check their credentials first don’t you?
Just curious how it works. If you do show proof, I might use you myself!
Hello Nadina,
I appreciate your insight, but I wouldnāt necessarily look at it that way. I trade the commodity futures markets, which are some of the most liquid in the world; a handful or even a collection of people trading 1-5 lots is not going to move the needle when hundreds of thousands of contracts are moved daily. This is why the CFTC enforces speculative position limits. As far as raising equity for my book of business, I go beyond this; past performance lawfully is not indicative of future results, so before I propose partnership with a prospective client I add them to a trade pitch list. From there, I let them come up with their own conclusions on me, whether they be good or bad. If you are interested I would be happy to speak with you on the phone to discuss details and add you to my list.
Also, I neglected to mention that if youāre looking for a recent track record, Iām happy to forward you the last few weeksā trade pitch emails Iāve sent out to other prospective clients. I can be reached by phone from 8 AM – 5 PM CST at 312-373-4655 or email at ssylas@rjofutures.com.
S_Cubed
I am sorry I got the wrong end of the stick. When you said you are “tight lipped about your strategy” I thought you meant trading strategy. But I see you are a broker. Brokers earn their money through commissions not trading. Brokerage is where people in this industry find refuge from trading and a no-risk income. I would open one if I could!
Hi Nadina, because I service retail clients, my primary responsibility is in discretionary trading advisory. This actually is exactly what I meant, that I have developed a sustainable trading strategy that provides outsized risk-adjusted returns. I used this strategy at one time to manage my own money, and once I found enough success with it, decided to move to Chicago and make trading advisory a profession. Although I am no longer allowed to trade my own account anymore due to conflict of interest issues, my ability to generate income relies on your willingness to continue trading with me, which of course would not take place if one found my advisory as low quality. The reason retail clients tend to be more attracted to this model is due to the fact that you can fire me at any point you like, without having to pay for my advisory with any kind of lump sum upfront. As a trading advisor Iām only as good as my latest week, so Iām continuously in the process of leaving the best impression I can. I hope this helped clarify the purpose I serve to the retail trading industry.
I apologize, saying such a definitive statement about my strategy may get me in hot water with the CFTC. What I should have said is that past performance of my strategy, leading up to today, has produced outsized risk-adjusted returns. However, I donāt expect anyone to take my word for it. The way I have chosen to go about this is by adding anyone who is interested to a mini newsletter of mine that I use to build a recent and reliable trading advisory track record, and therefore trust, between prospective clients and I. From there I let you come to your own conclusions about my advisory. I will admit that I am a dreadful salesman, so convincing someone for the sake of it is out of the question for me. However, I let my advisory performance speak for itself, and if someone is no longer interested in my advisory they can simply request that I remove them from my list, and I will do so.
Good for you to be wised up Nadina to the other ways businesess try to make money than actually take the risk of trading. Some of course are legit and competitive while the cesspool level are the sim-shamshows and snakeoilers and fake gurus. I think S_Cubed represents a trading services division of a brokerage where some brokers with more services do so. So thus should be under the same review scrutiny and due diligence as any other service reviewed by tradingschools. Overall , agreed, Tradingschools did so much to get real due diligence back for the retailers. No doubt, the movement of retailers emailing Emmett and getting emboldened to finally come out and make their cases to the CFTC and authorities had a encompassing effect of spurring the FTC to finally expose OTA. Sad that the “Tradingschools” effect of wising up retailers sooner, did not emerge years earlier to save too many victims from the bribed web narrative out there that the shamshows and scammers had majority control over for too long.
I support your call for scrutiny, as itās pertinent to vetting an actual reliable and reputable advisor. I have to say, however, that Iām disappointed.
I personally asked for maximum scrutiny and vetting, and got crickets in return. I knew about this platform long before I became a professional, and was hoping to use it to appeal to the āAverage Joeā traders out there. After some time of successful (and free) trial advisory, growing client accounts, and receiving referral business, I am at capacity. I joined this industry 1. Because I knew I could make a very good living through scalability but also 2. To serve the retail community I came from. This hasnāt turned out to be the case though, as the vast majority of my clients are now high net worth individuals who donāt know hardly anything about trading. Yes, the increased scale Iām now managing is attractive to me, of course, but this isnāt necessarily why I got into this industry in the first place. I wanted to service those who truly have a passion and drive for understanding the markets, not simply handing over funds because trading is a means to an end.
I canāt say I didnāt try. Unfortunately it seems I was a bit shunned by this community, which is baffling to me. I tried to deliver what you all have been asking for for years. I asked for scrutiny. I offered free services where the only risk involved was the loss of the three minutes it takes to pick up the phone. I got crickets and criticism in return. Now Iām to the point where I actually have to turn people away out of respect for the seniority of original (albeit smaller account size) clients. I can only get so many people filled at a good price in a given amount of time. Needless to say I did not find what I had hoped to in this community.
Dam glad i decide not to join them, something did not feel right and when I told them I’ve been learning basic charting for a while and it seems the same as what your teaching ,they didn’t like that one bit.
After the lawsuit was filed…people came out of the woodwork like crazy. There are so many ex-employees with stories to tell. And wow, some of the ex-students are howling mad and want blood.
In the past several years of writing reviews, I have never seen the level of intensity from consumers. The pitchforks are out. The tar is bubbling. The feathers are ready.
And it is a complicated situation because the people that own franchises are sitting on now worthless businesses…and deservedly so.
The whole business model was a scam from Day 1. Of course, Online Trading Academy is going to cite a survey they recently sent to thousands of their students claiming the “education” was of value, and how satisfied they are. But these poor fools that signed the survey don’t even realize that if they signed that survey, they are going to have a difficult time getting their money back in a settlement with the FTC.
It not too often that I hope to get sued. But this is one of the rare situations where I would love to conduct discovery and depositions. There is so much more unpublished information. How these guys are not in jail is amazing.
Hey Emmett
if you get sued by these scammers I’ll be your character witness!
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I had a good experience with the school, met some great instructors, and nobody was pretending to be a prop trader. The instructors did claim to be active and profitable traders. I have no way of verifying that myself. I paid tuition, got a service, and then carried on my way. No one guaranteed success. Yes the initial sales pitch was definitely strong. I told people to go to the presentation, but leave your wallet in the car. I attended the office in Vancouver and Irvine. Made my first trades sitting in those classrooms. I still had a long journey afterwards to figure it all out, but a lot of that was on me.
TLDR I am a happy OTA student.
Amazing. This FTC report subpoened almost 5000 accounts and showed they were mostly busted due to OTA, and the overall damages were underreported to the tune of closer to a billion instead of one third, since OTA has been around fleecing dupes since the dot-com bust, and you still have this to say? Are you one of their shills, or got caught up being an unscrupulous franchisee? They’ve been exposed as nothing but scumbag shysters. The stuff they “taught” probably stolen and regurgitated from plenty of old trading books and overselling it by thousands. Anyway, it’s over, this shamshow nightmare is finally over, and I hope they all get served jail time sentences.