Warning: Online Trading Academy (tradingacademy.com)

As I said I would give a non bias update on the classes day by day. Today was day one of five. We were taught about the futures market itself, technical analysis(i.e. reversal patterns, candlesticks, yada yada) and we learned some trading techniques. I have to be honest, so far so good. Now saying that.... I am not sure if the cost of the classes is worth every penny yet. But, the instructor is seasoned. He's been trading since 1980 and his trading style is one I can take a few pointers from to add to mine. The week is young and there is a lot of time left for them to "F" things up.

Oh, and the used car salesmen(carpel tunnel BS) that are there to pressure you into buying the classes, ARE NOT THE TEACHERS.... lol. I was afraid that they were also the teachers. They are not(thank god).

The instructors name is Robert Dunn. Ill be back tomorrow with day two.

Any questions, Ill answer as soon as I can... Let me know.

p.s. a way to describe the used car salesmen ordeal- even though they are sleazy at a used car lot it doesn't keep you away from buying a car, because the car itself maybe bad-ass. (not sure if that makes sense...) but its better than the "carpel tunnel" analogy...
 
Quote from deaddog:

Can you give an example of something you learned today that you weren't aware of before today?
More...


perhaps they don't teach



More than 90% of small traders lose. They just lose!!!



They don't want to scare the students almost everybody lose.
 
Quote from emg:

More than 90% of small traders lose. They just lose!!!
More...

Why is that? If 10% can make it why not more.
Perhaps with the proper education the percentage might go up.
 
Quote from emg:

perhaps they don't teach
More than 90% of small traders lose. They just lose!!!
More...
So 90% of the money goes to 10% of the people......That is similar to the wealth distribution of national income.
 
Hey sorry about not posting yesterday, had to finish up some stuff for work. So day two and three, still liking the things being taught...

Overall they have taught of course the basics, risk management, reward to risk ratio, using stop losses, how and what to plot when it comes to support and resistance, plotting globex hi/lo, weekly hi/lo etc, trend lines, moving averages, momentum indicators, divergence between indicators and candlesticks, the advantages of candlesticks over line charts and even bar charts(of course to each their own), trend reversals both chart patterns and candlestick formations and how to enter trades with the patterns/formations/momentum trades etc. Learned how to fade gaps at the open(both gap ups and downs), a couple bollinger band trade set ups and some other techniques the instructor likes to use.

He has taught us "spreading" in the futures market, and some other things floor traders use to catch other traders(the masses) in a opposite position as the market is turning(i.e. getting in opposite the masses a head of the turn, they are short and the market hits an area and reverses, hitting buy stops and vice versa). I didn't know those type of techniques.

I can say that in the class, A LOT of the "students" are NOT going to be successful in trading no matter how much they learn. It blows my mind at the amount of people out there that freaking over analyze everything... By the time they try and figure out why and how everything works(even though they don't need to know the core of EVERYTHING), the GD trade opportunity is long gone... I want to scream "just know that when this does this, the odds are this will happen"... I have a similar trading style as the instructor. He doesn't use a lot of lagging indicators, he uses tight stops and trades according to what the charts are saying, not F'ing CNBC or any analyst(sorry a lot of people love to trade what there buddy tells them to or what they see in the news).

I trade mostly price action with 2 indicators that I use to confirm what I am interpreting from the charts.

In the class, there is me and another guy that COULD be successful in this business. Not saying that I will be, but you just know the people who don't have a chance...

Again the instructor is great. He is no BS, he shows both winning instances and losing, emphasizing proper risk management and that every trade will not work every time. But minimizing risk and losses will at least give you a few fighting chances lol.

Not everyone needs "classes" for lack of another term. Some people are gifted at trading, executing a trade plan and managing there trades. Y'all probably learned everything you know by yourself and I wish that was me. But I am 27 and have a family and don't have the time to learn form the "school of hard knocks". I have learned some technical analysis on my own and had a base understanding of the market. I was very very sceptically of OTA, and again the week is not over yet... But, I feel a bit better about the cost/"school"(if it was cheaper I'd freaking love it).

Tomorrow we trade live accounts(their money), utilizing the stuff we have learned. I will let y'all know how it goes... If someone replies and asks a question I promise I will answer ASAP.


P.S. If you were going to going to take a futures "class" at an OTA, I would recommend asking when Robert Dunn is teaching the course. No sh*t, he is a good teacher and is very knowledgeable.
 
I miss spoke yesterday when i said we were trading live accounts today and tomorrow. We traded sim account's today and live tomorrow. Today was another good day. We went over some of the strategies before the opening bell. At the bell we scanned for gaps, which today was obviously a gap down day... Traded till about 9:15, at that point the trades were going in our favor. Moved stops as the price was moving down. Just monitored the trades on occasion and moved stops down to lock in profit. Overall today was an "easier" trading day. I really enjoy the classes so far. I have learned quite a few things.

I have scanned through the post and some of the things people say about other locations and the people there. I can not say that all the OTA's are managed the same because I have only been to one location, but the curriculum is the same. The instructors come from different places and obviously have different style's of trading. The "sales" people are not the instructors... And I have to be honest, I get uncomfortable/pissed the way the sales people sell there product(for lack of a better term). They really do a disservice. I can completely understand why it turns people off and why people think its a rip off(other than the price). The sales process is sh1t and its uncomfortable.

I will get a list of the instructors and post it so y'all(if interested) can see who they are and what there credentials are. I have only taken the futures class with Robert Dunn, and can only give y'all -->my OPINION<-- on him.

So far I can say that I do like the stuff I have learned and would only recommend OTA to people who can afford the "tuition" lol. I would not go there and get "classes" and only have enough money to open an account with the minimum requirement... I personally would like to have a bit of a buffer(for the learning curve) and more of a selection to trade. I trade futures and forex with a little bit of options here and there(I like trading options on days like today!).

Again this is my opinion(I know that my computer I am using has more value than my opinion lol). I know that a lot of people here don't need the "classes" and even more that with "classes" probably wont be successful. I can say that I enjoyed what I have learned, and if the GD price was half of what it is I would recommend it to more people.

And if there are any lurking OTA employees out there scan this forum, you should tell your corporate office to not take just any jack hole with the money and let them "Own/Operate" a location. And if I heard someone say "anyone can do this" I would leave immediately, unless they were referring to anyone can do this and loose money. I can see how people with a bit of sense and market knowledge would hear that and think your "school" is full of sh1t and just trying to fill empty seats. It really does your instructors and curriculum a disservice. If you want to fill seats, lower your prices and have people with market knowledge that trade(successfully) sell your classes. And if that's not possible, then reevaluate what you offer to your sales team so that it attracts traders, i.e. free trades/reimbursement in there personal account, a bad-a$$ trade station that after a certain amount of time put in they get to keep. Or anything that would possibly attract traders. Y'all could be the FUBU(for us by us, I think is what it is) of trade "schools" lol. Sorry that was a rant.

I can say that the location I attend is run "decently". With of course the pressured sales and lack of trader insight the sales team has, but overall I like what I have learned and the location. Ill be back tomorrow with info on the last day...
 
I took some time and read over some of the many complaints made against Online Trading Academy here on this board and wanted to discuss a few topics.

1) That OTA is not a hotel seminat company. Funny, lasy Jannuary
I went to a 2 day event called an "All Star Event" that was
held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Orlando and it was
orchestrated by a guy named Lance Straus who has a
horrible reputation and has worked for many failed
seminar "get rich quick" seminars like Wade Cook, Larry
Pino, Better Trades just to name a few. Google his name,
you'll find him and the complaints. If OTA is not a seminar
company than why are they running 2 day events like the "All
Star" program I went to and the one that was held recently in
Jacksonville, Fl now called an "offsite event" and hiring
douchbags like Lance Straus who specializes in running
hotel seminars? Just look at the OTA employee list. He is on
there and high up on the corporate ladder to boot! Hmmmm?

2) Gene Longo filed one rebuttal which appeared to be sincere
but when he was rebutted, nothing and another person
comes on to defend the same statement and writes in the
same style. Hmmmmm??

3) You say you traded live with real money in the futures class
but I was told that real money is only used in the Pro Trader
class and even that is questionable.

4) When I was at the All Star Event last January, a OTA
employee named Tom was bragging on how he goes
on the internet, uses a fake name and writes b.s. about OTA
claiming to be a successful student. He was a good looking
Italian guy, one of the special speakers that flew in from
California. I stayed at the Crowne Plaza hotel and overheard
him and the rest of the bunch while they were having dinner.
They were loud, brash and very vulgar. Hardly the type of
character we would expect from them having seen them
earlier in the day. Weren't they smart enough to know that
some of the crowd members would be staying at the hotel
and may be around? Did they even care? Apparently not.
BUSTED!

5) At the classes that I attended there was a push from the
trainers to sell us, but the strong sell came from the counselors.
These guys claim they trade and really don't. One of the
counselors claimed that he was making $2,000 a day
trading in live accounts. Later I found out that he was trading
ocassionally in a demo account and didn't even have $2,000
to his name. Only a slight lie I guess.

It should be noted that a push from the trainers was made everyday to upgrade us to the passport or several of the XLT programs @ $10,000 per program or a discount if they bundled it.
It was the counselors who exerted the most pressure and were downright rude.

If any of these guys are really making any serious money they prove it with statements, confimation slips or better yet a copy of their tax returns.

But don't hold your breath. The employees including the trainers make their money selling the courses or teaching, not trading.

Finally, I wonder how these OTA super trained traders are doing during the current bear market?

The good news is that these companies popup every couple of years or so and then either shut down or get shut down. The bad news is how many people will get sucked nto this crap before they realize what OTA is really all about.

My experiences as I stated before were with the Orlando facility. It should be noted that other OTA centers seem to be having the same issues.

As the saying goes, CAVEAT EMPTOR!
 

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And by the way, Love the way these guys talk about education and make it sound like OTA is likened to some accredited University and make statements like "if books made people rich, librarians would be the richest people in the world." That staement has been used by all of the get rich quick scams which are now out of business.
 

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It is my understanding that only the Pro Trader classes offer live trading with real money and many of the students question if even that class uses real money. Most feel that it is really just a demo account.

Good luck with your futures trading. My understanding in talking to everyone who took that class is that they all lost money.:)
 
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