Warning: Online Trading Academy (tradingacademy.com)

How come the only positive reviews for OTA come from OTA employees?? They say they "have taken the class and it worked" Sure. And I'm the Queen of England too. How ever, there may be some truth to that. I recently ran into a fmr OTA employee who told me that all OTA employees are required to take the classes and take them for FREE. The real reason for their being in the classroom however is not to learn but to befriend the class attendees and then sucker them into an upsell scenario.

On another website, OTA was busted when it was uncovered that the glaring 5 star reviews on how great OTA is and how much this supposed "neutral party" was making were all thanks to OTA were actually all from OTA employees also the IP address showed that it came from inside an OTA office! The exact same one that has so many complaints. Oh by the way, the so called neutral website was setup and run by OTA. Well surprise, surprise!

I'm only surprised that these guys are still around, still finding suckers and haven't been shut down by now.
 
EMG wrote:

read my 1700 posts. u will learn more than what u learned at the academy.

First of all I agree with that statement by EMG. You can learn more from EMG or just browsing the internet than you will from the academy.


And...Isn't it funny how all of the responses (probably same person) attacking EMG always assume that those of us whop complain about OTA are new and inexperienced? Does t his condescending b.s. upset you as much as it does me? Isn't it obvious that these people who repsond are really OTA employees or paid shills??

Case closed.
 
Warning: Online Trading Academy (tradingacademy.com)

As I know that newbies sometimes scan on ET looking for info about companies offering expensive courses, this post is targeted to them.

I received a card in the mail for this organization. 5 hour trading free course + bonuses for free. I usually attend these, + hotel seminars, out of curiosity to see how they preach to the sheep (Investools, WizeTrade, BetterTrades, etc.). They are all pretty much the same, and pour out scorn on their competitors, at the same time.

I answered almost all the questions he kept posing to the 20 people in attendance, so they seem to target neophytes. They kept saying "experienced traders are the hardest to convince" DUH - that is because they know how to ask hard questions and demand proof.

What do the courses basically cover? For something like $6,000, this 7 day course is basically a regurgitation of gap analysis, TA patterns (wedge, pennants), and other things. You can get these in many different TA books Plus you "get to work with their master traders on live market data" to see these things in action. Funny, the only evidence that these master traders were good, were high praise from the presenters. Never any verifiable evidence to backup their "master" status.

And they have courses in forex, futures, stocks and options. Likely, you learn the same patterns/methods in 4 different ways. You can spend $24,000 to $64,000 on all their stuff. Retakes are free (except I think a $99 registration fee)

He constantly talked about how "their past customers love us" but NEVER talked about their customers documented success or offered proof of sucess of any kind. Just a few hour spiel designed to get you to sign up before you leave - similar to the other hotel seminar companies - they want you to sign up while you are stil pumped, and before your normal skepticism kicks in. I tried to talk 2 people out of their purchase, and 1 took me seriously.

The wet-behind-the-ears course presenter (a recent grad of some of their courses, as were their "counsellors") tried to pump me for my own performance and preferences (which I believe is legal only for CTAs/RIAs - discussing someone's personal trading)

And then he bragged he was doing 10-15% returns a month. Said "for a few months." Of course, he never proffered his own trading results, or audited results from company traders, or broker statements, etc.

You can google on the company + use scam or ripoff. You will find some reports to this effect. Only 2 BBB reports, but at least a handful of things on some scam reporting websites.

Expanding rapidly, they rented out cheap space (think off-the-beaten track former manufacturing facility in a partly deserted office park) that was REALLY hard to find.

If it was a couple hundred, might be worth it for a TA lover who wants to see things in action. But many thousands??? For an unproven company that offers no proof? To learn something almost straight out of books????

OF course, we never received the bonuses...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They got me that way to. A POSTCARD as a IBD subscriber. Then I saw their ad on CNBC (OTA's commercial) and thought they had some substance. WHAT's really funny is how OTA advertises in these mediums and then puts them down. I thin if you feel as we do about OTA, that you should contact IBD, CNBC and other mediums they advertise and let them know how dissappointed perhaps even fraudulent their claims are.

Only thing I'll add is that the bonuses aren't worth it. A couple of cheap CD-Roms now on an even cheaper zip drive.

The "workshop" is just a glorified, sugar coated sales pitch and the classes are about 20% training and 80% b.s.

Caveat Emptor.
 
Fighting Scams wrote>>>

My personal experience with Online Trading Academy (OTA) is that they make a lot of promises, a lot of statements but fall far short on delivering.

If in fact their trading is audited by a third party (don't hold your breath), why won't they release it? If they had such a document, it would be posted on their walls, on their presentations and in their literature. Since it is not, isn't it safe to assume that it doesn't exist?

The OTA model is based on time share sales gimmicks. You come in for a FREE presentation with the promise of FREE gifts and then once you are in there you are nailed with a 1980's type of boiler room broker selling mixed in with a used car salesman approach.

Easy to see why OTA is running so many ads and informercials desperately trying to get people into their "time share" like facade. Their strategy is not working. However, it should be noted that it's not fair to compare OTA to Time Share. The Time Share presentations are more professional and the gifts are better.

And if you think the Power Trading Workshops (PTW's) are a joke, try attending one of their "offsite" or "ALL STAR EVENTS" These are just glorified versions of the PTW, only instead of just 1 used car salesman-speaker, you have 5,6 or more and again it is just one big sales pitch.

They will tell you that they have special speakers coming from all over the world. For example, the event in Orlando last January, the primary speaker lives in Orlando about 2 miles from from the Orlando OTA office. The other speakers came from the corporate office in California and are part of the "seminar team" headed by a guy name Lance Straus who has worked with all of the seminar companies that have come and gone starting with Wade Cook and moving up. He has a horrible reputation in the industry. But wait a minute; I thought OTA was not a seminar company and didn't run hotel seminars? Guess again. This one was the Crowne Plaza in Orlando. Oh well.

The PTW and the ALL STAR EVENTS I attended had most people walking out. The food was cheap danish, a lousy sub and the gifts were not even worth $5, let alone the $207 they claim.

The cash prizes are just gift certificates intended to lure you to buy more of their overpriced products. And even though they will tell you the classes are being discounted, they are overpriced by at least 50% just to pay the expences of the seminar team that flies in from the corporate office in CA and the gal who drives 2 miles in Orlando.

You were wise to see what was going on and killed the order. And you are not alone, my best guess is that at least 95% who go to the OTA circus do the same.

To be fair, my association was with the OTA office in Orlando. Itis posisble that the other offices around the country are run more professionally, but from what I have been h earing, doesn;t sound like.

By the way, I went through the PRO TRADER CLASS and then was shifted into the FUTURES CLASS and attended part of the PRO ACTIVE CLASS, FOREX and the OPTIONS CLASS. I didn't see any earth shaking information. The manager allowed me to shift around as I was totally unhappy with the flagship class PRO TRADER.

The trainers, with the exception of t he Futures Class were not that good and in fact downright boring. They was a lot of selling being done right in class that we paid for. Not the PTW which was a blatant sales scam, but the classes.

Just wanted to give you a preview of that to expect if you signup for this gig. Their sales pitch is right out of a tin can. Save yourself a lot of time and aggravation and skip this one.

****************************************************

No rebuttals to this one. Must be true.
 
1fly wrote about the OTA scam....


About 20 years ago while I was attending grad school in the Bay area I sat in one of these by Martin Pring. Grad school had off campus classes in office buildings/office parks and he was doing a T/A course with the same sort of schpiel. Students were invited to attend. I sat in for about half an hour. I had already been trading very successfully at that time for around a decade. Needless to say I found it all humorous.

What these Trading courses really are are T/A courses. These marketing people have done the same thing in real estate for decades trying to lure in suckers. They put together some TA that you can get out of Edwards/Magee wrap it all together with some slick marketing and promises of $$$ and suckers line up.

There are always suckers looking for the hot stock tip and get rich quick schemes whether in real estate or now (the last decade or so) in the stock market. The financial markets attract newbie in droves. The ease of entry attracts fodder for the cannons. The lack the skills and abilities causes the masses to end up road kill one way or another. Whether they lose part of their $$ to scam artists or to the markets.......it's inevitable. Nothing new.


*************************************************

I got taken in by this scam too looking for better training. Save your money. We all think these "Academies" and "schools" have something to offer. That they can teach us something that we cannot learn on our own. Here is a newflash - They can't. Save yout time and aggravation and your money.
 
Here is post obviously written by a OTA employee....

The point is, everyone needs education, whether it be for fixing cars or trading your hard earned money. Your overinflated egos cannot seem to grasp this concept and so you end up here, badmouthing a school just because they try to sell you their services as opposed to offering them for free.

I truly believe that even if they offered free advice, or gave their classes away for free you still wouldn't listen, because you don't need education, you know it all already. You can do it yourself right? Google the terms and read it yourself, just like a modern day Sherlock. Sadly you are far from innovative, you are just joining the herd. Everyone want's something for nothing. You can't put a price on education, it's up to you, donate the 5k to the market makers, or spend it on a good education.

I do not work for this company and have no affiliation with them. I have taken their one week course, and I can tell you being a swing trader for several years and most recently having made the move to day-trading, it was worth it.

There is never a shortage of people like you, who go to the free presentations, step into their paid hotel space, eat their pizza and take their free materials expecting to get something for nothing, thinking that they are going to give you the meat of their education just because you sit and act obnoxious during the presentation raising your hand and asking stupid questions, as if you're being inovative, as if the presenters don't get boneheads like you showing up to every presentation, you are a sad breed my friend.

But even worse, you get on this message board, which is supposed to be a source of credible information, or at least that is it's purpose, and offer advice about something you have no idea about.

Agree or disagree, I am not here to get into a cyberfight with a herd of sheep I've read enough posts to know that there are people who have nothing to do but write comments all day about things they have no knowledge of.

All I am saying is this, you NEED education, I have paid for and taken the "online trading academy" basic course, and even though I have experience trading, I am happy with the what I learned there and it was a great investment on my part. Had I had a different experience, and thought that it was a waste of money, I would speak my mind and tell you that I hated it.

As for their other courses, the forex, options, extended learning course etc. I cannot speak on this subject as I have not taken them yet, once I take those courses I will be glad to share my experiences, good or bad, one thing I will not do is speak of something I have absolutely no knowledge of.

Don't take my word for it, talk to successful traders, do your own due diligence, just don't count out a school just because some Mr. Know-it-All gets on here and badmouths a source of education because they actually wanted to be paid for their services.


***************************************************

OTA is a classic case of a company trying to be a JACK OF ALL TRADES ...BUT ....in reality is a master of none. Their other classes are even worse than the stock class. Were are the raving reviews (audited please and accurate)??? If OTA truly had a quality product, I would assume that satisfied happy students would be all over the place talking about how great OTA is.


And as for the employees. If these guys were truly making the kind of money they claim (they never show statements or any proofof trades) then why are they working 12 hour days sometimes 7 days a week at basically a minimum wage job and driving the kinds of broken down pieces of junk they call cars or don't even have cars and riding the bus to work. It doesn't make sense!
 
What do all GURU's hate the most?

Anyone DEMANDING to see that they actually make money. Proof.

Would you let a homeless guy with $1 to his name teach you how to make money?

Would you let a guy who never played football teach you how to play football? Wouldn't you rather research to see if guys that actually played teach also, and then choose a good teacher that actually was a good player?

If they make money trading, and can prove it, trust me...they will!!!

There is a reason they don't.

Don't be weak minded and think for yourself. If you are dumb enough to give them money, you will never make money trading.

fact.
 
EXACTLY my point. Several of us asked OTA and thier used car salesmen to shoof proof of profits on both their star students and their employees who were supposedly making all of this money. They said they didn't have to. Translation: They couldn't and can't prove it and no doubt all of it is a lie.

When you see guys bragging about making $2,000 a day trading Forex and Futures BUT...walking or getting a ride or riding on a bus or driving a brokemobile car???? HELLO???

Besides, the alumni themselves said they all lost various amounts of money. Nobodys aid they were making money. Only the OTA staff.
 
Quote from Fighting Scams:

EMG wrote:

Now that u have basic knowledge about trading, u should place this quote below on your fridge:

More than 90% of small traders lose in a "Spectacular Fashion." They just lose!!

I hope u will be those 1 in 100 traders make it in this game.

Good Luck

Is he saying that 90% of

Trading Academy graduates lose in a "Spectacular Fashion? I thought the number was higher than that.


**************************************************
It appears as though 100% of OTA clients and that is not counting the money they paid when got got hooked by these shysters.

**************************************************
 
Is he saying that 90% of all Forex Traders lose money, 90% of all daytraders lose money OR just 90% of the people who take training from OTA????

--------------------------------------------------


Quote from Fighting Scams:

EMG wrote:

Now that u have basic knowledge about trading, u should place this quote below on your fridge:

More than 90% of small traders lose in a "Spectacular Fashion." They just lose!!

I hope u will be those 1 in 100 traders make it in this game.

Good Luck

Is he saying that 90% of Online Trading Academy graduates lose in a "Spectacular Fashion? I thought the number was higher than that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top