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Online Trading Academy SCAM
(you just need to type "scam" on the search box and the Page comes up)

I have always been intriqued by the stock market and wanted to be an investor. My grandfather told me the massive gains he made by buying coke cola stock and wal mart and others as well as some railroad stocks. He amassed a nice bundle of money. I inherited a bunch of money and heard about Online Trading Academy on one of their ads on CNBC. Also recieved a postcard in the mail as I also subscribe to IBD and other investment publications.

Usually I pass off these types of companies as ripoffs. For some reason, Online Trading Academy seemed different. It seemed like the real deal. I like the fact that they taught technical analysis and didn't seemed to be a lot of hype like so many other companies that have come and gone.

Their Pro Active course in particular fascinated me. This porgram was supposed to be for people who wanted moderate amounts of returns using stock technques that would be less than daytraders returns but far better than conventional investments.

The gentleman who taught this class was a tenderly older grey haired man who claimed to have a lot of experience in the markets. I believed in him as did the others who signed up because this guy had than grandfatherly look about him. And he talked the talk.

The course lasted 7 days and felt like 7 weeks. It was long and tedious. A lot of us that the material was hard to understand. Later we figured out that it wasn't the matierial, it was the instructor. While he anunciated and spoke clearly, he wasn't making any sense.

He talked about covered calls and cash supported puts. Selling puts and calls, the way he explained it appeared to be a safe way to earn 8%-12% returns and it sounded great. He even said that cash supported puts are safe because you are only risking your own money, not using margin as in the case of naked puts. And with covered calls, you are covered by owning the stock. Seemed easy and foolproof. Being new and naive I beleived this.

Some of us asked about the risk of losing money. The instructor explained that you can always buy the call or put back and essentially "roll it" over to another month so we were all assured that this was fairly risk free and save enough to be used with retirement and emergency money.

Unfortunately, those of us who used it lost money by the bucket load. Selling puts and calls sounds so attractive on paper, but in real life, it doesn't work out all that well.

During the training class, the instructor also made a case against mutual funds citing expenses. But when I asked a question and told him that I KNEW MUTUAL FUNDS with low 12/b1 and mainteneance fees and no commission (no load) he just ignored me and moved on. This irritated me.

They were big on ETFs and I own some myself. But when I asked the instructor to go more into detail about the expences associated (commissions), once again, my question was totally ignored.

The course cost $5, 000 but in reality wasn't even worth $100, if that. The t/a that was taught was so basic, you could find it for free on the internet. The exaggerated safety of selling puts and calls also bothered me and there was a lot of hard selling. On top of this $5, 000 course, the instructors and staff were really pushing an XLT course for the Pro Active program. After paying the $5, 000, we were more or less told that this course, by itself, could not stand on it's own (no kidding) so we would have to cough up another $10, 000 for the real meat (or more of the same bad advice on aggressively selliing calls and puts??)

Some other observations:

One gentleman had bought a "Passport" program for $1, 000 down and 18% interest and later we found out that he didn't even have enough money to open a trading account with the recommnded broker that Online Trading Academy suggests. He wasn't advised of t his untill after the 3 day right to cancel had expired

Most of the people were very old or very young and had no investment or trading experience. Rank and file novices.

No one in the class made any money. We exchanged email addresses and phone numbers at graduation. Most of the class lost money by the bucket load OR were still to scared to use the program. The scared ones were smart and at least did not lose any money.

We overheard the instructor talking to staff members asking how soon they could book him for another class as he really needed the money. Hey, aren't these guys supposed to be making so much money trading that they really don't need the money from teaching?

Hard selling was nonstop literally during every break and many times during the class itself on time we paid for.

A large number of complaints have been made against Online Trading Academy online but nothing compares to the complaints that were made during classes by the paying members to the staff.

There are many unhappy campers at Online Trading Academy. Don't you be one of them. My advice stay away.

SCAM!
Although not new, Online Trading Academy based out of Irvine, Ca pretends to offer investment/ trading education across multiple asset categories like stocks, options, futures, commodities, forex and real estate.

The cost is salty beginning at $5, 000 for their basic course and up to $10, 000 per mentoring class and $65, 000 for their passport programs. They have been running informercials on late night tv much like the now defunct Teach Me To Trade. More recently they are using apparently bogus testimonials on the internet posted by apparently paid shills and OTA employees. They even have their own website which implies that it is a 3rd party review site. An obvious clue is the raving five star reviews which all look like they were written by the same person and that other accurate, but not so positive reviews are blocked and deleted.

OTA will lure you to their facility to attend a Power Trading Workshop, ostensibly a 1/2 day workshop which really only lasts about 3 hours, time for lunch and registration included. Calling it a workshop is quite a stretch. It is a blatant sales pitch much worse than any time share presentation.

The course includes primarily basic t/a which can be found in any inexpensive book or even free on the internet. They claim to offer a one time $2, 000 schlorship discount for that day only. This is a lie.
They also promise lifetime retakes. But their class room only seats about 20 people and they are constantly pushing for more clients. Where will they put everyone? FACT: Most clients quit in frustration and even though classes and workshops are listed as "sold out", there are more often less than half full and cancelled.

And they also promise tuition reimbursement. (Don't you love the way they throw around those educational terms to make them sound like a real school?) Here again, read the fine print and really check them out. You know what they say about when things sound too good to be true.
On some websites where complaints have not been deleted, supposed company officials post rebuttals and challenge anyone to contact them at their corporate offices in California. The number is a toll number, not toll free and those who have called find it links to a voice mail and after leaving multiple messages, no one returns the calls. So much for help from corporate.

OTA also seems very upset about the increasing number of complaints appearing about them on the internet and are now charging complaintants as being people who work for the competition, frustrated, lazy students who wouldn't take the time to follow their courses, deadbeat clients who defaulted on their loans (18% interest, t hey may be right on this one!) people whose credit cards were denied and disgruntled former employees.

Before it was called Online Trading Academy, it was called bloc securties, then momentum securities, then Newport Beach securities. In Orlando, the local office ownership has changed hands five times in a few years and has had massive employee turnover.
Many of OTA's offices are located in right to work states which means that employees were probably treated unfairly so there probably are a lot of unhappy ex-employees out there for sure.

However, one thing that Online Trading Academy doesn't want to admit is that they have a lot of unhappy clients and whatever is showing on the internet pales compared to what goes on in the local offices where clients are many times screaming at Online Trading Academy staff for their wrong doings and high pressure sales tactics.

This is just one of the many Organized Crimes that have been operated globally.
Stay away from these guys