When I first walked into Online Trading Academy, I didn't know what to expect. I was greeted with a…read morebunch of smiling and warming faces. After sitting through the half-day class, I learned that I didn't know much about the markets. This school really put it into perspective for me. I had no idea about most of the things that money managers do to cheat you out of money. After seeing how it works and learning a few other things I didn't know, I decided to come to the 3-day orientation. Wow!! Talk about not knowing anything. I thought I learned something from the half-day class, this 3-day orientation was a lot more. At this point I knew I had found something that not many people would come into contact with. Sure there are programs and other things you can do to learn about the markets, but none of those programs had an actual campus...and 48 of them worldwide. I decided this was for me and became a student. It has taught me so much about how the financial markets work and I now can say that I am a trader. Great education, great atmosphere, great instructors, and great people all around.

So, it goes like this... You listen to their weekly, uplifting (infomercial) radio show which…read moremotivates you to try the free one day class. You arrive and are greeted by warm, friendly "counselors" who make you and the other attendees feel like part of a wonderful family. The class is lead by a strong motivational speaker who tells stories of how he used to work for an investment firm that made its clients tons of money while at the same time, he was just getting by. He leaves the firm, signs up for an OTA course and bam, now he makes tons of money and has secured his family's legacy. No actual useful trading information is shared during the 6 hour class but it is motivational and fun and there are breaks and refreshments. Several hours before the class (infomercial) is over, a flyer is passed out which invites you to take the first step towards financial freedom by signing up for the three day class. The price is $300 but the speaker stresses that the fee is there to weed out the people who aren't serious and end up not showing up after reserving limited class space AND it's totally refundable if you ultimately decide not to sign up after the three days. Cool. Before attending the three day class, you fill out a questionnaire that details your goals and motivation o join OTA. Your counselor will call you a few days later to discuss this information with you. The three day class is lead by a wonderful motivational speaker who flew in from Los Angles. The guy is great. He's articulate, funny and certainly seems to be an investment expert as he explains and demonstrates the patented OTA method. He even trades live and makes money while allowing select students to help make decisions with his money. Was that real? There's no way to tell but again, it was fun, entertaining and motivating. The class breaks for the free included lunch (sub sandwiches) and students are called in for personal meetings with their counselors. The end of day one leaves you very motivated and though you can't pinpoint having gain any real knowledge about trading, you are confident and excited. The second day of the three day class is more of the same until mid day when a new flyer is passed out. This time it's serious. There are three packages for sale and the prices range from 22k to 59k. Soon after, students are pulled out of class for private, closed door discussions with their "counselors" who lean in pretty hard to obtain a down payment with the promise that if you lay down at least 1000 today, they can probably offer a "scholarship" which would reduce the cost a few k. I told my guy that I had planned to finish the three days before I committed to such an investment which did not go over well at all. He was visibly not happy with me. The rest of the day was pretty uncomfortable as signees we hailed and applauded and those who left were quietly termed "quitters". When the class was over my counselor called me into his office one more time. At this point I was so overwhelmed by the motivational peer pressure I conceded and handed over a thousand dollar down payment. The following morning I woke with a clear head and realizing that 22k (or even 17k with the so called scholarship) was an insane price for a 5 day... yeah, five day class so I drove to class early and told my guy I wasn't taking the course. He had the nerve to say, "okay... let me go get a quitter form." The "quitter" form was actually a refund form and to their credit, OTA did refund my entire $1300 after I returned all the classroom literature which was required. Later I did some research and found that their patented techniques aren't really that unique and there are plenty of educational videos and teachers who use the same basic principles. It's not magic and you don't have to lose $17k before you even make your first trade. Also there's no excuse for their peer pressure based sales technique to get your money. That is just creepy.