Complaint Review: Online Trading Academy TRUSTED Business | Ripoff Report Verified Safe™ …businesses consumers can trust. Online Trading Academy's roots can be traced back to 1997 as one of the largest trading floors in the U.S. with 180 traders averaging half a billion dollars in daily transactions. To improve results managers and the top traders offered daily coaching sessions in how to trade more consistently and profitably.

Wow was I shocked. I had gone to a free seminar at Online Trading Academy in Minneapolis (near the airport in Bloomington), after calling in on a radio show where they promised me some free investing DVDs just for showing up to a free seminar (you have to watch out for this, as it is just a bait and switch).

At that free seminar, they than sold me a $299 3 day class (they really wanted me to sign up on the spot, and not wait, but it seemed like a good deal at the time so I did). They shared all kinds of information that they would be teaching us during this 3 day class which I was really looking forward to. Than I attended this 3 day class, what they called a market timing course. They led us to believe they were going to teach us market timing (and why else would you title the class market timing, right?).

Boy was I surprised to find out it was basically nothing more than a 3 day informercial to sell me their ‘real classes’ that cost between $21,000 and $50,000. This 3 day class covered good, general, feel good information (they did get our blood pressure going real good about how the markets and Jim Kraemer are ripping us off) but there was nothing specific that taught us how to manage our own money, which is what I thought we were going to get. When I told my sales rep I might be interested to start with a 7 day class for $7000 which they had, instead of their $21,000 class (to try out and check out their program (which is still a TON of money for just a 7 day course), I was told by my sales rep the $7000 class didn’t include their continuos education program and without that I likely wouldn’t learn enough in the $7000 7 day course to really make money on my own. When I asked how much than for the continuos education program, I was told $14,000 but then I was told I would need at least $25,000 in my investment account to truly make any money. When I asked what about all their hype during their free seminar where they said a person could make good money off of an account with just $2000 in it, my sales rep said I would need at least their $21,000 education package to be able to make money with just a $2000 account. What? You tell me during your free seminar people can realistically make money on accounts as small as $2000 only to tell me after I sign up and pay you $299 for a class, that I can only do that if I spend at least ANOTHER $21,000 with you to learn this? This is almost fraud, a scam, a ripoff, a bait and switch.

My sales rep seemed inexperienced, confusing and wet behind the ears. It was confusing why we were meeting so much, but then I figured it out, as he wanted to sell me expensive classes and was just trying to butter me up.  (I should have known better and seen this coming.) I got the feeling the workers there, except the out of town teacher (which they flew in special for this 3 day informercial), were all sales reps and not actually investing how they were telling us to do, but just trying to sell us these classes. Everyone that worked there would ‘tell us’ how well they were doing investing their own money with what they learned from the classes but no one there would prove it, and it sounded like they were just saying it (making it up). If it’s so good, why don’t you just make money in the stock market like you try to tell us how we should do it, instead of work there?

I should have read all the online reviews I found now, after I attended the class, before I had signed up for their class, because it would have saved me a bunch of time and money, and I never would have signed up. Here’s some of the ones I found but there seems to be more and I ran out of time looking:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/online-trading-academy-irvine-irvine-3

http://www.bbb.org/minnesota/business-reviews/schools-online-trading-and-investment/online-trading-academy-minnesota-in-bloomington-mn-96088746/customer-reviews?cacheit=y

http://www.bbb.org/charlotte/business-reviews/training-programs/online-trading-academy-in-cornelius-nc-201420/complaints

http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/public/review/www.onlinetradingacademy.com

http://www.complaintboard.com/online-trading-academy-l199.html

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/directory/online-trading-academy

http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Online-Trading-Academy/Orlando-FL-Florida-32822/Online-Trading-Academy-Online-Trading-Academy-of-Orlando-Very-deceptive-and-unprofessi-695810

I have now reread all the above complaints and it got my blood boiling (I feel so stupid now that I signed up for their $299 class) so I felt I had also to write my own complaint here.

And than when I was looking at what others wrote about this company, I found the below online job posting where they say they pay their sales reps $150,000 a year to sell us their high priced classes (they call them “Education Counselor” but that’s their name for their sales reps who talk to people):

https://onlinetradingacademy.secure.force.com/TRGTFCMS__JobDetailPage1?jobIds=a0BE000000SqKxNMAV&page=JobDetailPage&sessionId=&jobSite=default&p=Candidate

I was shocked there was nothing in that job description that made them have investing experience, but just sales experience (again, it proves their just sales reps).

I don’t mind spending money on classes but was thinking it’d be maybe $3000 to $5000 which is still a lot of money but I’d be okay with. But to be told I wouldn’t really learn enough to invest my own money if I spent $7000 with them, and I really needed to spend at least $21,000 or more with them is crazy.

If you don’t want to spend $21,000 to $50,000 on their education, and don’t want to be high pressured by sales reps when you do attend their $299 3 day informercial, I would recommend you not even waste time on their free seminar or their 3 day $299 class as it is nothing more than bait and switch and a high pressured sales pitch.