I just completed the Online Trading Acadamey (OTA) Professional Trader Course, parts 1 and 2. I will have more information here in the near future about the course.

Online Trading Academy - Professional Trader Course, Part 1 and 2

How I learned about Online Trading academy

I probably first learned about the Online Trading Academy via an online advertisement on one of the stock market related websites I visit. They had an upcoming half day free seminar on stock trading.

I signed up for the course after the free seminar. The half day stock trading seminar gave a taste of the techniques they would be teaching, and included lunch, so I invited a friend of mine to join me. Towards the end of the half day, we expected a salesman to put the squeeze on us, and sure enough the peopel started being called out of class one by one to meet with an "Education counsellor". Just when that moment arrived for us, the fellow giving the free presentation was covering an interestiung technical analysis technique. I relented, and went ahead to talk to my counsellor, who happened to be the owner of the San Jose office of Online Trading Academy. They seem to be a franchise type operations with over a dozen offices in several different countries, including Singapore. They started as a trading floor for traders, but morphed into a teaching organization.

The real course, an intensive seven day class in stock market trading, had a price in the range of $5000. Knowing the vagaries of human memory, and also being a very self-motivated learner, I am not usually a big fan of going to classes, one forgets a lot in just a few days after a class. I can read and study a book with very good recall, and I have something tangible to review as needed. However, I already have a stack of stock trading books 6 feet tall, and hundreds more in electronic version, and I am still losing money, so maybe I do need something more. So I was an easy sell.

I asked if they had a video course that I could study at home. At first my counsellor did not seem to want to tell me about the video course. But I had seen someone come back into the class carrying some kind of package of disks. The counsellor showed me the http://www.tradingacademy.com website store, but the video disk course, on 32 DVD disks, cost more than the class. They also had a 16 CDROM disk set of Adobe Flash based stock trading classes covering things such as key trading times of the day, technical analysis, treating trading as a business. The teacher continued telling me that I needed to come to the class to get the latest information, as those other materials are currently a few years old.

Finally the counsellor asked me if I would be interested if he sold me the videos for "Cost". Now he had my interest. I decided to signup for the April class.

First day of class

The first day of class was last Saturday before last at 9am. I thought it started earlier, which was a good way to get myself there on time. They had us sign in, and gave us a thick spiral bound notebook with a printout of all the power point slides that the instructor would use on the facing side of the pages, and ruled lines for notes on the trailing pages. About two dozen students were in the class.

The instructor, Russ Allen, introduced himself, and told us that he makes a living trading stocks from his home on Mount Shashta. His wife is also a trader, but her style is different than his. He is a short term swing trader, doing trades typically for a few hours to a few days, although recent market volatility makes him very shy of keeping any positions overnight. She does very short term momentum trades, sometimes for just 15 seconds per trade. Russ used to run a software business involved in consulting about the Y2K problem, and dabbled in trading stocks. After the Y2K crisis passed, he found himself making better money from stocks than from software, so he went into full time trading, and then promptly lost 40% of his account. He took a class from Online Trading Academy in 2003, and has been successful with his trading ever since. Apparently his wife also joined him in taking a class, after she was frustrated at his failure to follow his trading rules and he replied "It just isn't that easy, maybe you should try it" and she took him up on his challenge.

He had the entire class introduce ourselves to each other. He asked us to tell our names, our experience level, and what we intend to get from the class. As I did at the free seminar, I introduced myself in a monotone voice as "Hi, my name is Garnet. I'm an over-active trader." The teacher immediately got my reference to an AA meeting (Alcoholics Anonymous), and immediately responded with "Hi Garnet", as several other people laughed and also got the reference. I told the class how I started trading in 2000, got bored very quickly with losing money, went on to teach myself blackjack card counting, but realized that the smoke and liquor of a casino, to sit in this for hours counting cards, is not the best work environment. So I am back to the stock market to try to learn how to successfully trade.

Jury trivia heard while writing this blog post while waiting in the jury selection room: Civil trials only require 75% agreement to reach a decision. Criminal trials require 100% agreement to reach a decision. From video shown in the jury assembly room: "It is often a deep and moving experience to be on a jury. Juries often stay in touch after the process.... You might have seen juries in action in a movie, but it is no substitute for experiencing one yourself." Claimed that jury duty is an important part of democracy. Interesting question to study: Is it truly part of democracy, or merely a requirement of our judicial system. Wonder if this movie is available on pay per view..... Jury assembly coordinator: "Didn't you find that music emotional and moving, don't you feel like Daniel Lewis in Last of the Mohicans." In Marin County if you show up for jury service, you are finished for two years. If you are dismissed by phone, you are deferred for further service for just one year. You may not take security items to the court floor: Gun, dynamite, can of mace, sharp or pointed object, miniature swiss army knife, knitting needles. At least they provide envelopes to store these items while you are in court. It turns out that on the marin county website you are allowed to reschedule your jury duty, in advance of the day of you are called. Of course they dont tell you this anywhere on the summons itself. Maybe the option is obvious on the website, but those who dont have the internet are left out. I asked them what would happen if I was out of the country when they mail out a summons, since I just got back from Malaysia. He said you are in a random pool, there is no way to know. The person at the counter called it a cat and mouse game. I had an idea that they told me to write to Kim Turner, in room 116: What if when your deferment was up, you could in advance let the jury pool administrators know what month would be best to choose you for service, and perhaps also set your preference for a specific day of the week? This should be interesting, a woman has showed up and put on a black robe, and is taking the microphone, judge Verna Adams. She has brought the courtroom up to us, sitting in chairs at the front of the room. The fire marshall doesn't allow more than 83 people in the courtroom, and there are 198 people in the jury assembly room, to do jury selection here in the case of, Bishop vs. Breast, a civil case, no more than 31 court days. "I'll give you a moment to process that." Now I tell you what a court day is, a day of trial. We are not in trial on weekends, on holidays, and not in session on Mondays or Wednesdays. Must be here on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, but not always. Court day from 9:30am to noon, and then from 1:30 to 4:30. This trial will conclude around Friday July 17th. "I have been a judge for ten years, and never had a case go longer than I told the jury it would go.... Before you ask to be excused, please rememeber both parties have a right to a trial by a jury composed of people selected from the community. A hardship on your employor is not a hardship on you. The legislature has established 'extreme hardship': prepaid travel that can not be rescheduled, fulltime care giver, financial hardship that cant pay rent or pay for food, fulltime student... Remember you are under oath, extreme hardship" We need to take a jurors oath. I've justed been oathed under penalty of perjury and criminal prosecution. Judge thanking us for showing up. "Citizens in our community are having a say in governing each other." Now off to the courtroom for the next round of selection...