PRESS RELEASE: Online Trading Academy, The Industry Leader in Educating Retail Traders and Investors, Releases Novel Features in CliK

Ted Francisco on Sep 17, 2021

Online Trading Academy Continues to Blaze a Trail with Fintech Innovation with its Revolutionary Integrated Education, Analysis & Trading Platform

Celebrating its 25th year in business since its inception in 1997, Online Trading Academy has emerged as the clear industry leader in developing retail traders and investors through education. Few, if any, others provide the scale, scope, and technology enablement of deep learning experiences like OTA does.

“For the past 25 years, we have been relentlessly committed to doing everything we can to facilitate the student learning journey of building skills, evolving proficiency, and developing confidence. Like so many other things in life, such as learning to play a sport or to drive a car, if we are serious about truly learning the skills of trading and investing, then it must be an immersive, hands on, experiential learning process with experienced guides and enabling technology.” said Mike Richardson, President of Online Trading Academy.  He went on to say, “You can’t just learn how to trade and invest from a book, or from YouTube Videos or from blindly following someone else making wild claims. Of course, people look for such shortcuts and not everyone is serious about truly learning and willing to put in the work that it takes. For those who are, we believe no one else comes close to us”.

  • In its 25th year since 1997, OTA has served over 85,000 students with lifelong education, giving students unlimited access to ongoing deep learning experiences. Many organizations claim to provide education on a large scale. This education is often free, but may be very basic and shallow.  OTA’s unique offerings provide deep learning experiences, enabling students to build skills, evolve proficiency, and develop confidence. During that time, OTA has developed an experience base, of a scale, scope, and longevity which would be hard for competitors to match. Our students tell us how much they value our education:  6 out of 10 Responding Students Said That Online Trading Academy is an Important Part of Their Lives. 7 out of 10 wished they had started sooner.
  • OTA offers a blended learning experience, blending on-location classes in over 30 education centers around the USA, and internationally in Dubai and India, with online classes and sessions in a massive virtual environment through a leading-edge student portal and mobile app, all provided by over 60 talented instructors. Many organizations have large-scale online environments. Few have as many instructors and physical locations OTA has, allowing a truly blended learning experience and community, of on-location classes and events and getting to know the local team and student community. Our students tell us how much they value that local aspect.
  • For example, in 2019, the last full pre-pandemic year of normal operation, OTA conducted over 3,000 on-location classes and 10,000 online sessions with more than 2.5 million attendances.  The company has exceptional customer satisfaction ratings, having collected over 210,000 post-class exit surveys that average over a 94% satisfaction rating. OTA posts this data in real time on its website weekly. Over 580,000 people have attended OTA’s free introductory class.
  • OTA is on the cutting edge of publishing research providing insights into educated retail traders and investors, leading the way in changing the prevailing narrative and some common misconceptions. Its latest insights, “Who Says You Can’t Time the Market? New Research from Online Trading Academy Provides a New Orientation to Market Timing," draw upon a large research database of its Mastermind Supply & Demand Grid zones and its student surveys, inviting a different orientation to market timing. OTA anticipates continuing to lead the way with insights from educated retail traders and investors out of its OTA Research Center, forming a research board of advisors and with much more collaborative research to come. Many organizations publish research about retail trading and investing, but OTA is uniquely focused on researching educated retail traders specifically.  
  • In 2019, Online Trading Academy introduced its enabling technology called CliK, the result of a multi-year development commencing in 2016. CliK is an outgrowth of a patent secured in 2014 for a “Computer Based Trading System and Methodology Utilizing Supply and Demand Analysis.” CliK is a first-of-its-kind, integrated education, analysis and trading platform, increasingly recognized as revolutionary and world-leading. In June 2021, CliK won the People’s Choice Stevie Award for Best Fintech Solution based upon a public vote of over 92,000 votes. CliK was one of a record 3,800 nominations across all categories for the 2021 American Business Awards.  In August 2021, CliK won two more bronze Stevie Awards in the categories of Best Achievement in Product Innovation and Best Fintech Solution, as part of the 2021 International Business Awards.  CliK was one of more than 3,700 nominations across all categories from 63 nations. Many organizations provide trading platforms and smart phone apps. Few start from solid foundations of risk management first. None embed OTA’s proprietary core strategy methodology, rules, and steps, facilitating the student learning journey of building skills, evolving proficiency, and developing confidence.

Indeed, OTA engaged Dr. Jeffery Harris, former Chief Economist of the SEC to review its education and CliK and he said, “I haven’t seen anything remotely like CliK before. Unlike any other online trading platform that I have seen, CliK facilitates student learning and effectively employs technology to support the disciplined approach to trading and risk management that OTA teaches in its programs.” Dr. Harris went on to say, “OTA’s educational materials and the principles underlying OTA courses are based on sound economic theories and compare well with university-level investment and derivatives courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. OTA training materials provide significant learning value to students and enable students who follow the principles and techniques taught by OTA to develop confidence in trading and investing.”

Each release of CliK makes the platform more unique and extends OTA’s position as a world leader in providing actionable learning to the self-directed retail trader and investor.  The latest CliK release on September 3rd 2021 includes:

  • Integrating OTA’s award-winning education directly into the CliK platform, serving this content intelligently, where and when the user needs it. Providing context-sensitive learning directly inside of the platform reinforces OTA’s foundations of responsible risk management and skill building central to OTA’s educational curriculum. 
  • CliK’s first proprietary Watchlist indicator called the “G-Trap.”  The G-Trap Watchlist indicator embeds elements of OTA’s Futures asset-class curriculum, unique to OTA, and allows users to perform analysis across a list of futures symbols simultaneously.
  • Grid Visual Proximity Alert.  For OTA’s flagship service embedded in CliK, the Mastermind Supply & Demand Grid, the addition of a visual alert when price approaches the proximal line of that zone which helps students scan for which zones which are likely to be entered next.

Mark Grieco, CliK’s VP of Product Management says, “Our development of CliK continues to accelerate our leadership position by bringing new technologies, features, tools, and services in a web-based platform.  We will also be adding Forex and Crypto to CliK in an upcoming release.  Most exciting is that we are just getting started with our vision for CliK as a technology enabler integral to the deep learning experiences OTA provides.  The possibilities are boundless for the CliK development road map as a world-leading revolutionary platform.”

OTA also leads the way as a Certified Benefits-Corporation (B-Corp) since 2017, committed to business as a force for good in the world and meeting the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Many organizations are in process (B-Corp estimates more than 50,000), few have achieved certification (OTA is one of still fewer than 5,000 according to B-Corp).

“We hold ourselves to the highest standards, indeed setting the standard for our industry. We are relentlessly committed to being the gold standard of the most trusted educator in our industry. Building skills as a trader and investor takes time, effort, and patience, and you shouldn’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise” said Mike Richardson. He continued, “We know that the typical student has to put in the work, with practice and patience, to build skills, evolve proficiency and develop confidence as a retail trader and investor. There are no short cuts. We know that not everybody is ready, willing and able to go on that student learning journey. For those who are, we believe no one else matches OTA’s relentless commitment to developing retail traders and investors, with the scale, scope and technology enablement of the deep learning experiences that we provide.” 

About OTA

Online Trading Academy (OTA) is the industry leader in financial education for people looking to build the skills, evolve the proficiency and develop the confidence for retail trading and investing in the financial markets.  No other educator offers the combined blend of physical education centers, proprietary methodology (Core Strategy) and a patented enabling technology platform (CliK), all built on a foundation of responsible risk management. OTA's proprietary and step-by-step Core Strategy methodology is designed to teach strategies to help traders and investors make smarter decisions aligned with their short-term and long-term financial goals. Students learn under the guidance of knowledgeable instructors, in an interactive classroom setting with extensive online education resources and a next-generation education, analysis, and trading platform called CliK. The courses are geared toward individual investors or traders, novice or experienced, who want to learn how to use similar tools and trading techniques as the professional traders on Wall Street. From a single location in Irvine, CA, Online Trading Academy is in its 25th year, has expanded to more than 30 education centers, and has served over 85,000 students with access to lifelong education whose average satisfaction rating is 94.4% based on more than 210,000 post-class exit surveys. It all starts with a free introductory class, which over 580,000 people have attended.