Online Trading Academy President Talks About the OTA Research Center, Former SEC Chief Economist Dr Jeffrey Harris and more

Mike Richardson May 7, 2021

Hello, I am Mike Richardson, President of Online Trading Academy and I want to talk about the important work we are setting out to do with the OTA Research Center which we just launched.

There are four reasons why this is so timely:

  • Firstly, as widely reported, there are large numbers of novice retail traders and investors entering the financial markets through online trading platforms and smartphone apps. 
  • Secondly, there is a general lack of research into this increasingly important segment of retail traders and investors which is not well understood. 
  • Thirdly, of the limited research there is so far, it is hard to know how much of it may be skewed by a predominance of uneducated retail traders and investors as opposed to those who are educated. 
  • Fourthly, having served more than 80,000 students with lifelong trading and investing education over more than 20 years, Online Trading Academy is well placed to research that sub-segment of educated retail traders and investors helping them have a voice to speak up

That’s why it is so timely for us to launch the OTA Research Center and why you will see us doing several related things:

  • We will be curating 3rd party research to triangulate diverse perspectives which we think you will find interesting and so that you can weigh it up for yourselves.
  • We will be developing our own research data like we have already begun to publish at the OTA Research Center
  • We will be doing supplementary surveys to delve deeper, snap surveys on timely and newsworthy topics and a sentiment index which we are developing
  • We will be working with experts to collaborate on leading edge research and develop a research board of advisors.

That’s why we were delighted to engage Dr Jeff Harris recently, who is a former chief economist of the SEC and currently the Gary D. Cohn Goldman Sachs Chair in Finance at the Kogod School of Business at American University.  Dr Harris undertook a comprehensive review of our course materials, attended our virtual classes and eXtended Learning Track (XLT) online sessions, and reviewed OTA’s brand new, all in one, education, analysis and trading platform called CliK.  Amongst other things, he said, “I am passionate about financial education as a life skill, to expand participation in the public financial markets to all, in an equitable way. It is a tragedy that the majority never get that education”.  He also went on to say, “I am even more passionate about how financial technology can enable and enhance learning and risk management. In the technology realm, I haven’t seen anything remotely like CliK before”.  To find out more about his review and what he said, visit us at the OTA Research Center. 

In particular, we are driven to dispel commonplace misconceptions and prevailing myths about retail traders and investors, by researching the sub-segment of those who are educated and take a responsible approach to risk management.  Not least of all, as CliK becomes increasingly developed and deployed over the coming years, our aggregated data diagnostics will become increasingly powerful to triangulate education, analysis and trading data for powerful insights unlike any other.  I am excited about the insights that the OTA Research Center can progressively add into the narrative regarding educated retail traders and investors.