Q: I reviewed your videos and I’m interested but I’m curious why no one is talking about your strategies or even reviewing your methods. I’m new to the trading thing and in fact, I just signed up for a James Smith options course for 6K (August 28-30 and yes I know it was expensive but I need someone to hold my hand while I made some purchases on TOS to see if I was doing it right!) Investools tried to sell me and so have others. I did not buy because strategy was not part of their education. James Smith options course says that is all they do. I have bought and read parts of the Options University 101 and 102. Good information but hard to put together and understand and it was actually like reading a dictionary, a real sleeper.
I tell you that to tell you this. I have been a Detective in a major police department for several years. I enjoy what I do but I have always wanted to work for myself. The system wears me down and I want that freedom with my wife and kids with no overhead (minus the commissions). When I came across your system I thought you were personally speaking to me. I know the time is now to act but there are many companies that make false claims of success. I pride myself on not getting suckered. Please answer me this question. From all the reviews and comments made by “expert†traders, why have you figured it out in such a short amount of time while the experts say they have spent a life time trading with just above average results?
You seem like a personal and sincere guy and I appreciate the information you have already provided.
A: I’m sorry I don’t know who “James Smith” is and my search on the google “James Smith, options course”, and “James Smith +trading” or “James Smith +options”
did not reveal any information at all.
If you have a URL to his seminar/course I’d be interested to see what he’s teaching.
In any case I’m not sure where you got this idea:
“…why have you figured it out in such a short amount of time while the experts say they have spent a life time trading with just above average results?”
I started trading options in 1987! That’s when they still traded options in fractions. I had a hand-made cheat sheet next to the phone that converted the quotes from fractions to decimals and I learned them really well. 1/8 =.125, 3/8 = .375, 1/2 =.50 etc… so that when I called my broker at Kidder-Peabody I could understand what he was quoting in dollars and cents.
He’s say that IBM SEP60CALLS were “bid 4 1/8, asking 4 3/8”
I knew it was 4.125 – 4.375. You had to know how to enter orders on the phone and request quotes. The advantages we have today with technology are truly amazing.
So I have always been involved in the markets but after losing my first fortune in 1987 (before the crash) I went to work. For the next 15 years I followed the market but I had a wife and 4 kids and did not do any trading at all until 2006. I had made a small fortune on the Internet over the past few years and had money sitting in an account at 1%.. I thought there must be a way to generate more income than that and went back to the market.
I decided to go straight to the source of the market and took training from former market makers on the CBOE.
That opened my eyes to the possibilities but I still had mixed results.
Finally it occurred to me that someone must be successful in trading and I needed to find them and learn everything I could. So for a couple of years I studied from the best and came up with my own system. Then I recorded my videos after I had put together a ‘system’ that worked for me.
Why do some people succeed in trading and others don’t? It’s the same for just about any occupation: skill, persistence and a love for what you do.
How much dedication is required to trade successfully?
Trading successfully requires the same commitment and skill as a surgeon or engineer or other highly paid skilled occupation.
And the training and eduction required for trading is the same as any of those other occupations but that is not obvious to most people… in fact most people think they can pick up a book or two, attend a seminar in their spare time and be successful.
The reason? Because trading ‘looks’ easy. “Buy”, “Sell”
– what could be hard about that?
That kind of thinking has ruined many people. It’s wrong…
I guess I created my course to help people at least understand what they need to do to stay out of trouble as much as I created it to help them be successful.
Education is the key to success but it’s only the beginning.
I have seen very well educated investors not make a cent as I have seen PhD’s have relatively mediocre lives because they miss one key component to success: the desire to be successful has to burn in their hearts and then they need commitment and persistence.
The reason no one has reviewed my courses is because I do not ask anyone to.
I had something to teach, I thought I could contribute something to the body of knowledge of trading and I will let those who use it decide if I had something worthwhile to pass on.
The only other person who is very much similar to my own style of option trading is Don Kaufmann at ThinkorSwim.
If you ever get a chance to see him teach one of the ‘advanced’
courses at ThinkorSwim in Chicago do it- the course is pretty cheap (I think $200 now) and it’s the BEST training you could ever receive in options trading.
The only problem with Don is he’s almost impossible to understand!
He talks fast, uses terms most traders don’t comprehend and the course has a long waiting list. It takes about 2 years to get an invitation and take the course.
Luckily he did two TOS free webinars that you can watch free too:
Building and Managing Inventory:
http://mediaserver.thinkorswim.com/demos/2008/TOSDemoPlayer.html?vidSource=/transcripts/2008/20080521.swf
Trade Allocation, Position Management and Portfolio Adjustments:
http://mediaserver.thinkorswim.com/demos/2008/TOSDemoPlayer.html?vidSource=/transcripts/2008/20080730.swf
If you want to sign up they have a ‘lottery’ for tickets. Don teaches through RedOption (a Thinkorswim company):
https://www.redoption.com/seminars/3/
I wish you much success and I hope I haven’t discouraged you too much!