PRESS RELEASE: Former Chief Economist of the SEC and Online Trading Academy Comment that for Retail Traders, Not all Education is Equal.

Financial Expert Dr Jeffrey Harris, Ph.D expresses his concern about the tragic lack of education in the financial markets.

IRVINE, California, March 1st 2021

In the Government hearings of the US House Committee on Financial Services beginning last week titled, “Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide?”, we heard a lot about the importance of education for retail traders and investors.

Education is a word that is used by a lot in the financial industry, and similar words like learning and training, as well. We heard these words a lot in the hearing and likely will a lot more.  But not all “education” is equal.  So much so that Online Trading Academy (OTA) recently engaged a 3^rd party financial expert to provide his expert opinion about OTA's education offerings.

Dr. Jeffrey H. Harris is currently the Gary D. Cohn Goldman Sachs Chair in Finance at the Kogod School of Business at American University. He recently served as Chief Economist and Division Director for the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Previously he served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and as Visiting Academic at the Nasdaq Stock Market.  Dr. Harris reviewed OTA’s course materials, attended its 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.

“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. American University and I are dedicated to extending financial education to a larger population, something we share with OTA. Even finance majors often have limited exposure to derivatives markets and the trading and investing education that OTA provides,” said Dr. Harris.  

He 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. Overall, OTA’s curriculum and delivery methods compare well with widely accepted experiential learning techniques and provide valuable lifelong learning opportunities for OTA students. OTA training materials provide significant learning value to students and enables students who follow the principles and techniques taught by OTA to develop confidence in trading and investing.”

Not all education is equal.  Some is informational and some is theoretical, not rising to the level of being experiential which is necessary for building skills, evolving proficiency and developing confidence.  With practical application and guided practice, students progress through the complexities of actually doing investing and trading in practice. Even better to be in a comprehensive community and learning environment in which students can develop confidence through repetition with progressive techniques and technology, including OTA’s brand new, all in one, education, analysis and trading platform called CliK.

“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. Unlike most online trading platforms, CliK is user-centric, focusing on the trader’s individual trade plan, applying OTA rules, and following appropriate steps to instill disciplined risk management--all especially crucial for students setting out on the learning journey to develop confidence with trading and investing,” said Dr. Harris.

He added, “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. CliK significantly simplifies and disciplines trading by automating formerly manual steps in OTA’s Core Strategy methodology, scoring trade opportunities, calculating reward-to-risk ratios, and allowing users to better focus their attention on the economics, logic, and risk management behind prospective trades. CliK reinforces considerations of the reward-to-risk ratios that are inherent in securities trading, monitors each trader’s personal risk profile, compares prospective trades with these self-determined risk parameters, and flags prospective trades that put too much money at risk to warn traders about violating their personal risk parameters. Given the OTA focus on risk management, this feature is an important automated form of enforcing trader discipline.”

About OTA:

Online Trading Academy (OTA) is a leader in financial education for people looking to build skills, evolve proficiency and develop confidence for trading and investing in the financial markets. 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 24th year, has expanded to more than 40 worldwide education centers, has served over 80,000 students with access to lifelong education who have rated their satisfaction at 94.4% from more than 200,000 post-class exit surveys. It all starts with a free introductory class, which over 500,000 people have attended.