As people realize the potential of trading and investing, trading has become an increasingly popular venture. The global pandemic has contributed to the rise in popularity of day trading and cryptocurrency investing. With people staying at home and others losing their jobs, many people were looking for ways to earn an extra source of income.
However, not all that have joined the trading market have emerged triumphant. This is partly because some lack basic knowledge of the industry, making it harder to make worthwhile trading decisions. To help people better understand the market, Founder Anthony DeGalbo launched OnlyOptionsTrades, an educational service that offers live classes six nights a week.
The “education first, profit second” mentality from the OnlyOptionsTrades team has been a welcomed shift from the “YOLO” mentality of places like WallStreetBets. The firm is the largest educational service for young investors and the only online service that offers live classes nearly every night of the week (Sunday through Friday).
Established in early 2020, OnlyOptionsTrades shares education and market research to help its large community with thousands of members of all skill levels. The group has over 15 instructors and support members that teach live classes and run educational courses that span eight weeks in time.
“The massive shift in demand for financial education caused by the financial crisis due to the pandemic helped them realize a gap in the market,” he says. “Making it their mission to help people under-stand the market, the team wanted to develop something that accommodates everyone.”
While the average person working the typical 9–5 job may want to create a secondary income from trading, it can be challenging. Working all day, they have no time to research the current happenings in the stock market, let alone do technical and financial analysis to truly valuate a company’s stock. To ensure they do not feel left out, their skilled analysts and traders break down information making it easy for anyone, beginner or advanced, to understand.
“During the GameStop and WallStreetBets hype, we had over 2,000 members join us one month all thinking the stock market was an easy way to get money, we had to completely change their mind-set as the stock market is no game, it will chew you up and spit you out.”
This fast growth in membership was good and bad for the company as there was a lot of toxicity, and it gave options trading, in general, an affiliate with high-risk trading. OnlyOptionsTrades offers education for its students so that it doesn’t have the “get rich quick” mindset.
Additionally, OnlyOptionsTrades offers live online classes with real instructors that investors interact with live. The classes run six times a week and on a consistent schedule with various topics that cover everything you need to learn about the financial markets. The team notes that this helps the members plan their time around their class schedule. For those who might not make it for various reasons, the group also records the classes, enabling students to check-in and watch when convenient.
DeGalbo explains a common mistake many traders make is trading too much or too soon before learning the market. “The hype on the social media platforms around stock trading has caused many new traders to join the market. However, few under-stand how the market works. Entering trading without prior preparation may have you counting losses as you have no defined plan. Success in trading is not an overnight process; it takes patience, effort, and hard work. Rather than putting all your eggs in one basket, OnlyOptionsTrades notes it’s better to start small and grow as you learn more about the market.”
The team further notes using a stop-loss order helps you in risk management. The goal of each trader is to be profitable overall, and this goal can only be attained by minimizing losses. “Using a stop-loss order helps you avoid getting too deep into a losing position,” DeGalbo says.
OnlyOptionsTrades has changed the way young people view investing and teaching them the risks of the stock market as it has designed to make the common retail investor lose money. “Applications like RobinHood are a double edged sword for retail investors, it offers free option trading which is an absolute game changer for the option trading industry, however it’s designed like a video game so people treat it as such,” Degalbo concludes.
“We’re changing the way people view investing with their educational platform. Stressing education first, then profit, the trading group educates clients on everything about trading, helping them do their own technical analysis to find profitable trades.”
