I am not defending for Optionetics. I am only talking about business and commercial sense

I was engaged in a dialogue in my discussion board with an Optionetics student from the US. She wrote to me a long post:

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I am happy for you to be part of the Optionetics, being its official teacher. I’m not so happy for the newbie’s out there. When you were just a regular “student” you were more open, more helpful. When I was studying your BMIC, seeing you post your live trades or even trades that just closed, it was very helpful. Now your response to most questions is that you cannot do it anymore, because you are Optionetics teacher. How that suppose to help the new student? Just another student (you 2 years ago) could do it, and now you, the official teacher cannot help as much as you were able to do short time ago? For the sake of new students, please, quit being a teacher, and become just another student again. It will benefit them more, like it did me.

My original education on the Iron Condor started with Don Fishback. That’s where I learned the formula to compute the Expected Move, that I believe is the most accurate, since it comes straight from the Black-Scholes options pricing model. Any time some student asks about the EM formula, he is being told “it’s a big secret, unless you pay another 3-4 grand and come to a POMM class”.

How about just pointing the curious student to some books? You just said in your previous post that you cannot say anything about non Optionetics books. My question then is “Is Optionetics also in the books sale business, not only in seminar business?” What about books by Charles Cottle, his older one CWS or the newer one OTTHR? Would pointing them to students prevent them from going and paying for POMM class? Or maybe these books would motivate them even more to go to that class?

After studying Don Fishback’s Iron Condors, I also was studying from Keith Fitz-Gerald, before running into Dan Sheridan and you. At the same time, because lucky me I live around Chicago, I was able to study for FREE from TOS.

That’s another beef that I have with yours and all the other teachers answers when somebody asks “Which is the best broker to use?” I was invited to attend Expert class in Chicago, last month, which was done by George and Tom. During that class both of them were openly saying that TOS and OX are the brokers they are using and recommending them. So if the 2 big guys can say it openly during their seminar, what’s wrong with all the rest of the Optionetics teachers? Why they cannot point their students to the best brokers? While I can understand, Optionetics being secretive about TOS, since this broker offers FREE very high level option education classes to their clients, it’s in the interest of the student to know about this option to them, and in my mind company who says often, that the best interest of the student is on their mind, to point them that way.

While I can understand that at least you guys, the official Optionetics teachers should not discuss the other teaching companies, like Pristine.com or Randomwalktrading.com how about just saying that RWT has good books (and I have written proof that some of the Optionetics teachers were/are contributing writers to their monthly articles). While I’m not impressed with Pristine’s options side education, their technical analysis is very good, as pointed already about a year ago on discussion boards by another Optionetics student (who luckily for us did not become a teacher ;>)

Most of the students are honest, hard working at their option education and not looking only for freebies (like our friend Bok, the CPA ;>) Sometimes just the seminar is not enough; I for example had read at least 100 books on TA, options, psychology of trading etc… I attended some other options seminars, besides the ones by TOS. I’m on the mailing/seminar list of Nison, Bigalow, OptionsUniversity, etc… Point them to those materials, so they can study in the confines of their homes, have different point of view, some questions explained different way. I believe that no wrong will come Optionetics way doing this. They will appreciate more the company who REALLY has the students best on its mind, not only its account receivable.

I will end it there for tonight. I hope you and all others will look at my series of posts as not me complaining, but trying to see the real Optionetics – Empowering Investors company, that I believed it to be over 5 years ago during my 2 hours free introductory seminar.

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I thanked this student who provided me with the honest feedback. There are lots of restrictions or business ethics as to why Optionetics is not in the position to fulfil the wishes of newbies. Whatever it does, it will never please everyone on the planet. So, may I have the permission to explain:

1. As a company that provides educational services (and not a charitable organization), the employees and contractors have to be paid. No one does charity work in this business anyway. Accordingly, Optionetics has to be run as a business, i.e. a profitable venture. Having said that, it has strong business ethics. It has its students/customers to be concerned. Students' success brings into Optionetics the intangibles, and its reputation. Therefore, from a business perspective, I don't understand why there are still people who lack the business mindset and insist that a company such as Optionetics is morally wrong in selling educational services. It is the corporate objective to be in this business and it is a business proposition.

2. While Thinkorswim is a licensed broker based in the US, it does not have a license to operate in Singapore. On record, only Optionsxpress and E-trade have license to operate in Singapore as brokers. In this respect, it is not possible to recommend Thinkorswim as a broker in an event held in Singapore. To do so will put the company in trouble as the Monetary Authority of Singapore will be after the company. Moreover, as far as I know, Thinkorswim or any other unlicensed brokers are unable to provide any form of solicitation and demonstration of their platform in an event held in Singapore. If so, the Monetary Authority of Singapore will also be after them.

3. From a business perspective, other service providers are actually the company's competitors. So, like Warren Buffett looking for a valued stock, the third criterion is that a company must display a strong economic moat. So, how can a company running a business mention other competitors' products or services in its own event. It simply does not make any business sense.

While I appreciated that student's effort in bringing up many points, what is missing is a sound business proposition, and commercial sense. As I am running my own business, these things are very obvious to me.