- What is Simpler Trading?
- The Video
- Never Trust A Reviewer With No Qualifications
- Never Trust A Reviewer With An Agenda
- Importance of Genuine & Thorough Reviews
This review of Simpler Trading responds to a YouTube video from David Jaffee (embedded below), which incorrectly accuses Simpler Trading of being a scam without any supporting information.
Without any proper research or actual review of the product, the video's creator (who is attempting to promote his own service) gives a misleading opinion without any research or actual review or use of the product he is reviewing.
The video, posted in 2019 by David Jaffee of BestStockStrategy, is improper and inaccurate.
What is Simpler Trading?
Simpler Trading is a training and development platform where members learn how to trade on various markets by watching mentors trade their own money. The platform has its strength in Options trading and was founded by John Carter, a highly successful trader who is a mentor and trainer on the Simpler Trading platform.
The Simpler Trading Team Trade Their Own Money—You Observe
Simpler Trading is a member-based organization where members learn by watching experienced traders. It's a community approach where Simpler Trading does not provide investment advice but allows access to a community of expert traders. As a member, you can benefit from the research and strategies of experienced traders.
Options Trading is Complex (And Important)
For the average investor, the options market is daunting—it is complex and extremely hard to learn. Many people dabble in options without the proper education or training and get burnt. Of course, dabbling in discipline without the appropriate training and education (sky-diving or sword fighting) never yields good results.
However, just as chemistry or physics are hard to learn (these complex disciplines provide a barrier to entry for most people), their implied difficulty does not make them scams.
What Are Options?
Options are derivatives of stocks that are used by retail investors to the major investment funds to both accelerate and hedge portfolios simultaneously. Most funds will buy some options to hedge returns. Buying and selling options is a fundamental part of a healthy market.
Your 401(k) investment fund likely uses options in some way (especially when you see the word "hedged" in your account). For example, a popular 401(k) investment is the JPMorgan Hedged Equity Fund which actively buys and sells options each quarter (45,000 contracts) to create a collar options strategy.
Even though they are complex, billions of dollars of options are bought and sold every month and tracked on the CBOE, with over 6 million contracts traded in April of 2022.
About John Carter
As the founder of Simpler Trading, John Carter is a highly successful veteran trader with 20+ years of experience. John's transparency with screenshots and supporting evidence of these trades is rare for traders. He explains the detail of his massive trades, including research, setups, execution, and the emotion of holding the trades.
Few traders offer such helpful content to the investment community. John is an author of Mastering the Trade (in its 3rd Edition) and is a prolific content creator and speaker.
John's videos provide everything needed to establish his credentials, something which the video's creator David Jaffe is aware of as he is trying to compete with Simpler Trading. Watch John Carter's videos to learn more about his character and his transparency when it comes to trading:
His reputation within trading communities is beyond reproach due to his willingness to share his personal results with all details. His strategies go way beyond blinding buying a call, as the "reviewer" incorrectly suggests.
The Video
The video in question was published in 2019 and has over 80k views. We begrudgingly embed it below.
Never Trust A Reviewer With No Qualifications
Not only does the "reviewer" set up that he does not know what Simpler Trading's options program is about, but he also does not even review the actual product.
The "reviewer" labels the Simpler Trading community as a scam without even using it to find out more.
He explains that he does not understand the product in the following timestamps and has not even used it.
Timestamp: 00:46Watch: ...regarding his options trading, I am not a hundred percent sure about what it entails.
This is an obvious red flag with this "video review," as the reviewer admits he does not know what is happening on the Simpler Trading platform.
- The reviewer does not understand the product area of the product he is reviewing.
- He has not even used the Simpler Trading platform.
He goes on to say:
Timestamp: 00:56Watch: ...however I can tell you that if it tells you in any way to buy options then in my opinion, it is a scam.
With no basis or actual review, he labels the platform a scam.
It is a failure of any reviewer to label a product a scam without actually reviewing it.
For example, an advanced chemistry or robotics course can't be labeled a scam just because the reviewer has never studied chemistry and has never attended the course.
Why The Reviewer Is Incorrect
The "reviewer" has likely had a bad experience with buying options and losing money in the past. As he says at 1:20, "Buying options are like buying lottery tickets."
If he were knowledgeable on the topic, he would know that all options strategies involve the simultaneous sale and purchase of options in spreads, limiting risk. This is especially true with Simpler Trading, where many traders focus primarily on using multiple options (buying and selling) in tandem to create the lowest risk setups with the highest probabilities. Similarly, JP Morgan's aforementioned investment fund for your 401(k) does the same.
The majority of options trades are done as a form of spread (where you simultaneously buy and sell options to create a fixed-width spread) which reduces the cost.
The "reviewer" admits he has not used the Simpler Trading program before making his scam accusation.
He attempts to say that John Carter encourages you to buy or sell naked options, which is entirely incorrect and a totally false accusation.
In fact, in his book Mastering the Trade, John Carter thoroughly advises against selling naked options. On page 95, he calls it "inherently dangerous" and the "riskiest options strategy alive."
The "reviewer" uses the words "if" and "in my opinion" to make the accusation.
An honest reviewer would use words like "our tests revealed" or "our analysis shows" rather than "if the product does this." An iPhone reviewer can't refuse to look at the actual iPhone and instead say, "if it does x, y, z, it's a dud," without actually knowing what it does.
Never Trust A Reviewer With An Agenda
David Jaffee appears to be running his own wildly misleading options trading membership with outrageous claims such as winning 98% of your trades.
In his accusation that Simpler Trading is a scam, he makes the following egregious claim:
Timestamp: 04:55Watch: I think that probably around 95% of his students are gonna end up losing money
David Jaffee makes this claim in an attempt to discredit Simpler Trading while claiming (on his website) that if you use his program, the opposite will be true, and 98% of David Jaffe's trades make money (if you pay him to tell you).
Timestamp: 05:36Watch: ...the simpler trading programs in my opinion are pretty much garbage.
His accusations against Simpler Trading are false, self-serving, and totally biased to serve his own agenda by trying to take down a competitor.
Importance of Genuine & Thorough Reviews
This video highlights the importance of people properly reviewing products and understanding products before making content like this.
This video has been viewed 80,000 times and is likely to the detriment of the Simpler Trading business, without an actual review of Simpler Trading ever taking place.
The video's creator:
- Has a clear bias against John Carter in an attempt to take him down
- Has no understanding of Simpler Trading
- Has no evidence to show he used the product he claims to be "reviewing"
- Makes false claims about the program being a scam
- Makes false claims about 95% of Simpler Trading's customers losing money
- Is trying to sell his own program, which he makes crazy claims about (e.g., 98% of his trades make money)
This video's content cannot be trusted.
Simpler Trading is legit with thousands of happy customers and is not a scam.
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