OptionSIZZLE Options Trading

OptionSIZZLE.com is a (blog) website aimed at those interested in options trading. Our content is intended for those who are just getting in or even for those who are already experienced in options trading.

The site is designed to help you better understand and become more familiar with options and what the professional traders are doing everyday in the market and provide effective options trading content and strategies to allow you to become a better and smarter trader.

In this website you will find:

• A repository of useful articles for option traders. The articles are aimed to help you with all aspects about getting started in option trading as well as advanced option trading strategies.

• A collection of video recordings  about option trading, including option trading tips, case studies of unusual option activity, live presentations and watch lists. You can watch the videos at any time through your computer.

• Fresh content is added regularly including option trading tips, how-to  instructional articles and current hot trading topics, as well as news and information from the trading world.

• Subscription service – Where we deliver more in depth perspective of market moving news and events and information only found on exchange floors or on institutional desks. Members receive the benefit of education, discipline, focus and an winning competitive edge. With the use of my proprietary option trading system, which is able to spot “unusual” trading patterns in the stock and options market. I am able turn this information into easy to precise easy to understand high probability trades.

• Option Trading Products – A collection of our best information to help you in your journey in becoming a better options trader.

Options are seen as a leading indicator of future price moves and events in the financial market. More and more retail and institutional investors and traders are turning to options to capitalize on the fluctuations in the stock market and protect their stock investments.

Who is Joshua Belanger?

Hi, I’m Joshua Belanger and I’m the founder, trader and entrepreneur behind OptionSIZZLE.com.

Let me tell you about my journey from the bottom of the barrel…

I have been in the financial industry and actively trading since 2003. I used to be in the exact same position as you are right now. I was just like you once. Back in early 2000, I did not have any knowledge of the stock market and I was making a living as a pizza delivery boy. After seeing hit movies like “Wall Street” and “Boiler Room” I became totally enamored with the Wall Street life style of big money, big profits, and big fun. I was hooked! I wanted to become a stock broker.

However, I didn’t know how to get into this industry. I didn’t have a college degree, come from a wealthy family or have any family connections….but I did know someone that was a financial planner. When I say I knew him, I mean I delivered pizza to him or he would come into the store because his office was two store fronts away.

His name was Russ and he was an old floor trader, now financial planner for Edward Jones. One day I mustard up the courage to ask him “how do I become a stock broker”? Russ replied with, “Do you have a book of business or a series 7 license?” Knowing I did not have these, he wanted to instill in my mind that was what I would need to get started.

He told me the quickest most surefire way to get going in the market was to start out running on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where he had been a trader.

By doing this he said would get me into the business and it will also help me understand where I will want to go from there. The only problems were, it was not a glamorous paying job and you had to have a connection to get on the floor. Luckily for me Russ didn’t have any connections. The seed was planted and I was hooked, all I had to do was make it happen.

I started cold calling every company that had a seat on the Chicago Mercantile exchange and asked if they were looking for a runner. After calling every company several times, I finally got a call back from Spike Trading to come in for my first big interview. On my way home I was so excited because it seemed like I had the job.

After a few days I received some bad news that they decided to go with someone else they interviewed after me, however, would keep my resume on file. I remember being let down, but still had that fire in me. I continued to call different companies trying to get my foot in the door. About three months later, I received a call back from spike trading. They said I was well liked and wanted me to come back and interview again for an opening they had.

I finally got my big break into the industry working on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange

Starting pay as a runner was only $5.75 an hour. At the time I was living in Zion, Il and still working at the pizza place to make enough money to pay my bills. On the floor I had to be up at 5am to take an hour and twenty minute train ride into Chicago and be on the floor at 6:30 to have the morning statements ready for the traders.

Needless to say, I quickly discovered that It was not all fun and games. This was a serious business and I had To pay dues if I wanted in on the action.

After working on the floor for about a year, I had an opportunity to advance and become a stock broker. This too was not as glamorous as I envisioned it in Hollywood. I thought brokers were sophisticated people who understood the ins and outs of the stock market, but I realized I was nothing more than a mere salesman pushing products down the throats of my “clients” through the phone. I hated having to come to work and make hundreds of calls every day. After I sold a $10,000 deal I was only compensated $1,200 for my efforts. I knew that being a stock broker was not for me. I took a few more jobs at different brokerage firms in Chicago, before finally landing at the trade desk of a decent sized firm.

I got to see the inner workings of how money worked in the markets, and was able to learn the secrets on how they grew money for themselves and for their clients.

After figuring that I saw enough, I wanted to breakout on my own. In January 2008 I started Stockstar Capital and quickly took on several eager clients.Then almost as if fate had some sick sense of humor I quickly began hemorrhaging cash on my first few trades. My fund was shriveling up fast and I was down to the tune of $75,000. I realized that I bit more off than I could chew. I just started this fund at one of the worst times the market has ever seen. I had clients calling me everyday asking me about trades and what the market due. It became overwhelming. I never experienced this much pressure in my own trading before.

My back was against the wall and I had no idea where to turn or what to do, until I had a moment of clarity in the fit of depression. What I needed to do was get my “sexy” back.

I had to retake control.

I needed to change my thinking and focus on what I was doing wrong. I also need to schedule client meetings at certain times no matter what. This allowed me to get back to making winning trades consistently.

Back to my cold calling days and when I was managing client’s assets, I would often speak about stock options to those who were typically confused or felt they were risky. I could not understand why so few knew about options and how they can actually reduce their overall risk on a portfolio or investment. While the Internet is awash with stock trading info, there is very little about options. After a while, my friends started asking me how I was able to consistently stay profitable and keep making money no matter what the market was doing. I started recommending guru products and courses, and I noticed a weird trend.

Everyone kept telling me that all the guru courses were full of fluff and their strategies and techniques never really worked for them!

I felt bad for pointing people in the wrong direction. I had found all my success in trading stock options, not stocks and wanted to share my insights and information with the world. In October 2008, I started this website strictly focusing on stock option education and trade ideas following unusual option activity.

When I first started this site I started posting trade ideas. Each day I would post a couple trading ideas following the same unusual option activity I followed to help my followers make the right decisions with their trades. After a while, I started getting emails from a few readers that they were following my advice, were making money with my trade recommendations, and they started wanting me to post more of them.

They wanted me to create their very own service so that they could get access to all my best trading recommendations, information, and access to me in one easy location. I started enjoying the success that I was helping others achieve in their own trading. It made me into more of a person and trader. It helped me overcome some of my fears along the way and now I am more confident in myself and in my trading. When I was working on a trade desk, I never had someone come up to me and say,

“Josh that was an awesome trade. Thanks for the idea, I made money on it”. Never!

I’ve had people tell me that my products and services has changed and enhanced their life. It has made them a better trader, just as my journey has made me a better person.

I never thought I would be where I am today and an inspiration to some and somewhat of a public figure. I have been featured in the press and quoted in Bloomberg, Business Week, New York Post, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswire and The Wall Street Journal.

You can  stay connected with me through:

Twitter: http://www.optionsizzle.com/go/twitter

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/optionsizzle

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/OptionSIZZLE

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabelanger

Seeking Alpha: http://seekingalpha.com/user/498637/profile

Feedburner: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Optionsizzle

Why Do I Enjoy Teaching?

There are many reasons. Primarily, I wanted to develop a group of traders that can trade together. It is very rewarding for me to sit and talk trading all day with my members.

Ultimately, OptionSIZZLE is my community and another one of my investments. My favorite investment because it is something I created with a lot of hard work and time.

You have no idea how hard I had to fight to keep this company going. From being bullied legally by one the industries largest and most popular websites to shut down, which I survived.  It has been exceptionally rewarding.

Why let all my valuable experience and these great contacts go to waste? After all, I’d spent years back testing strategies taking countless loses as well as all the experience I now have with finding profitable trades.

Because I figured there must be plenty of other good folks out there going through the same traumas and frustrations I had. So why not do something to help them? Like I mentioned above I tried to point them to other so called gurus.

So, my idea was an options trading site, to help people – just like you – side step all that frustration, the waste of money and time and the months, maybe even years it might take you to get your trading account consistently moving higher, if you were left to stumble along unaided.

Hopefully this provides insight on who I am and why I do what I do. If I had to do it over again, I’d want it the exact same way.

Here is an interview I did pretty recently and will give you more insight. Joshua Belanger Interview