Prosper Trading Academy Review – Scott Bauer Scam?

Prosper Trading Academy is a training brand with many different courses..

It's headed by Scott Bauer. 

There's a lot of mixed feelings about Prosper Trading Academy and I'm going to look at this program honestly in this review.

There's a lot to unpack here.

You'll get some background information on the coaches, a look at the training, customer insights and more.

You'll know if this is a scam or not by the time you're done reading.

Lets' get into it!

Who Is Behind Prosper Trading Academy?

There's three main guys that run Prosper Trading Academy.

They are Scott Bauer, Charles Moon and Mike Shorr.

Here's some background information on them:

Scott Bauer Is On TV A LOT

Not everyone thinks Scott is the most legit person on earth and some think he's a snake oil salesman.

We'll answer whether he is through out this review.

However, there's one thing you have to give Scott a lot of credit for.. he manages to get on TV a lot.

And every time he does the person introducing him mentions his training program.

That's a lot of free press!

Some networks he's made appearances on includes:

• Bloomberg Business 
• CNBC
• CNN
• Fox Business

Scott Juicing Picks On TV?

You get more than just free press when you go on TV.. you can also pitch your trade ideas to the TV audience.

However, it is never a good idea to trade options based on what you hear from TV.

The reason for this is many people inflate stock prices to their own benefit by offering their picks.

For instance, Market Rebellion and the Najarian Brothers are known for doing this. 

Mark Minervini as been accused of this as well. 

What these traders do is create there option contract before going on TV and tell people to buy a stock.. then the price goes up.

When the price goes up the trader then sells their contract and the price goes back down.

The people who bought the stock after hearing it on TV, however, lose money.

Later you'll see many people claim to lose money with Scott's option picks but Scott claims to make money with them.

This would explain why that happens. 

Scott Formerly Worked At Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs is an financial behemoth and is one of the biggest investment banks in the world.

Many prominent politicians and leaders have come from this company, including:

• Secretary of State Steve Mnuchin
• Governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy
• Prime Minister of Italy Mario Monti
• SEC Chairman Gary Gensler

and more.

Scott was a trader for Goldman Sachs and rose the ranks to Vice President.

Charles Moon Handles The Penny Stocks

Scott Bauer is the options guy.. Charles Moon is the penny stock guy.

Charles Moon is the main coach at Prosper Trading Academy and previously worked for Chicago based Great Point Capital. 

Additionally, he claims to be a former poker player and runs his own stock alert system called Moon's Money Trades.

Where do these guys find the time to run all these companies, coach and trade?

Usually these kinds of people make most of their money with products and not trading..

Mike Shorr Does Options As Well

Mike Shorr is another coach at Prosper Trading academy.

He has less programs than Moon and he focuses on options and derivatives.

There's honestly not a lot out there about him and in his bio it says he's been teaching option theories for years.

Recommended: The Best Place To Get High Return Stock Ideas

What Is Prosper Trading Academy?

Prosper Trading Academy is trading platform that offers various products.

Here's some important information about this company:

Options Are The Main Focus

The main trading method taught here is options.

Option trading is essentially guessing what the price of a stock will be in the future.

You create a contract with that price and a date and if the price is over what you guessed you make money.

You can do put options as well which is selling stocks at a certain price instead of buying.

You aren't obligated to buy the stock once the date comes to fruition and you can sell the contract early as well.

Option trading is becoming more popular.

According to CNBC the number of option contracts traded in 2020 doubled the amount traded in 2019.

There's a lot of option trading courses out there as well and this might be causing the rise in popularity.

The Freebies Are Part Of A Marketing Funnel

There's a free ebook available at Prosper Trading Academy's.

This ebook is 40+ pages and goes over the basics of options. You'll get definitions and some trading principles.

For a free ebook it definitely has some awesome value.

However, you're immediately pitched on buying premium products the second you sign up.

After you put in your email you'll be prompted to sign up for Scott's Trading Masterclass.

The offer is pretty confusing and has 3 different price points:

The first is $29 but you need to show up and watch the entire training. 

The second option is the same as option 1 but you also get Scott's proprietary trading layout.. this will cost $57.

The third option is to pay $250 and this if for people that can't attend live.

Additionally, you can pay $17 extra for the full transcript:

Talk about nickel and diming people!

You know once you attend this masterclass you're going to be pitched on buying an even more expensive product.. probably one that costs thousands.

These marketing funnels are designed to milk as much money from you as possible.

Recommended: The Best Place To Get High Return Stock Ideas

Prosper Trading Academy Product Overview

There's a ton of different products and programs at Prosper Trading Academy.

Here's a breakdown of each one:

Options Volatility Crash Course ($499)

The first program we're going to cover comes from Scott Bauer and is called the Options Volatility Crash Course.

This is a surprisingly short course and only is 10 parts.

It's mainly geared towards beginners and covers the following:

• What an option is
• How options are quoted
• Different trading strategies
• Call vertical spread
• How to enter call vertical spread
• How to exit a call vertical spread

and more.

Again, not really that much training for $499.

You'll also get a preview of the live trading room which is much more expensive.

Live Options Signal Room ($4,995 For 90 Days)

The Live Options Signal Room is a live trading room that broadcasts during the trading day.

You'll learn how to use trading signals and trade options in real market conditions here.

It's a lot of money for just 90 days access, though..

Bauer's Power Picks ($3,996 Per Year)

This offer is just signals without the trading room.

If you sign up for this program you get:

• Text messages and email updates about potential option trades
• Tools to help you improve your trading
• Long form updates and analysis of different trades

Besides the yearly option you can pay $999 for 3 months access. 

Alpha Alerts ($4,000 Per Year)

Alpha Alerts is another signals program.

If you sign up with this alert service you get the following:

• Finding trifecta trades
• Educational material to help you make trades
• Weekly watchlist of trifecta trades
• Monthly trading sessions with Scott

Charles Moon Penny Stocks Program ($4,995 Per Year For 90 Days)

This program is run by Charles Moon and revolves around penny stocks. 

This is what you get if you sign up:

• 14 part penny stock training program
• Live trading room
• 4 to 5 trade picks a month
• Trading signals 

Mike Shorr's Options Short Term Program ($4,995 For 90 Days)

The next program is headed by Mike Shorr and covers short term options. 

You get the following with this program:

• Training material outlining short term option trading
• Slingshot Trades (trade signals and trade set ups)
• Live training room

My Thoughts On These Products

There's a lot to unpack here in regards to these offers.

Here's what I think about them:

WAY Too Expensive

These are some of the most expensive programs I've come across.

Most of the packages are only for 90 days too.

So if you sign up for one of the live trading rooms you'll have to spend over $20,000 just to stay in it for a year.

Dammmmmn.

That's a lot.

You better be trading with hundreds of thousands of dollars if you're paying that much for a trading room.

If not you're never going to make a profit. The trading room will eat up anything that you make.

Upsell City

Upsells are too be expected and every successful business does it.

You buy a car and then have to pay for every feature.

You buy a laptop and then have to pay for protection and different software's.

However, the upsells here are really bad.

It seems like every product just leads into another. 

You get the free ebook and you're pitched on a $50 program.

In the $50 program you're pitched to take the $499 course.

In the course you're pitched to buy the trading room for $4,995 per 3 months.

Once in the trading room you're pitched to buy the alerts for $3,996 per year.

It never ends and frankly it's frustrating.

Training Is Lackluster

The training programs aren't really anything special either.. which is surprising because the free ebook is actually pretty jam packed with information.

Then you pay $499 for the options course and it's a 10 part program that's very basic.

It can only help absolute beginners.

However, beginners shouldn't bother either. You can easily go on to Amazon and get an options book for $20.

There's plenty of free training on Youtube as well.

You can easily piece together the information for free and get similar quality.

There's Basically No Refunds

If you look in the terms you'll see the following message:

However, there's one exception to this.

They offer a full, no questions asked refund for the program that costs $29 LOL.

I'd really like to hear Scott explain why there's a refund for the $29 program and not the $4,995 one.

Recommended: The Best Place To Get High Return Stock Ideas

Prosper Trading Academy Customer Complaints

There's a lot of reviews out there about Prosper Trading Academy.

Most are negative.

Here's a look at common complaints from customers:

A Lot Of People Lost Money

One thing you'll see over and over and over is that people lose money with the alerts.

Sometimes the loses are as high as 70%, which is terrible.

Here's an example of someone expressing this:

This person claims they didn't get a single winning trade pick and lost $10,000 in just a month!

That's horrible.

He's not the only one claiming this either.

Here's another example of this happening:

The person commenting up top actually makes money DOING THE OPPOSITE of what Scott recommends.

That's actually pretty smart!

Like I mentioned in the beginning of the review.. Scott most likely juices picks with his alerts. That's why they can show profit and customers lose.

Don't Call A 1-800 Number To Learn How To Be Rich

Most people are super skeptical of all the products at Prosper and any company like it.

You should be.

I've reviewed dozens of these companies and so many are scams.

Here's a commenter from Reddit that describes it perfectly:

There's big money in trading programs and trading services.

Unfortunately, that money is for the creator and rarely for the customer:

Recommended: The Best Place To Get High Return Stock Ideas

Wrapping Up The Review

Trading can be difficult. Especially trading options and using technical indicators.

This requires a lot of time spent in front a computer and you're risking a lot of money.

You know what's an easier way to make money?

Selling trading signals and memberships to live trading rooms.

The price is so much for these products it would only take a handful of members to make Scott millions of dollars.

The operating expense for this company is so little too.

You're just livestreaming yourself trading and running a chatroom.

It shouldn't cost $20,000 to join something like this.

This is a cash grab through and through.

Every single aspect of Prosper Trading Academy is designed to get the maximum amount of money out of you as possible.

Do yourself a favor and skip over these products.

Here's A Better Opportunity

I'd pass on Prosper Trading Academy.

The good news is there's programs that can help you actually make money investing and trading.

I've reviewed all the top places that do this.

To see my favorite (which is very affordable to try), click below: