The document details the career journey of Joshua Belanger, founder of OptionSIZZLE, in the options trading industry. It describes how he got his start as a runner on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange at age 19 and his experiences working as a stock broker and on trading desks. He founded OptionSIZZLE in 2008 to share unusual options activity with individual investors. However, he soon faced a lawsuit from another firm providing similar information, though the case was later settled out of court. Despite challenges, OptionSIZZLE has now been operating for nearly six years and continues to help investors learn options trading strategies.

1. The Lawsuit:
Wealth, Freedom, Options

2. I can’t believe how quickly time flies…in a couple
months, OptionSIZZLE will be celebrating its sixth
year anniversary.
It’s crazy how much interest there is surrounding
unusual options activity…they talk about on
twitter, the TV and on a boatload of websites.

3. It’s great to have choices, learning from different
people and services.
The more individuals who trade options…the
more competitive the market is…allowing for
investors to get in and out of trades faster and
more efficiently.

4. When I first started back in 2008, it wasn’t like
this at all.
In fact, back then there was only one website
writing about unusual options activity and how it
could be used to generate trading ideas. I
understood the power of following the smart
money at an early age.

5. When I was 19, I worked as a runner at the
Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
I’d watch the “locals” follow or copy large
institutional trades…they would have a feel of
who the smart money was and if their orders had
enough impact to push the market in their
direction.

6. It was like a sweet science…but I saw it
work…over and over again.
No doubt, it was definitely an exciting time for
me…I mean I was making a measly $5.75 an
hour…taking a 2-hour train ride (each way) from
the suburbs to Chicago and delivering pizza’s at
night to survive.
However, I had no contacts in the industry… so I
was grateful for the opportunity to watch and
learn from some of the best.

7. The natural progression…or so I thought
In an attempt to further advance my career, I
studied for the series 7 exam and became a
licensed stock broker at the age of 21. The idea of
helping people with their investments, while
earning income for myself seemed like a perfect
fit.

8. As most things in life, if something is too good to
be true…it probably is. I would spend my days
making 600 phone calls a day…prospecting for
clients. The job was all about getting sales…the
more clients you have….the more money you’d
make.
It actually had very little to do with financial
advising or helping clients build wealth.

9. Being young and naïve, I felt that I could change
that…that you could still make money while
helping your clients. So I went back to what I
learned while I was on the CME…I started talking
to prospects and clients about unusual options
activity that I spotted in certain stocks.

10. Going back to what I knew
While being on the floor of the Merc, I spotted
floor traders scalping orders from big firms that
would come into the SP 500 futures pit. When I’d
call prospects, I’d mention to them insider buying
transactions and options activity in Chesapeake
Energy (that is what we were putting new clients
in at the time.)

11. Their CEO, Aubrey McClendon, was big into
buying shares of his stock at certain times.
That’s where I discovered that individual investors
had limited knowledge on how options worked
and how they could actually be used to generate
better returns. Not only that, most of the brokers
at my firm rarely touched options…they felt that
they were too complicated and it would take
away time from the most important
thing…getting new clients and earning
commissions.

12. I was fascinated by options, but I knew that being
a stock broker was not the right fit. However, I
tried to find value from the experience. One of
those, is when I had the chance to broker and
overseas client who we cleared option trades for.
I started jotting down notes and trying to learn
from their success. Unfortunately, my firm was
more concerned about me getting on the phones
and generating commissions.

13. I felt that by learning how trading worked…you’d
be able to recommend better ideas to
clients…hence, keeping them happy and having
them stay with you for the long term. To me this
was more valuable than learning sales
techniques.
Feeling confident of what I had learned so far
about options…I was ready to jump in and try it
for myself.

14. It was not as easy as I thought
My first options trade, I lost $2k in one day… on
an earning trade. As you know, no industry
license exam teaches you how to trade even
though that is where I learned the mechanics
behind options.

15. However, this motivated me to learn more… I
started reading about technical analysis, option
strategies and from other guru types.
I left the brokerage firm and went to another
“advisory firm” where I did some Forex with a
partner… while still focused on building a book of
business. To make a long story short… they
screwed us on commissions and ended going
down as a Ponzi scheme. I bounced to another
firm for a short term…but later went back to the
brokerage firm I started with…this time working
on their trade desk.

16. It was a chance to learn
I was running orders on bonds, stocks and option
trades for high net-worth individuals. This was
another opportunity to see how the smart money
was participating in the market. I was getting paid
and learning at the same time…another valuable
experience in my life.

17. While still working on the trading desk, I founded
StockStar Capital. Running the show, I had the
ability to teach clients what I had learned about
options trading and how they could use leverage
to better enhance their returns.

18. In the summer of 2008, the stock market started
declining…a lot of firms began cutting staff…mine
was one of them…and I was out of the job. So I
put more of my focus on StockStar Capital…but I
didn’t have enough assets under management
yet, to make it my sole source of income.
I wanted to do things right…and it was going to
take some time to build my business.

19. So I reached out to the only website (at the time)
that wrote about unusual options activity and
submitted my resume. I was a big fan of their
work and thought it would be a great opportunity
to enhance what I already knew about options.
Well,
I never heard back from them…

20. …so did what seemed natural…

21. …I built my own website, OptionSIZZLE.com in
October 2008. With only one player in town, I felt
there was plenty of room to grow. Not only that,
but I am a firm believer that competition breeds
innovation and makes everyone work harder.
After all, I knew what they were doing because I
had access to time and sales from when I had
worked on the trading desk.

22. “Competition is not only the basis of protection
to the consumer, but this the incentive to
progress.” ~ Herbert Hoover

23. I felt my experience, knowledge and expertise
would bring more opportunity for those looking
to learn about options… and an approach that I
knew worked…all for a lower price than what
they were charging their customers.
I even thought we could (or would) work together
at some point in the future.

24. I didn’t take personal that they didn’t call me
back. Maybe they just didn’t have room for
me…but I knew this what I wanted to do.
Back then, I was using two different services that
helped me identify unusual options activity…I
would write about the most interesting orders on
my website for free.

25. Things started to go very smoothly.
After picking up steam and realizing that there
was an actual market demand for this type of
analysis… I started charging customers through a
subscription based service. I was even getting
media attention from the likes of Bloomberg
Businessweek and the New York Post…several
more followed after.

26. One of the hardest periods in my professional
career
But in early 2009…a bomb was dropped on me. I
got slapped with a cease and desist at 5:30 pm on
a Friday evening… to shut down my website by
the following Monday…and get this…it was from
the guys who I once admired…who motivated me
to start OptionSIZZLE.com.

27. I was confused, shocked, flat out scared and
pissed. I didn’t get it…what did I do wrong, I’d ask
myself? Were they trying to strong arm me? Was
it because I didn’t wear my hair in a ponytail?
On my road to getting towards OptionSIZZLE.com
I’ve been kicked around, lied to and verbally
abused in this industry, taking it all on the
chin…hoping to make a name for myself and
become someone.

28. I knew I had to fight this because I felt I didn’t do
anything wrong nor did they even allow me a
chance to make a change or notify me about their
exact concerns….. They just wanted me gone!
Starting out though, I had limited resources and I
was going up against a business that had a lot
more legal muscle than me. I was frightened and
angry…I felt just because they had more money
that they could just simply drown me in legal fees
and bully me out of business.

29. Now, in today’s business world, we see this type
of behavior a lot…the big guy trying to strong arm
the little guy out of business.

30. Catching a small break
Luck was on my side…
…I was able to get connected with a non-profit
law firm in Chicago who was interested in my
case. After hearing my side of the story and
seeing the facts…they introduced me to a law
firm that was willing to fight for me.

31. It’s pretty wild…here we had a non-profit law firm
interested in my case…granted I was a for profit
business. They went out of their way to introduce
me to the proper help I needed. Not only that,
but I felt that my accusers thought I would pack
my bags and fold…but with legal support behind
me…I was willing to call their bluff with greater
confidence.

32. Despite this, it was an extremely overwhelming
period for me, pushed into court, managing client
money through the worst financial crisis since the
great depression and running a new website. The
stress would get to anyone…and I was still in my
mid 20s.

33. (In 2010, I stopped managing client money to
focus solely on OptionSIZZLE. My last year, I was
acting more like a shrink than a money
manager…that took a toll on me. I learned a lot
during that period. I wasn’t as successful as I
envisioned. I took on more than I realized…but
was thankful for that opportunity, I tried my
hardest to do the best for my clients.)

34. Don’t believe everything you hear
Now, there has been some things written about
me on the lawsuit and my services. The truth is
that OptionSIZZLE was never shut down…not
even for one single day. Some claimed that I was
taking ideas from other websites etc. But that is
pure ignorance on their part.

35. You see, today, you can go on twitter and type $
sign and a stock symbol…you might see 5-10
posts about unusual options activity in a
particular stock name.
Why? Because there are more services that offer
this information…and more people are aware of
it.

36. During that time when this stuff came out, it
hurt… I was just trying to live my dream and
passion. I saw an opportunity to create
something… and it felt like some were trying to
beat me up, which was the case.
However, that’s part of the game…by being out
there, I’ve been able to help a lot of
people…which trumps negative feedback from
people who don’t truly understand what you’re
about.

37. And you know what else?

38. Every option trade that hits the exchange floor
must be reported to the Options Price Reporting
Authority (OPRA). It’s not proprietary
information, time and sales is public information.
I know a lot of traders and investors who use
unusual options activity as their main source of
idea generation. They have no interest about
tweeting their trades or writing about it…all they
care about is making money…they could do
without the recognition.

39. Would you rather be the first person to act on the
trade or the first person to announce to the world
you spotted the unusual options activity?
Unfortunately, the options education business is
driven by monster-sized egos.

40. However, there was a lot of confusion about this a
couple years ago. As investors become more
educated on the subject…they can see how silly
those claims were.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t really help my cause…when
clients would ask about how I detected unusual
options activity…I would tell them that my
method was proprietary.

41. Through age and experience I feel that my
wisdom ripened…I’ve become more open about
my process (as evidenced by SIZZLE Method
Report) that teaches what software I use and how
I go about spotting the best opportunities.
With the experience I have been able to obtain in
this industry, working professionally and now a
normal investor like you, I really find satisfaction
from teaching other investors how they can use
options to enhance returns on their
portfolio…while still being able to actively trade
my personal account.

42. The future looks bright
Yes, we are approaching our six year
anniversary…the road was a bumpy one…but the
future looks bright. I’m glad that there are more
services out there talking about unusual options
activity. As mentioned earlier, competition brings
out the best in people.

43. Over the years, I’ve learned how to hone my skills
in trading, by conducting research… in the form of
trades and testing what really works. While I
started OptionSIZZLE on trading unusual options
activity, I have created an approach to the market
that I feel is unique.
I use all aspects of options… from selling premium
to buying it…along with using unusual options
activity to create better probabilities of success…
with the goal of creating above average returns
on a consistent basis.

44. Like dieting, people want the fastest, cheapest
and easiest way to get fit. The same could be said
about option investing…they want the fastest,
cheapest and easiest way to learn and become
profitable.
The thing is…if it was so easy…everyone would be
doing it…and the rewards would not be nearly as
great. My road to getting here wasn’t smooth
sailing…but the rewards make it all worthwhile.

45. Being able to look back, I feel that I opened the
door for some of the services you see today. I
also take pride in the fact that OptionSIZZLE was
that much of a threat in its early days… that the
only player in town invested a pretty penny to
take us out.

46. I look forward to helping you and others for many
years to come in becoming better investor
with……. options.
To your wealth, freedom & options,
Joshua Belanger

47. (While I can’t disclose the specifications of the
settlement, the case was settled outside court.)
Has there ever been a time in your life where
you’ve felt so overwhelmed that you didn’t think
there was an end in site? If so, I’d be grateful to
hear your story.

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