Daniel Kertcher

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Daniel Kertcher’s response to the Consumer Magazine NZ article Regarding his options course...

Thank you for taking the time to read this reply. I appreciate the fact that you have decided to hear my side of the story, rather than just simply believe the article that Consumer Magazine NZ wrote about me.

I welcome your questions. You can contact me at http://www.danielkertcher.com

Sincerely yours,

Daniel Kertcher
 

In early 2002 a journalist named Phil Mitchell attended a preview evening seminar that I ran in Wellington, New Zealand. The preview seminar was for my upcoming options seminar.

Phil did not make himself known to me that he was a journalist and that he was interested in writing an article about my seminars.

A couple of weeks later he contacted my NZ promoters, ESC, and said that he was interested in writing an article. We immediately invited him to attend the upcoming 3 day course at no charge. I have never had anything to hide and am very proud of my seminar and my work.

Mr. Mitchell attended the 3 day course. At the completion of the course he stated that he was happy with the content and that he enjoyed the course. We didn’t hear from him or Consumer Magazine again until 2003. 

In early 2003 we started to receive emails from clients who said that they had been contacted by Mr. Mitchell via email and that he was asking “leading questions”. We immediately contacted Mr. Mitchell and asked what he was doing. He informed us that he was now interested in writing the article and that he was contacting some of the people that had attended the course that he had attended to hear how they had gone. 

We welcomed the opportunity to have the article written and I immediately sent him a complete set of my 3 day course on DVD, as well as my one day Advanced Options Trading DVD course and my one day Advanced Covered Calls DVD course. 

Mr. Mitchell said that he wanted to contact our graduates and we welcomed that too. He also said that before the article went to print that Consumer Magazine would show us the drafts and allow us to comment on them. Again we welcomed their approach.

 Since Mr. Mitchell had attended the course in 2002, I had transformed the course substantially. In 2002 I was teaching the Australian Options Market, which is the third largest in the world and a robust market place. At the time, it was very difficult for non- US residents to open an account with an online US options broker and trade the US market. Not impossible, but difficult. 

That changed in mid 2002, and it became a lot easier for non-US residents to open accounts with US online brokers. What’s more, the brokers’ systems became far more advanced, with stop loss and contingent order features which allow traders to be asleep when the market is open and still have their trades protected, an obvious necessity for Australian/ Asian/ NZ traders as the traders are usually asleep when the US market is open. 

Based on these improvements in the marketplace, I immediately set about transforming my courses from being Australian based to US based. The reason was simple. The US market is staggeringly huge compared to the Australian market, providing hundreds of extra opportunities for options. The depth of the market is virtually insatiable for the private investor, as the market turns over billions of dollars.

In February 2003 I ran a series of free seminars for my NZ graduates as well as in other countries, to upgrade them to the US market. I ran these seminars at my own cost, as I felt that my graduates would benefit enormously from the US market opportunities. Not that the Australian market was poor or inadequate, it is in fact a very vibrant marketplace, it was just that the US market offered so many extra benefits and opportunities. The US market allows investors and traders to control their risk far better than the Australian market, whilst at the same time, making better profits. 

I explained to Mr. Mitchell that the course had changed substantially from when he attended and that I would send him the entire course, including the 2 advanced courses, which I then had available on DVD. 

He accepted the DVD’s and told me that he was going to watch them.

My NZ promoters contacted our graduates in NZ and told them that a journalist from Consumer Magazine was writing an article on me and requested that they co-operate with him. They also requested that they cc them on any email conversations that they have with the journalist, Mr. Mitchell. Over the next few months Mr. Mitchell asked me many questions via email, which I replied to. Once again, I had nothing to hide, and was very open with him.  

I then suggested that we meet up face to face, as I was going to be in Wellington, where he lived. He agreed and we met for a 2-3 hour meeting. During that meeting he continued to ask me questions about my courses, my background, my qualifications, my clients’ profits and losses and my charity work.

I explained to him that I had completed both the Level one and Level two Options Accredited Advisors course and exams with the Australian Stock Exchange, the highest level of qualification one can achieve in the options world. He confirmed that he had already found that out by contacting the ASX. 

I explained to him that I had taught at various international stock exchanges and had just recently had meetings with the Directors of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and that they had attended my courses in Hong Kong. They appreciated my courses in Hong Kong and I continue to run many seminars there and in other countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Dubai, Thailand, Taiwan, and Australia. In 2004 we will also be teaching in Japan, Europe and North America. 

I later explained to him that I have also become a consultant to the Jakarta Stock Exchange and am currently running a series of seminars for all the brokerage firms in Indonesia, teaching them about options as they are launching options for the first time in Indonesia in 2004.

 I explained that many, many of my clients had been exceptionally successful with writing covered calls and trading options. Out of the over 1000 graduates in NZ alone, many had become financially free from options, having quit their jobs and now living solely on their options income. I also explained that not everyone who attends my course actually goes on to use options. The old adage applies to all humans, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink”. Despite my efforts in my courses, we recognize that approximately 20% of the graduates do not go on to use options. 

However, 80% do, and most are still using options 6 months, 12 months later and beyond. But that’s the same with University. Many people attend University, but don’t continue in their particular profession or vocation. Even I am an example of that, having studied neurophysiology (brain research) at Uni. 

We also discussed the fact that at the course I teach my graduates to accept losses, that they are a part of investing. No one in the world always makes profits. Successful investing is about understanding how to minimize losses and maximize profits. Mr. Mitchell told me that he understood that I explained to people how to both minimize losses and to maximize profits. 

I then explained that my Children’s Charity Challenge had grown from $10,000 to be worth more than $70,000. The challenge was to turn $10K into $100K and then donate the entire amount away to various children’s charities. The aim of the exercise was to demonstrate to the public how options can be used to build wealth, whilst at the same time to use my options skills to help children in our society who need our help. 

I explained that I had not yet donated the Children’s Charity Challenge money, as it had not yet reached it’s target of $100K. At that time, it was just over $70K. Today it has grown to more than $85,000.  

Details of the charity challenge are, and always have been, available on my website for the public to view at www.platinumpursuits.com .

 At the completion of the meeting, I asked Mr. Mitchell point blank how the article was going to be written. He told me that he was going to write about the people whom he had contacted who had made profits, the ones that weren’t using options and the ones that had made losses. He told me that he understood that I taught both covered calls and options trading at the course and that he would devote one third of the article to covered calls and two thirds of the article to options trading.

He told me that he was going to explain that last year I taught the Australian market, and that now I was teaching the US market.

 He told me that he would explain my credentials and discuss the various countries and institutions where I conduct my seminars.

I thought that that was very fair, as it sounded like it painted an unbiased, accurate look at my seminars and options in general. Options may not be for everybody. But then, investing one’s own money is not necessarily for everybody. Some people can understand risk, risk management and how to control their emotions when it comes to money. 

Other people become very emotional when they invest their money, regardless of whether they make profits or losses. It is impossible for me to determine whether someone will be successful with options when they attend my 3 hour preview seminar. I charge $2,990 to attend a 3 day course. 

With over 3000 graduates around the world, I know that all will gain an excellent understanding of options, but that not all will use options. That is up to them.

The ones that do follow the rules that I explain and teach have proven to do exceptionally well. The ones who become emotional, erratic, and do not follow the rules prove to do poorly. 

I explain that at my preview seminar and I appreciated that Mr. Mitchell said he was going to present the article in that light. However, when the first draft of the article was presented to us, it was clear that Mr. Mitchell had a completely different agenda.

A copy of the original draft is included with this letter. In the original draft, it is clear that Mr. Mitchell and/or Consumer Magazine were not

interested in presenting an unbiased, objective article about me or options.

This point is completely clear when you realize that he never talked about Covered Calls, one of the two strategies that are taught at the course, and the strategy that is the most successful for our graduates. This is especially disturbing considering that he told me to my face that he would devote a third of the article to covered calls.

Furthermore, Mr. Mitchell went on to say that Nick Leeson, the famous rogue trader who destroyed Barings Bank, used options. This was completely false. Mr. Leeson traded Futures Contracts on the Japanese Nikkei Market and fraudulently altered documents to gain access to Barings Bank’s money. 

Mr. Mitchell tried to use the famous case of Nick Leeson in an attempt to scare people out of using options and to distrust me, implying that I taught strategies that could cause investors to lose everything. This proves that Mr. Mitchell had no idea what he was talking about, as he confused two completely different instruments, options and futures. 

There were many other inconsistencies with the article. Claiming that I told attendees that they would make a 50,000% return is completely ludicrous and a complete lie. I never, ever told anyone, ever, that they were going to make that kind of return. Mr. Mitchell omitted my credentials, and preferred to refer to me a “smooth-talking, self proclaimed guru” and then later as a “Queensland marketing whiz kid”. Not as an Accredited Options Advisor, nor as a consultant to various international Stock and Options Exchanges, as he told me to my face that he would.

Mr. Mitchell’s article was offensive, sensationalistic and full of lies. The article was clearly written to defame me and to misinform and mislead the public. 

Mr. Mitchell then proceeded to distribute the article to my graduates, before he gave us the chance to discuss it’s content with him, Consumer Magazine or our lawyers.

We contacted the editor of Consumer Magazine NZ, Mr. David Russell, and Mr. Mitchell and informed them of the gross errors and lies in the article. 

Mr. Russell informed us that they were proceeding with the article and that we had no say in the matter.My NZ promoters and I immediately contacted our lawyers and a QC and started injunction procedures, to stop the article from going to press. We arranged a meeting with over 200 of our Wellington graduates, where we showed them the article and asked for their feedback. We invited Mr. Russell and Mr. Mitchell but they declined to attend. 

Every single one of our graduates at that meeting explained to us in writing that they disagreed with the article and how they couldn’t believe it was actually talking about Daniel Kertcher and my courses. 

We took written affidavits from the graduates who had been contacted by Mr. Mitchell and they all confirmed to us that they were grateful for having attended my courses, were in complete disagreement with the article and many of them said that they had been misquoted.

All the graduates were surveyed and all agreed that those that had been using options had made profits and losses. Most had made profits overall, but some had made losses overall. Every single person surveyed explained that even though they had made losses, they understood that losses were a part of investing and that they knew how to maximize their profits. 

Every single person surveyed also said that when they made losses, that they didn’t blame Daniel Kertcher for the loss and that they usually made the loss because they didn’t follow the rules taught at the course. They all said that they were still very positive about options and were all happy that they had attended the course.

Even the people who had made losses overall stated in writing that they were still positive about options and believed that they had become better traders because of their experiences and were positive about their financial future with options. 

The lady who was quoted as being “the only one to make a profit” got up at the meeting and explained how upset she was and how she had felt harassed by Mr. Mitchell. She explained that he completely misrepresented her comments. She explained that he had checked into her personal background, without her permission, and that he had contacted her workplace and was trying to talk to her employers about her character. 

The entire meeting was filmed by us and had our lawyers in attendance, so that Consumer Magazine could not say that we coerced our clients. All the evidence collected was to be delivered to the courts the next day to get an injunction against Consumer Magazine from printing the story. 

Interestingly, however, the very next day Consumer Magazine contacted our lawyers and said that they had re-considered and were going to re-write the article and were going to show us the draft. 

The second draft was presented to us approx. one week later. It had been substantially rewritten. The references to my “supposed” 50,000% claim had disappeared. The references to Nick Leeson had disappeared. 

The references to me as a “Marketing Whizz kid” disappeared. However, they still refused to recognize my credentials. They still did not explain that the Children’s Charity Challenge had not yet reached it’s target of $100,000. Instead they continued to say that I had not donated any money from the Charity Challenge, which is correct. They added a line accepting that I had donated some money. I have in fact donated over $45,000 to various charities around the world in 2003 alone. Information about this is freely available on my website.

 Mr. Mitchell said that I could not produce audited accounts of my charity report. That is true, as why would I have audited accounts on my personal accounts when I haven’t reached the target goal? 

What Mr. Mitchell refused to write, however, was that I provided complete copies of my trading portfolio, directly from my broker, detailing every single transaction that I have made and that I publish these reports on my website for the public to view.

They added a section about writing covered calls, but said that they only had spoken to a few people who had made 1-3% per month. They said that we had provided details of another.  

What they failed to mention was that we provided a shower of testimonials from our clients around that world that had made profits from trading and covered calls.

I teach people how to generate an average of 6-8% income per month but even at 3% per month, that still 36% per year! Far better than the bank! Unfortunately, the article is written in a way to de-emphasize these returns. 

Furthermore, the article says that I only spend two hours teaching the strategy of Writing Covered Calls, but that I dispute that. Of course I dispute that! My DVD’s are proof that I spend approximately one day on covered calls over the whole 3 day course. In fact, I spend 2 hours in the Preview seminar alone talking about covered calls! It’s one of the main strategies I teach in the course! The article attempts to confuse readers and to discredit me for no reason, and does this despite my obvious disagreement and video proof. 

The article continued to talk mostly of people of had made losses, but what the article didn’t explain was that Mr. Mitchell was considering anyone who hadn’t even used options had made a loss, as Mr. Mitchell considered the course fee a loss. I don’t consider that fair, as even if someone didn’t use options (and that was their choice) they still received a 3 day professional course on options and an excellent education into these instruments. They received value for their money. 

Furthermore, the article still did not explain properly that I was now teaching the US market. Mr. Mitchell tries to imply that my Australian courses were faulty and inappropriate by saying that I had excuses for the Australian market.

 The simple fact is, the US market is far, far bigger than the Australian market. Why would anyone want to remain in a small market, when the large market is easier to trade, cheaper to trade, offers more opportunities and allows an investor to greatly reduce their risk? That’s why I changed my courses to the US market and why I offered at no charge a US conversion course to all of my graduates. 

Though the new draft was a substantial improvement over the old draft, it still had serious inconsistencies, omissions and sensationalistic half-truths. We informed Consumer Magazine in writing about these errors, however they did not reply to us. They refused to answer to our phone calls, faxes and emails and when they finally did respond to us, they posted the article the very next day on the Internet, without changing the article.

The article went to print in the September edition of the Consumer Magazine despite our comments and our facts contradicting their comments. Since the article went to print, I have had to cancel all my NZ seminars. I still continue to conduct my courses in all other countries in the world that I teach, and am in fact expanding the network. 

The real losers in this are the unfortunate people in NZ who could have benefited from learning about options and using them to help build their financial future. At least they would have had the opportunity to decide for themselves. 

I will return to NZ next year to continue my seminars, as I have nothing to hide and stand 100% behind my courses and my personal credibility. I have received hundreds of emails from my graduates explaining that they do not believe in the article and that they are still grateful for having attended my course. 

In my opinion

In my opinion Consumer Magazine were never interested in producing a balanced, unbiased, objective look at me or options. They are a private company, not a government agency, that makes money from selling magazines and advertising. Bad news sells better than good, even if you have to leave the good stuff out, or make it sound bad when it is really good. 

Mr. Mitchell has never traded an option in his life, a fact that he confirmed to me in our face to face meeting. The first time he learnt about options was when he attended my course. Yet Consumer Magazine thought that he was an appropriate person to research and critique a professional options seminar taught by a professionally accredited options adviser with over 10 years finance experience.

In my opinion, this article had more to it than meets the eye.  

The reality is that New Zealand is a very small country. With a population of only 3 million, there are likely to be no more than 5,000 – 10,000 people maximum who actively trade shares. Many people own shares, but probably very few who actively monitor the market and trade shares at least once or twice a month. 

I have taught over 1,000 people in NZ alone how to use international options to build their wealth. The majority of the local NZ brokers cannot help my graduates. They are NZ stock brokers, not US or Australian options brokers. Therefore, my graduates must  open accounts with overseas brokers. 

I teach people how to be active in the markets. My courses attract people who are already active in the markets. Therefore, it is plausible that I have taught at least 10%-20% of the entire active market participants in NZ how to transfer money overseas and trade overseas. That is a large percentage of the local active market and represents an enormous amount of lost brokerage fees for local NZ brokers.

This is obviously having an effect on the local broking fraternity. Quite simply, they are losing customers because I have shown them how to have a far superior trading experience overseas. Now, this is only my opinion, but seeing as NZ is a very small country, it is not unrealistic to think that many of the NZ stockbrokers may know Mr. Russell and or Mr. Mitchell personally. Consumer Magazine has been around for many years. Considering the ridiculous comments made in the first draft and the complete about face made in the second draft, it appears that Consumer Magazine had from the outset intended to discredit me.

For what benefit? I can only theorize. It was definitely not for the public’s benefit. They are still in the dark about options. The article did not contain one useful point about how options are used. In fact, Mr. Mitchell explained that writing covered calls allows investors to “rent out their shares”. This analogy, whilst I use it at the seminar to give a teaching experience, is in fact wrong in the context that Mr. Mitchell explains it. 

In the end, all I can do is to continue doing what I love to do. I have been very blessed in my life. I have had an open mind, I have learnt these fantastic tools and have used them to become financially independent. I have also been blessed with an ability to teach and a desire to share this information with the world. 

It is my belief that money, and the ability to generate wealth, is a responsibility. I believe that it is our own personal responsibilities to become financially independent. Not our governments, not our parents, not our employers. Ours!

Options provide the ability to generate an income without physical effort. By following certain guidelines, strategies and rules, it is possible to use options to generate fantastic wealth passively, without physical effort, in a relatively short period of time. I am living proof of that, as are my thousands of graduates and my Children’s Charity Challenge.  

In all of my courses, I teach by providing an enormous number of live, current examples. I didn’t make up this stuff about options. I am simply on a mission to enlighten people about it. All are welcome to attend my courses. Those that want to learn how to build their wealth can attend my courses. I pressure no one into attending my courses. 

When they attend, I provide free on-going support via email, advanced courses and free graduates re-union parties. I don’t see Consumer Magazine, the Brokers or even the world’s governments out there providing this level of education or support.

The unfortunate truth in the world is that the rich need poor people. If everyone were to become wealthy, then no one would work. We need to have workers to support the economy. The wealthy do not want the poor to become wealthy. They want to control the economy, the money and the people. 

The way to do that is through the media. Ask yourself, “Who owns the media?” It’s not the government. It’s the wealthy. The article also makes mention of how Consumer Magazine have featured me before regarding property investments and The MetaShare system.

 What they don’t go on to say is that I totally refuted those allegations too and commenced legal proceedings against them! In fact, Australian property has been going through the biggest boom in history, as we predicted 6-10 years ago. Our investors back then have done exceptionally well! I guess it was more convenient to leave that part out. 

What they also don’t say is that they never even contacted me about the article when they were writing it. It’s not too hard to find me. I’m the only Kertcher in all of Australia! In the end I ceased the legal proceedings as the article had virtually no impact on my business and 3 months later it was forgotten about by most of the community. 

Regarding MetaShare, they don’t tell you that their comment about me in the Consumer Magazine was about 3 lines long stating that I had previously been in property and that I was then promoting Share investing through MetaShare. They never even bothered to attend our preview seminars back then! They just formulated their opinion without discussing anything with me. A rather interesting trend of theirs… Consumer Magazine may have attempted to discredit me in the past and again with this latest article, but the opposite effect is occurring. Due to this article, we have received enquiries into our courses and DVD packages. Our seminar attendance around the world is increasing substantially. I guess there is no such thing as bad publicity! 

I welcomed the chance for Consumer Magazine to write an article about me. It’s a shame that this could have been a wonderful opportunity to expose the public to options and give them a clear understanding of options. Why they chose the tact they did, I guess we’ll never know for sure. 

I’ll leave it to you to decide what you believe. Thank you for taking the time to read my statement. Sincerely yours,

Daniel Kertcher

If you have any further questions, you are welcome to contact me at:

http://www.danielkertcher.com

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