In 1998, Freddie and Mitzi Rick founded Long Term – Short Term, Inc. with the idea of providing investing and finance education. However, their concept differed greatly from other companies. They wanted to prove that learning how to trade the market was a skill that could be acquired by anyone given a proper plan.
Freddie and Mitzi began teaching friends and acquaintances about finances and trading in exchange for a “love offering” in various churches. Their trading classes were so popular that in 2002, Freddie began to build and expand his class schedule under the name BetterTrades (still incorporated as Long Term – Short Term, Inc.). The comprehensive two-day Market Essentials program taught today is based on the same ideals and concepts that Freddie developed and used himself.
As BetterTrades flourished, more instructors (known as "coaches") were needed to teach the growing student base. Currently, BetterTrades has a full staff of coaches who crisscross North America, introducing students to the education of the financial markets in a clear, non-intimidating manner. The coaches are experienced instructors. Coaches offer a variety of free online and paid online classes, as well as premium on location classes that last either one and two days.
BetterTrades has a 50,000 square-foot office in Norcross, a northeastern suburb of Atlanta, which houses employees in the areas of development, infrastructure, marketing, SEO marketing, web development and design. The office has a meeting room that has been used to hold the Financial Freedom Expo and the Market Essentials workshop. The office includes a 10,000 square-foot television student with three hard sets and virtual set creation capabilities, and was used to record and create fresh versions of the material issued by each coach.
The company owns an 18,000 square-foot printing and distribution center in Davin, West Virginia. The full-service print production facilities enable the company to produce all of its own manuals and printed material. It is the largest digital printing service provider in West Virginia. The center also has CD and DVD duplication services.
BetterTrades offers more than 2,000 live Financial Freedom Expo workshops each year. They are held quarterly in more than 100 cities throughout the United States and Canada. More than 180,000 people attend one of the BetterTrades workshops each year.
