Sheridan Mentoring Administrative Fee

tom

Well-known member
Administrator
Did anyone else see the email Dan Sheridan sent out about the annual administration fee? In case you didn't, Dan is now charging $300/year for continued access to the member website for mentoring students.

There is a clause in the student agreement:

8. Recurring Fees
Sheridan, may, at its discretion, charge a recurring fee for access to the Sheridan website and resources. An admin fee will apply after the initial membership time (6, 12 or 24-month packages) has elapsed.
I suspect most of the students won't pay this fee.

The way the email read it is either pay the fee or your login won't work. I personally would have kept the old mentoring students at a level they had when they joined. Keep access to the forums and archives, except the new online classes. Perhaps charge a small fee to continue having access to the online classes.

What are your thoughts?
 
GUESS WHAT..? Good "ol Dan is giving the AEROMIR group A GREAT opportunity to recruit some
excellent talent .. :)

Some GREAT traders have come from that group ,HOWEVER Dan IS NOT A TRADER,in fact he made his living at the CBOE
teachiing DR.J's 'ol Mercury traders. I have ZERO respect for him and I have lifetime license there !!
 
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I wont pay... I did that once, when i was assured i would never have to pay again. If you take what i paid and divide it by the $300 he now wants,then i am good for 21 years.
I agree with the above post. Dan is NOT a trader.
and i think this could open up the floodgates for Dans competition.
The only benefit to Dans community is just that.... the community and the trading groups. and that is something that can be replicated .... either for free or for a very very small fee.

Posted by oexxeo
 
I think it is criminal what Sheridan is doing. When I signed up there was no discussion of future fees. It was sign up and you can use it for life. To me this is nothing but greed. I did not sign any agreement that allows Sheridan to charge fees in the future.
 
I am not sure about criminal but it does leads me to think there is a contract violation issue. Let the recruiting begin.
 
I was certainly disappointed after receiving Dan's email about the admin fee. Back in 2009 when I joined the Sheridan program I thought I was purchasing a lifetime membership (at least that was what I was told). Quite frankly, the only value I get our of their website now is listening to a couple of the trading group weekly webinars (CA4, CSP) and some of the Vet days. Would love to see Capital Discussions fill some of this void going forward. I will not pay the Sheridan admin fee either (just on principal). Hopefully Dan will realize that this new policy will hurt his business more than help (at least that's the message I sent him...for what it's worth).
 
Before I joined 2 years ago, I actually noticed this clause and asked Johny about it. His response was:
"We reserve the right to implement a fee after the first year. We have just never exercised that right.
:)
[/URL] We do not have any future plans to either."
 
I've been with Dan since 2006 & the only value I get out of the site now is listening to the trading grps. I also recall the pay once, use for a lifetime. I suspect the competition is heating up out there & Dan needs another source of income as most of what he teaches now can be found for free.
 
Start downloading your favorite videos, if you haven't already done so. There is a limit of 25 files per day and you have till the month end before the fee gets implemented...
 
While I don't necessarily disagree with the comments above, I think they are little harsh and one-sided. Dan's approach in collecting a fee was incorrect, but $300 a year or $25 a month is not unreasonable for what we get from the Sheridan Community. Even Tom is talking about charging $10 or so a month. Also, Dan may not be a retail trader, but he his a great teacher and clearly has a superior understanding of options in my opinion. Just about everyone posting here learned from Dan or his mentors....including Jim and Tom. I think the product that Tom and Jim are offering is great, and I personally see a lot of potential incremental value from it, but lets not discredit what Sheridan provides. I'm not trying to create an argument, but rather, present the other side of the debate.

Posted by Tps
 
I agree that Dan's education is good for the basics.

The small fee we are talking about is going to be a community model. If you are a trading group leader, trading group advisor or make a presentation in the Round Table, you get free access. You don't have to pay. Just help the community either financially or with sweat equity :)

There was a perception (or promise) of lifetime access. The broken promise is what people are upset about. Not the $300/year.
 
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I'm disappointed that Dan didn't chose to let the community know (paper trader or something) he was thinking of doing this and asking for feedback from the community. I don't think it was the best approach to send out an out of the blue email saying either pay the fee or you're cut off by the end of the month. Especially since most everyone thought it was a lifetime membership. Nobody likes getting hit with the fine print. More communication to help all of us understand why it's necessary would have been nice, and maybe he still will - I just hope he does so by the end of the month otherwise I won't be able to listen to it :mad:

Posted by Jesse B
 
I have learned a great deal from the Sheridan community, and I am grateful for that. I was surprised and disappointed in the newly announced annual subscription.
I too paid a princely sum for the education and resources at SOM, but I know that education, either training or hard knocks is expensive. I believed that continued access was a given for the upfront fee, but I understand that the written contract is dominant.
I still think that Dan is an honorable man, so I rationalize that maybe the SOM organization is not bringing in new students at the rate they were....running out of fuel and needing a new source?
Since I started, my trading style has migrated away from the SOM taught systems. Although I occasionally use the forum and webex features when I have a question, I do not see $300 of value on an annual basis and do not plan on continuing. Just my $.02

Posted by Alan
 
I am very disappointed in Dan for changing the rules after we paid our $6k. Feels like a classic bait and switch. I also echo what others have said about the primary value of ongoing SOM membership being the trading groups and the vet's days. I'm hopeful that Capital Discussions can become a second home for the vibrant trading group community hosted at SOM that will undoubtedly experience a substantial brain drain very soon.
 
Two years ago, I paid $6000 to join SOM. Except for the initial introductory call, I never availed any of my mentoring sessions (for various reasons) but immensely gained from California Trading Group 4 and Vets Day sessions. I learnt from many great traders and that itself has paid for the initial fee. However, this recurring annual fee would create substantial brain drain from SOM. Dan is a great teacher but certainly made a poor business decision. It will be too late before he realizes the long term consequences of this decision which may bring him short term financial gains.
 
This is interesting. In the SOM forums, there's a similar thread to this in which numbers of mentoring students were estimated. I clarified the numbers by pointing out that the 1800+ students did not include online class students. John Shankle deleted the post (likely at Dan's request). This is another reason I'm glad to have forum outside of SOM to have open discussions. This is not the first thread of mine that was deleted at SOM. When I answered a question about OptionVue, Dan asked me to delete that thread (and any other thread I mentioned OptionVue in). Really Dan?
 
This is interesting. In the SOM forums, there's a similar thread to this in which numbers of mentoring students were estimated. I clarified the numbers by pointing out that the 1800+ students did not include online class students. John Shankle deleted the post (likely at Dan's request). This is another reason I'm glad to have forum outside of SOM to have open discussions. This is not the first thread of mine that was deleted at SOM. When I answered a question about OptionVue, Dan asked me to delete that thread (and any other thread I mentioned OptionVue in). Really Dan?

Yes, I just noticed that too. Absolutely outrageous.

I think it is important to understand why people are frustrated. it's not the $300. it's the principle. The breach of trust.
 
Dan has benefited financially by having a community of traders giving him research and free ideas. He was in the pit (as he reminds everyone incessantly), but how many weekly calendars did he trade there? None -- they didn't exist during his tenure. But he has sold seminars on trading weekly calendars -- where did he get insights on that? Not for his personal experience as a retail trader -- he doesn't trade. It was from the community -- his non-paid research group. Many other specific strategies that Dan has sold fall into this catagory as well.

To implement this "small annual administration fee" in such a heavy handed way shows that he has no appreciation for what the community has provide him.
 
Just got an email from SOM on the admin fee :)
"If you were told that you would never have to pay for website access when you enrolled with Sheridan Mentoring, just reply to this email, and your annual administrative fee will be waived."
Looks like SOM finally got it....
 
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