OptionsSwing Founder Shares Growth Tips, Vision For 'Trading Pit' Experience Passes

Options, which provide holders the ability to buy or sell an asset at a certain price in the future, are the go-to instrument for short- and long-term traders.

Markets are the distribution of these options, while counterparty-options hedging can result in predictable movements.

Jason Lee, an engineer-turned-trader, began tracking options flows in recent years. At first, he posted his insights online for free but, later, added a paywall. This was the birth of the OptionsSwing investment research and analysis mentorship service.

See Also: How To Swing Trade Options

Lee spoke with Benzinga in 2020 about his mission to make markets more accessible. Since then, OptionsSwing has grown and withstood the test of volatile markets.

Lee credits his savvy business management and marketing skills with saving the business. He also notes new products, including Atlas by OptionsSwing, will help the company grow in 2023 and beyond.

“If you see an Apple Inc AAPL options trade, you may be curious to know where the stock is trading," he says. "You can quickly pull up the chart, fresh news, analyst ratings, price targets, trades by insiders and Congress, among many other things, with this new platform enabling users to trade smarter and faster.”

If users spot a trade they really like, they could soon have the ability to execute that same trade through the Atlas platform.

How OptionsSwing Grew Fast

Considering Lee has amassed nearly half-a-million followers on social media and thousands of paying users, Benzinga asked if he had any tips for how other businesses can carve a path toward reaching millions in annual recurring revenue. Here's what he said:

1. Don’t sell products directly. “The best way to sell is not to actually sell,” Lee explains. “It’s by providing value. Take news, for instance. We try to unpack the headlines and break down some very complex concepts into simple visuals so people can understand and digest the information better.” Though paying users are harder to come by using this approach, they often stick around longer and for the right reasons. These are the types of users you want to have because they want to learn and contribute to the ecosystem.
2. Reinvest in the business. Also, place people in areas where your abilities are lacking and don’t micromanage. “We have employees and they range from analysts and traders to moderators of the OptionsSwing ecosystem and marketers,” Lee says. “We need people who support operations and address queries when they come up, so our traders can make better decisions, faster.”
3. Gather attrition metrics. Also, capture and act on feedback. Offering “discounts to members who try to cancel” is fair, Lee says.

Visions For Continued Growth

Apart from an acquisition of the business, which Lee is interested in exploring so long as he can have some part in sharing ideas, reducing toxicity, and growing with his ecosystem of traders, OptionsSwing is exploring partnerships and white-label opportunities.

“Through my second business Ternary, which all of this is built inside of, we could sell to other businesses that are interested in helping their users excel, as well,” Lee says. “We built everything in-house.”

When asked about hedging against volatility in 2023 and beyond, Lee is lowering his expectations while committing himself to trim costs where possible, if needed. This way, the business can stay afloat and cover expenses until the window for growth reappears.

“If we sustain ourselves, we’re going to be well-positioned to capitalize on the growth of our ecosystem later on,” the founder elaborates. “The other part of hedging is not being pigeonholed into one thing, which we’re going about through the partnerships and building out Ternary.”

To bolster his online ecosystem, Lee desires to create physical experiences across the country allowing traders to gather in person during market hours.

“Imagine what having a pass to a physical trading pit would do for traders’ psyche and understanding of markets," Lee says. "That’s kind of what I’m looking at right now."