Freddie Rick, BetterTrades Founder

From his formative years as a child in a small Louisiana town that's most famous for being the birthplace of singer Britney Spears, many of those who knew Freddie Rick realized he wasn't an average boy. When most of the town's children could be found spending their down time at the local swimming pool, Freddie Rick was developing the entrepreneurial spirit that eventually led to the development of the BetterTrades stock market education series.

When he was five, Freddie won a transistor radio in a Rotary Club contest. He went on to build a cart and sold boiled peanuts by the roadside. Next, Freddie operated a snow cone stand, followed by the invention of a machine to slice potatoes.

After graduating from high school, Freddie Rick entered the U.S. Marine Corp. He ascended to the rank of sergeant and had been accepted into an elite military leadership school, but decided to enter private business instead.

After a turn in network marketing, Freddie began to explore the possibility of trading the stock market. After spending several months learning how to trade, an often-painful process, Freddie began to identify methods and strategies that he found workable in the marketplace. He recorded the step-by-step learning process and assembled it into a program he could teach to others.

In 1998, Freddie and his wife, Mitzi, founded Long Term-Short Term Inc. with the idea of providing investing and finance education to regular people. However, their concept differed greatly from other companies. They wanted to prove that learning how to trade stocks and options was a skill that could be acquired by anyone given proper instruction. Even more important, they wanted others to understand that learning how to take control of their personal finances and investments was the best way to go.