TL;DR: Most options education assumes you already have a big account; Small Account Secrets 2.0 starts from the opposite premise. John Carter, founder of Simpler Trading and author of Mastering the Trade, teaches the tactics he uses to grow limited capital, alongside mentors Kody Ashmore and Allison Ostrander, with three of his ThinkorSwim indicators bundled in. The headline growth stories are creator-reported, and we weigh them honestly below.
What Small Account Secrets 2.0 Actually Is
Small Account Secrets 2.0 is an options trading program by John Carter that teaches capital-efficient tactics for accounts too small to absorb big drawdowns. The course’s centerpiece example is mentee Kody Ashmore’s reported run of turning a 10k account into 20k in 90 days with a simple formula. Treat that as one documented outcome from inside the team, not a baseline you should expect.
A Three-Mentor Bench, Not One Voice
Unusually for this genre, you get three instructors with different temperaments: Carter on tactics and trade selection, Kody Ashmore on the small-account grind he lived through, and Allison Ostrander, whose lens is risk and drawdown control. If the aggressive style of compounding a small forex account appeals to you, Ostrander’s segments are the counterweight that keeps the approach survivable.
The ThinkorSwim Toolkit
The package bundles three of Carter’s tools from the 1.0 class: his 3 ATR indicator, Utility Labels, and Market Internals, all built for ThinkorSwim. That earns its keep if TOS is your platform, and a real limitation if it is not; the sales page does not advertise ports for TradingView or other platforms, so non-TOS traders should plan to chart the concepts manually.
Who Gets the Most From It
- Options traders with small accounts who need position sizing to do the heavy lifting
- ThinkorSwim users prepared to install and use the three indicators
- Traders who want mentor variety instead of a single guru voice
- Anyone pairing aggressive tactics with deliberate risk management habits
It is the wrong buy for index investors, for traders on platforms other than ThinkorSwim who want plug-and-play tools, and for anyone who reads the 10k-to-20k story as a promise rather than an example.
How It Compares Inside Our Catalog
Against selling credit spreads for weekly income, Small Account Secrets 2.0 is broader and mentor-led rather than a single recorded routine, and next to the fast options primer for very small accounts it trades brevity for depth. And where high-octane compounding programs push maximum risk per trade, Carter’s framing is growth with guardrails, which suits traders who blew up an account once and do not plan to repeat it. Start with the trading-plan module before touching the indicators; the plan is what makes the tools mean something.
Small Account Secrets 2.0: Common Questions Answered
What is Small Account Secrets 2.0?
It is John Carter’s Simpler Trading program teaching options tactics for growing small accounts, taught with mentors Kody Ashmore and Allison Ostrander, and bundled with his 3 ATR indicator, Utility Labels, and Market Internals for ThinkorSwim.
Who is John Carter?
John Carter founded Simpler Trading and wrote Mastering the Trade, one of the most cited modern books on momentum and options trading. His name carries real weight in the options education space.
Is Small Account Secrets worth it?
For small-account options traders on ThinkorSwim, yes; the mentor variety and bundled indicators justify the study time. The value drops if you trade another platform or want stocks-only material.
Is it legit?
Entirely. Simpler Trading ranks among the larger US options-education firms, and Carter’s books predate the course-selling era. The growth examples are creator-reported outcomes, which is normal marketing and worth reading with calibrated expectations.
Do I need experience?
You need basic options literacy, calls, puts, and spreads, because the course spends its time on tactics and sizing rather than definitions. Investopedia’s options spread primer covers the prerequisites in an afternoon.
Is It Worth Your Screen Time?
If your account is small enough that one bad week erases a month, Carter’s sizing-first approach addresses the actual problem instead of selling you a hotter signal. Work the plan module, install the tools, and let the trading psychology lessons from all three mentors round out the edges. As with every course we review, this is learning material, not advice on what to trade.
