I tried The Options Cartel on Whop for a year. Here's my honest take.

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The options cartel has been around on Whop since 2023 and has pulled in over 20,000 store members. That's not a small number for a paid trading community. The man behind it is Sean Trades (username: seanrechtman), who has been on Whop for three years and is active on X (Twitter). His pitch is simple: he learned to trade, wants to teach others, and built a community around it.

Is it worth your money? Let me break it down.

What is the options cartel?

It's a Discord-based options trading community on Whop. The core idea is that you get trade alerts, daily market analysis, educational content, and access to a community of other traders, all in one place.

Options trading, if you're new to this: it's a type of investing where you buy contracts that give you the right to buy or sell a stock at a set price before a certain date. It's more complex than just buying stocks, and the learning curve is real. That's exactly the gap a group like this is supposed to fill.

The Options Cartel also includes an AI tool called the Custom Flow Bot, which surfaces actionable trading setups. Think of it as a signal layer on top of the human analysis Sean and his team provide.

What's actually included

The experiences you get access to through the Whop platform:

TOC Discord (main community server)
Futures Discord (separate product, see below)
Free Discord (entry-level access)
Announcements forum (updates and news)
Content Rewards (earn rewards for participation)
Free Prizes via Whop Wheel (gamified giveaways)

The three tiers: Free, Full Access, and Futures

The Options Cartel Free

This is the starting point and it costs nothing. You get access to trade ideas, educational content, and the community. For anyone skeptical, this is the logical first step. No commitment, no credit card.

Try the free tier first

What's included in the free tier:

Actionable trade ideas daily
Educational resources
Community access
Exposure to Sean's strategy before spending anything

It has 126 reviews and averages 4.71 stars. For a free product, that's a strong signal.

The Options Cartel Full Access

This is the main paid product. Here's how the pricing breaks down:

$125/month (7-day free trial included)
$299 every 3 months
$999.99/year
$2,199 one-time lifetime access

The monthly plan with the trial is the obvious entry point if you're on the fence. You get:

Real-time trade alerts
AI-powered flow tool (the Custom Flow Bot)
Daily market analysis
Full Discord access with Sean and his team
Educational resources and masterclasses

This product has 288 reviews at an average of 4.84 stars. 261 out of 288 are five stars. That's a high concentration of satisfied members.

Start your 7-day free trial

TOC Futures

A separate product focused on futures trading. It's run by Jacob (Overbay Trades), a two-year futures pro. At $45/month, it's priced much lower than the main options product.

What you get:

Live futures trading sessions at 9:15 AM EST plus a PM session
Daily trade reviews
Educational streams twice a week
Live commentary and market insights
Jacob's Starter Crash Course

It only has 4 reviews so far (average 4.75), which makes sense given it appears newer. If futures is your focus, this is worth a look.

What members are actually saying

I read through the reviews across all three products. The full review page on Whop is worth checking yourself, but here's the honest picture:

What people like:

Sean's EMA and volume analysis approach is described as "simple, clean, and easy to follow"
One member specifically mentioned testing Sean's public plays on X before joining, making money, and then subscribing
Multiple reviewers highlight the educational depth: videos, masterclasses, technical analysis, trading psychology
Morning market analysis is called out repeatedly as genuinely useful
Several people mentioned it paid for itself in a single trade

What some people don't like:

At least one reviewer noted Sean occasionally posts positions on X that weren't alerted in the Discord
One critic felt the losses claimed were understated compared to reality
A few members felt it wasn't the right fit and cancelled

The overall split across 418 total reviews: 366 five-star, 38 four-star, 5 three-star, 1 two-star, 8 one-star. That's about as clean as it gets for a trading community.

Is Whop actually worth it as a platform for this?

For the options cartel specifically, Whop works well because it ties together the Discord access, payment management, and the trial period in one place. You can pay via Apple Pay, PayPal, Sezzle, or Whop Balance, which covers most bases.

The 7-day trial on the Full Access plan is a Whop feature that works in your favor here. You get real access, not a watered-down preview, for free before your card is charged.

My honest verdict

The options cartel is a legitimate trading education community with a track record. It's not a Discord full of vague "plays" with no context. The emphasis on teaching the strategy, not just feeding you alerts, is what separates it from lower-effort groups.

The free tier removes the risk entirely from getting started. If you're on the fence, there's no reason not to try it before committing to the paid Full Access plan.

A few things to keep realistic expectations on:

⚠️ No trading group makes every call correctly. Options trading is inherently risky.
⚠️ Small account holders mentioned limitations in executing all setups. Size matters in options.
✅ The community dynamic and education quality are the strongest consistent positives.
✅ The 7-day trial on full access means you lose nothing by trying it properly.