From Mark Ford, editor, Creating Wealth: I want to tell you my experience with Palm Beach Current Income.

My initial reaction to the idea was negative.

“Options are risky,” I told Tom. “I don’t want to expose our readers to unnecessary risk.”

But Tom was insistent.

There are seven ways to trade options, he told me. Five of them are indeed risky, but two of them are actually safe. He showed me data to support that statement. More persuasively, he showed me the results he had been getting on his own account.

The numbers were enticing, but I’ve been fooled by “past performance” before.

I told Tom that before I would endorse the service, I’d have to try it myself. I sent my broker $200,000.

The initial results were very impressive.

On my first trade, I earned $1,149 after Tom spotted some unusual activity in a key corner of the gold markets. Then, another pocket of the market was expressing some unusual behavior. Within the hour, $454.99 appeared in my account.

Last year, two more transactions led to instant income payouts of $1,689.97 and $909.98. Exactly one week later, I performed this transaction four separate times in a single day and earned $499.99, $499.99, $549.98, and $674.98.

Not bad for a day’s work.

The results were so good that I felt comfortable telling my youngest son to invest the $25,000 he got as a college graduation present into one of these options accounts. He also had some good results.

So the initial results were all very good. I was almost ready to endorse the program, but I had one concern. Options are complicated.

The success my son and I had enjoyed was easy as pie because Tom and my broker were executing all the decisions. I wondered whether our readers would be able to make those trades themselves.

Was it too complicated?

I asked Tom to do a beta test. He selected 100 volunteers who spent six weeks learning how to do this kind of trading.

What I wanted from the beta test was not a good return on investment—I had already seen that—but testimonials from participants who found the teaching part of the program easy and enjoyable.

Tom designed the teaching program himself. He worked very hard for three months putting together a series of videos that explained the theory and taught the practice.

And then he asked for feedback and made changes and adjustments to make the program crystal clear.

The response we received was impressive:

I have found this to be the most profitable and safest investment idea I have come across in my 37 years of investing in the stock market.Jay D., Frankfurt, Germany

Palm Beach Current Income was a great course. It starts at the very beginning and takes you through the end where you are comfortable making the trade. The potential extra income is awesome. Tom did an excellent job in teaching.June R., Midtown, PA

In my 12 years of investing, I have not known a trading strategy such as this one that is both safe and simple to understand… while also generating income. I appreciate that you have shared it.Ronald B., NY

I am confident that it will add some sizable extra income to my portfolio over the coming year as we move forward into the next phase of the Palm Beach Current Income program.—Pam W., San Francisco, CA

With a great track record and so many rave reviews of the teaching component, I endorsed the program.

We released it to subscribers in 2011. Since then, everything seems to be going smoothly.

But, I must confess, I broke my cardinal rule with my endorsement.

I still don’t know what I should about trading options. I understand the basic theory, but I can’t even read the statements that come from my broker.

It’s nice to be making money, but I don’t feel comfortable having my money in places unless I really understand it.

And this brings me to my main point…

I never wanted Palm Beach Current Income to be a service that simply recommends trades. There are dozens of services like that. Some are good. Some are not so good.

But even the best ones (like ours) won’t work forever all the time.

What’s important—in terms of building real, sustainable wealth—is that you understand how these two types of trading work.

What’s important is that you learn a skill for making extra income that you can use for the rest of your life. This is why I asked Tom to build the course.

It’s like the old saying: Giving a man a fish will feed him for one day, but teaching him how to fish will help him for the rest of his life.

I’ve been making good money with my options account, but I personally never put in the time to learn how to do it. I will fix that.

In the meantime, don’t be like me.

I want you to take the course and see if you can learn how to trade. Making money is great, but if you don’t understand how you make it, what good does that do you?

I want Palm Beach Current Income to be worth every penny—for the education you will get about trading, not just for the investment picks. I want you to be able to trade without our holding your hand for every step.

I want Palm Beach Current Income to be a service that will teach you how to fish income out of the options stream for the rest of your life.

That’s what it’ll continue to be.