Thanks to everyone who replied.
I agree with Ed when he says "The fact is, if anyone could honestly tell you a stock that was going to go up in the next 5 minutes, they would be richer than Bill Gates!".
I have always thought the same thing, while listening to these journalists/experts. Why are you a journalist if you know all these things? The same doesn't automatically apply to those selling software (and maybe not even to all those making public predictions on stock prices), and that is why I asked the above question.
And another question I always asked myself is the same you just asked: why are traders working in financial institutions so bad at investing? At least here in Italy, I know that in many banks these traders are losing money year after year and consider it ok - they perform as poorly as the average daytrader in their first year of trading.
In my opinion, this is because it is indeed their first year of trading. And this happens because they are not hired by managers who know anything about trading themselves, and who are picking the wrong people - graduates with good grades from good universities or people who have good connections, and neither guarantees their intelligence or their trading ability. Not only this, but they will never learn how to trade in that environment and with those restrictions and lack of freedom. So banks here in Italy right now are stuck with bad traders who are nowhere near learning how to trade. I know for a fact that most of these traders are losing year after year.
I agree with Ed when he says "The fact is, if anyone could honestly tell you a stock that was going to go up in the next 5 minutes, they would be richer than Bill Gates!".
I have always thought the same thing, while listening to these journalists/experts. Why are you a journalist if you know all these things? The same doesn't automatically apply to those selling software (and maybe not even to all those making public predictions on stock prices), and that is why I asked the above question.
And another question I always asked myself is the same you just asked: why are traders working in financial institutions so bad at investing? At least here in Italy, I know that in many banks these traders are losing money year after year and consider it ok - they perform as poorly as the average daytrader in their first year of trading.
In my opinion, this is because it is indeed their first year of trading. And this happens because they are not hired by managers who know anything about trading themselves, and who are picking the wrong people - graduates with good grades from good universities or people who have good connections, and neither guarantees their intelligence or their trading ability. Not only this, but they will never learn how to trade in that environment and with those restrictions and lack of freedom. So banks here in Italy right now are stuck with bad traders who are nowhere near learning how to trade. I know for a fact that most of these traders are losing year after year.