Quote from ChkitOut:
disagree, you have no idea how much time i put into trying to understand his teachings. there are millions of people with really good work ethic. heck, there are professionals out there, engineers, doctors, lawyers, all of which you cannot become with bad work ethics, that failed miserably at trading im sure.
to me, its about being lucky enough to either have a good mentor or stumble upon good information, and not being had and lead astray by some guru that basically stunted your trading career.
Did you or any of the people you mentioned put in at least the same amount of time into trading as they did to become pros in their own lines of business? I am talking 6-10 years.
I hear this all the time. A doctor tries trading and fails. An engineer (maybe even a scientist!) tries trading and fails. the common logic here is that "if I could work hard enough to make a lawyer, I can work hard enough to make a trader."
What a sham.
All these professions have two common aspects: determinism and paycheck. One can go to college, get a B.S. and then an M.S. (that's 6-8 years) and then "become" an engineer. What does that prove exactly? That this person has great work ethics? Please. All that proves that one spent enough time to study a set of subjects, pass exams, a few interviews and is now going to get a steady paycheck for doing something that is well-defined and concrete. While I won't claim that it's easy, having done all that I would say that most people have the necessary wherewithal, even if some require a firm kick in the ass. Besides, all of them know that once they get a job they will get paid.
Now, pit these people against the best and the brightest, have them do something that is almost entirely non-deterministic, only pay them when they win and take their money away when they lose and what happens?
"Snap back to reality, Oh there goes gravity." -Eminem
They fall, they bleed and then they complain that they didn't meet the right mentor, were somehow mislead and that the market is rigged. The reality is, trading requires an entirely different kind of effort, different attitude and mental readiness not experienced by most of these people. This is why I call trading a martial art.
Martial art can be mastered. It's hard. Damn fucking hard. Most don't have THE WORK ETHIC required in order to do it.
/Wulfrede