Are Traders Ethical

Lightningsmurf said:
Having said that, I would argue that the "average" trader is probably a fairly moral person.
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If you consider greed & ego, not immoral traits.

If 95%+ of traders lose money, then I'd estimate at least 70% of them fall into one or both of these categories.
 
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OPTIONAL777 said:
No doubt this will prove to be another unpopular thread:

Some time ago, I ran a poll asking whether or not people would trade on inside information if they could get away with it without being caught in the process, and the results reflected a lack of ethical and moral character of those who responded.

I'm not saying that traders have more or less a lack of ethical standards than say policitians or other businessmen, but I do believe the trend of "making money at the cost of personal integrity" is in a raging bull market.

Perhaps it has to do with the type of person who is attracted to trading, or perhaps trading is a corruptive process.

Trading is one of the least "spiritual" practices I can think of. Trading exists for the sole purpose of making money, providing no service to society (apart from the taxes collected as a result), as the typical goal is making amounts of money in order to generate wealth beyond the basic needs to pay for food, shelter, and clothing etc.

I know, the pat answer is that traders provides "liquidity" to the market, but the market would do fine with a investing only buy and hold mentality.

Some will counter that trading is indeed spiritual, and reference the Bible as holding up a fisherman as a worthy profession, fishing being a somewhat solitary profession that provides no certainty of results and gambles on whether or not the fish are "biting", however fishing for a living or fishing to provide fish to others is a far cry from gambling which the same Bible condems, and I suspect theologians would include day-trading under the same heading as gambling.

Are traders more self centered than the average person? Does the profession of trading corrupt the soul? Is greed of this kind really good, if it doesn't serve society?

I can hear it alreay, how Master Don has devoted his life to teaching people how to fish......


777
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Rules are made by men. Men are fallible, unreliable and selfish. In this game you kill or be killed only real way to look at it. Just judge the risk and reward before you act. In a situation where you have zero risk and unlimited upside....you take that trade...because someone is...some one has and its been long forgotten underneath all of his following successes.
 
Are Traders Ethical

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Lobster said:
Insider trading seems to be illegal, but who says it is unethical?

As for trading providing no service to society, neither does investing, being a CEO, an accountant, issung credit cards, insurance, advertising of any sort. If you narrow your view more and more, you could say the only persons who really provide a service to society are farmers and whores. But since you are talking about society, you might also want to include political leaders. And once you do that, you should include business leaders as well, then come investors, then traders.

Saying the markets would function just as well with buy and hold investors only is almost like saying our society could function without money. It's true in a way.
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Insider trading is unethical. You are not supposed to be able to make money based on information that you are not supposed to have. It's like you already know the colour and the number that the ball is going to fall on before you place your bets when playing the Russian roulette.
 
Lobster said:
who says it is unethical?
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Who says equality is ethical?
Who says a level playing field is ethical?
What is the meaning of ethical?
What is is.
Congress and Senate is the Place You Oughta Be.
They have ways of getting advanced knowledge based on what they do day in and day out.
Is it ethical?
Does it happen?
 
OPTIONAL777 said:
I know, the pat answer is that traders provides "liquidity" to the market, but the market would do fine with a investing only buy and hold mentality.
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Yeah but nobody ever defined how long the "hold" on the investment must be in order to be considered "ethical". I can hold the investment for 10 years or 10 minutes or 10 seconds. Why is holding an investment for 10 seconds all of sudden unethical and holding it for 10 years is? Your entire basis of "ethicalness" of trading is based on the length of period one holds the investment regardless of anything else. Is that ethical? LOL
 
Where there is money involved, expect dirty business. Bakery owner stealing from the flour, garment maker stealing from the fabric, restaurant serving donkey meat, street food vendor frying the french fries with engine oil. Who is ethical in this modern age brother ? Chivalry,Knighthood is long gone..
 
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