I agree with much of what you say, but FWIW, I think you came to this site looking for answers, read everything you could, and then became confused. This is natural, and so is your reaction, but you have to learn to separate charlatans from tourists from career traders. Predictive trading is a form of gambling, and most professional traders do as little of this as possible. On ET, it is like 99%.
It is a fact that probably 10 traders max in a hundred make money trading. That numbers is probably closer to 5 in a hundred now. And when they take this statistic, they probably include professionals that work at exchanges. On ET, it is closer to 1 in a 1000 that makes a profession strictly from trading. That means there are maybe 20 traders on _ALL_ of ET that post actively that make money from trading. Also, there is something called selective bias, meaning that the ones that are making money now are the ones that tend to be the ones with the biggest ego. They have yet to be kicked out of this profession.
Hang around ET for say five years, 99% of the people on this thread will no longer be around. You will then see a new crop of people with very similar attitudes to the ones on this thread (assuming they are not aliases of the same people here that God only knows why they hang around to pretend.) This is actually an interesting exercise if you have time to kill. Go back five years and start reading. You will see people like you and people like the ones responding to you in this thread. Deja Vu all over again.
I used to be like you when I first came on ET. Taking on all the obvious shills. I will suggest though that even though you may be correct, I have found over the course of the years that it is best not to confront people in this manner. A better way is simply to state your own struggles, and let people take that experience as evidence as to just how hard it is to make money trading predictively. That is unless, you like arguing and taking on the world. You are only one man, save your self, and then save the world if you don't become too self absorbed with success.
One final word of advice, FWIW, the best form of trading is relational trading, where you are trading one thing against another. It won't make you rich fast, but it is the best way to survive until you get better at predictive trading. If you remember anything, just remember this one paragraph.
Quote from riddler:
i got news for you. when you get sucked into the trading addiction you cannot concentrate on anything else. you honestly think you can sit down and spend quality time with your children after a big loss?
you honestly think you can enjoy your weekend after a bad week?
you honestly think you can have a normal conversation at a dinner party knowing that the stock you own is getting crucified after hours on some bad news?
you honestly think you can pay attention to your wife when you left your trading platform just for a few minutes to get coffee and your stock dropped 2 points?
of cours every occupation has ups and downs but NOTHING AND I MEAN NOTHING COMPARES TO THE ADDICTION AND RUSH OF TRADING..does trading give you a rush? when you lose i bet you cannot wait to make that money back? i bet when you go through all your capital you are thinking of crafty ways to refill your trading account but of course this time will be different. this time you will "stick to your discipline"..hahaha,,yeah right !!! if you only listened to your gut!!! another joke. i hear that at the casino's all the time. oh yeah,you do research,you look at charts,trading is different than black jack..oh it is !!! no it is not. being an engineer or a bisness owner is different than black jack.
TRADING IS GAMBLING,ALBEIT CONTROLLED GAMBLING BUT IT IS STILL GAMBLING AND MOST LOSE EVERYTHING AND MOST CANNOT STOP UNTIL THEY SAY THIS FAMOUS LAST SENTENCE:" I AM REALLY GIVING UP ON TRADING,I JUST WANT TO MAKE MY INITIAL INVESTMENT BACK AND THEN THATS IT!!".
hahaha,thats the same thing a gambler says in vegas. i've seen hundreds of guys lose everything. go ahead and read all those books,watch all those video's,listen to all those guru's who made millions trading// trading at a prop firm and trading ONLY the firms money is totally different and much more controlled. give it up and get a normal job or open a business, trading is a dead end street. admit it and get out now while you are still young and don't listen to the clowns on this board who preach DISCIPLINE,thats another famous wrd used by gamblers.
focus on being the best you can be and enjoy life. can you really enjoy life being on top of the worldone week and on the brink of suicide the next week? ask your self this..does this sound like you?