I chose not to respond further to padutrader's post because of his ignorance: According to his definition, 99% of the professions in modern society are worthless: professional athletes, entertainers, artist, shop keepers...
Do you rely on your trading to put food on the table?
- Thread starter Simples
- Start date
WRONG WRONG WRONG.
1) I took my graduate academics from renowned scholars (much better teachers than their student). I sat in on every seminar, workshop, and paper presentation from other institutions (Ivys, Stanford, Michigan) that I could squeeze into. I packed my brain with (more than) it could hold. And I *still* find that trading, in general, demands *every* class and *every* bit of information that I've ever learned. And I STILL have to keep learning -- For 5 years, I was nearly 100% credit spreads. Right now (or, these last 6 months, I guess), I find myself retooling once again, into a long/short Index futures system. If I had not brought my entire game to the market, I would have been bounced from trading many years ago. "Not satisfying"????? That's whacked.
2) Then I would caution you to do that 'something else' as soon as possible, because the market in which you trade *demands* your best thinking, and if you're not 100% on it? It will suck your milkshake dry.
3) If you are getting paid from trading, then you are either providing a service, or you are a thief. You are not a thief. You provide two services that 'society' finds worthy of compensation (even if indirectly). First is that you are a liquidity provider (or, a risk arbitrageur): when the market is $10 BID and $11 ASK, and you buy at $10.25 and sell at $10.75, you have provided an extra 25¢ to both sides of that market, and the market has paid you that middle 50¢ for making the transaction happen. ("Yay!" you.) But secondly, markets depend on information for sound allocation of societal resources. The prices at which everything trades is the signal that there is too much of things with declining prices, and too little of things with rising prices. YOUR TRADING is part-and-parcel of that information generation -- whether buying for investment, or selling for shorts: you are communicating to the entire rest-of-the-world, "Hey! Here's what I think of this good/service!" And the world listens, too.
Off of soapbox.
Huh. Ironchef and wrbtrader nailed it.
Could've saved myself some writing...
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i very clearly said anybody else apart from traders do a service to humanity.
if you want mis quote me then it is all right.
Hello Simples,
Personally, and from my own experience because I can not make money in paper trading so I wouldn't dare try this with real money to put food on the table. Maybe after I have a million in my account, yes, i would. But for now, just trying to get extra income for now.
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I have two humble advices for you:
1. Be persistent, one day you will find your method.
2. To increase your odds, go away from the beaten/popular paths.
Good luck.
ironchef,
Thank you so much. I appreciate your advices.
It's a very tough challenge day in and day out. It's like an unknown pursuit of happiness that is pending.
Regarding the unbeaten popular paths, I just trade what I see and belive in at the moment and manage the risk. Pure price action.
Thanks
It’s clear that financial investors are a net positive on the world.
It’s not clear that traders and speculators are.
Yikes. I thought this site had a majority of traders that trade for a living. Ugh.
And to the OP, yes for a living. There is nothing purer in life than price discovery through buyers and sellers. Participating and competing with the best minds in the world far outweighed my climb for managing director. Water cooler talks? Management politics? Commuting? Meetings? Keeping up with the Jones's in a manhattan co-op? Please. All are corrupt forms of living. Two people meeting on an agreed price that each believes benefits them...bartering in its ultimate form....trading is the only pure way of living. Yes, I trade for a living.
Seems to me that we all forget that in certain parts of the world trading particularly in stocks was outlawed, and outright. I was just a small kid myself, but I have seen pictures looking eastward at the Czech wall and buildings that were painted only on the side facing west. Funny no one wanted to go East, and those East only wanted what was in the west. In fact, in those days if you were caught ever having owned shares of any kind you would disappear into a labor camp somewhere cold.
Move it forward, and now the Kissinger Chinese model is favored, but it really looks more like Nazi Germany if you ask me.
Now as for the markets, price discovery, and markets make for a free and flexible society that benefits all. Just go to the supermarket. Selling shares allow enterprising individuals and groups to accumulate capital to develop technology and product products for the benefit of mankind. Now do you want to live in a society where all capital and production are managed by a few, or one that allows individuals a chance to be free to benefit all of human kind.
Yes, I trade for a living because I enjoy it.