These guys dont even play the markets, because they cant.
The fact that they sit back and make commish adds nothing to the argument. They sell books and dvd's because they cant trade.
If I were god, and mid-day monday, I snapped my fingers and GOOG was suddenly priced at $10, what do you think would happen?
That gap would be closed by massive buying, probably the same day.
Now who made money? All the traders who went long instead of short because the smart ones realized how horribly mispriced GOOG was at $10. They rushed through the doors with market orders and grabbed every bit they could until it rocketed back up to $300.
Mispricings like this occur every single day on a smaller scale, and traders rush in, and scoop up the shares. This is exactly what makes the market so efficient. Therefore, efficient markets prove that someone is making money in them.
Your problem is, you either havent figured out how to identify mispriced stocks/futures, or you are too slow, and better traders snag all the juicy shares before you do.
Now back to my question, how many backtests on trading strategies have you done in the last 3 years????????????
Quote from Ripley:
50% of whats wagered in the markets go to brokers as commissions and "service charges". The rest to the occasional lucky winners who lucked out at getting in on the trend before it turned counter trend on them.
Efficient markets = THERE is MONEY TO BE MADE as a BROKER. Do you know how many futures brokers there are, there are like 100s of them listed on those exchange websites. Smart ones wouldn't prefer to trade, but will let you be the trader.. they would prefer to sell books, dvds, services, market access etc to you. yeah.. markets are really EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT for these folks.