In the sense that we are talking about IN THIS THREAD, which sparked the actual discussion in this thread, trading is the act of buying and selling securities for profit on a reasonably short term basis. The OP was talking about short term trades and turning 1000$ into many millions or making 2-3% a month forever. I simply told him that no "trader" has ever been able to achieve long term returns that are even close to the numbers that he is throwing out.
Now if you are going to include things that would be considered private equity deals and long term investing then sure it's possible. Occasionally people do get very lucky in the deals they take part in and they have a very long time horizon to wait, and in many cases that's because they have so much leverage that they can negotiate killer prices that no regular person can do. You didn't think Buffet actually paid market prices for his preferred shares did you? But what the F does that have to do with anything we are talking about in this thread?
It never takes very long for people to throw Buffet and Soros' name out, but the funny thing about these people is they truly don't realize how rank amateur it makes them sound. In a discussion on trading returns, this guy names Buffet and Soros. Wow...