There are certainly some who could be classified as "A-Holes", but that would be true of the general population in any other profession, so maybe there are not more than average, just vocal ones.
I think some on this board have been very generous in their time and information.
But that is the thing - there is plenty of information here on this site and others, but you have to spend TIME looking through it. Then it depends on your own knowledge/experience to filter through what you read. Then you have to apply (through your software and paper-trading and backtesting) to get your own understanding and comfort level.
If people offer good info, that is great and they are to be thanked, but I get a feeling that some get testy because they paid for what they know (in seminars and lost trades) and are annoyed for reasons summed up by Wyckoff:
"People are successful in business because, while they make mistakes at first, they study these mistakes and avoid them in the future. Then, by gradually acquiring a knowledge of the basic principles of success, they develop into good businessmen. But how many apply this rule to investing and trading? Very few do any studying at all. Very few take the subject seriously. They drift into the market, very often get "nipped" as the saying goes, avoid it for a while, return from time to time with similar results, then gradually drift away from it, without ever putting in the work required to become good traders or intelligent investors."
If you ever read the book "Market Wizards", each one of those successful investor/traders blew up their account (or their client's accounts) at least once in their early years. They are not in that book because they stopped after that painful episode. Rather, they paid the price, sometimes more than once, but perservered. The unwillingness to pay the price - price in time, effort and frustration, price in money lost, won, and lost again, price in books, seminars, information services, etc - some of which are unbeknownst to you at the time worthless or may even set you back in understanding by confusing you - all of this is on the rocky road travelled toward "earning it". Some are fortunate and pay a smaller price than others before finding a workable answer. Some are not so fortunate.
Worst among the populace are those who christen themselves "entitled" - entitled to YOUR knowledge and understanding, YOUR effort and work - to be handed over on a silver platter with no work or effort or cost of their own required. It is this mentality that places the masses before the television, waiting to be spoon-fed their buys and sells by a "market analyst". It is this mentality that positions them to be on the short-end of the market stick.
So is there a quick and easy way to understand and profit? The answer is NO. Get used to it. Then get to work. Or turn on the TV..."
