I felt compelled to add my two cents here.
I was most taken back by the comments of those, regardless of other feelings they may have toward a particular firm, who seemed to believe that opening up a business -- any business -- is a walk in the park. From dealing with support staff, the endless troubleshoooting, being responsible for paperwork, hiring, making sure there are staples in the office, compliance, to name but a mere few, I know form experience that running the day to day operations of an extensive operation is a mine field that you cannot imagine until you are going through it.
Years ago, I decided to start my own law firm. With no reservations about my legal skills, nothing prepared me for never ending responsibilities of being the boss.
Thus, even if you believe that certain posters here are "advertising", do not forget that obtaining clients is a major part of any endeavor. Further, to those of you who take acception to this, I believe you are in denial. The proprietors of these businesses, no matter what other altruistic motives they may have, are not running a charitable organization. You know the risks in day trading and you know the probabilty of success and the amounts that go to the "house."
To begrudge these people from, if they are, doing everything in their power to promote their business is hypocritical. If you are serious about trading, as I am as evidence by giving up my law firm, then you have consciously decided to pursue an alternate career where you must in large part rely on your own skills and persevearance.You have consciously chosen independance iand entrepenearalship (sp?) as your path in life. Do not begrudge those who have set the path before you.
Next, to the extent that your profitablity will depend on exceeding commissions is a known fact before you decide to accept this challenge. To complain about them after the fact is nothing more than a blatant failure to accept the consequences of your chosen actions.
Finally, even if, as some suggest, certain individuals have posted on this board to bring attention to their firms, at no cost to them, that is called sound business, which is what this is. And to the extent that some have displayed disbelief that some charge for educational courses, perhaps you should not go. If you do not agree, perhaps you could share a skill you have with me over the course of a weekend. I will not pay you, but Ill serve some donuts.
With all due respect to those who have launched offensive to certain proprietors in this forum and others, I do not know you and am sure you are nice people. But I am going to go out on a limb. While a normal human phenomenon, I suspect that those who are most vocal are the ones who were unsuccessful in their trading endeavors and instead of focusing within, they have chosen to displace thier negative feelings upon a failed system instead of focusing on what they could do differently to succeed.
I hope that I have not offended anyone by this post as it was not my intention, but where each of us has chosen a path to take advantage of capitalism, it is quite striking to hear constant critisism of those who have succeeded toward this end.
And, just to put this all in persepective, I began trading in the awful month of August, trading 100 initially and then 200 shares. I had no training or supervision of any kind. Before two monts passed, and depite the events of September 11, I was net positive over $2000. After two months passed, I encountered extreme problems, the subject matter of which is irrelevant. Among other things, there was uncertainty of my health, money I was counting on to get me through my training period would not be coming, I encountered serious family problems, and there were circumstances which lead me to come to work on numerous occassions without any sleep, once without having slept in over two days. While my losses are my own and I accept them, I know that these factors, in combination with numerous medications which clouded my head, turned me into a trader with an extensive winning streak into someone who could not focus on my computer. As a result, I went on a losing streak, which due to the fact that I was unaccustomed to failing, spiraled deeper. After another month, I was down $10,000. Ultimately, I knew that I had to take a few days off. Since I have returned, I have been postive every day. More to the point, I never quit and, while I find it hard not to feel cheated by these circumstances which were, in reality, largely beyond my control, I chose not to wallow, to forget about my losses and focus on making the money back, no matter how long it takes.
What is my point? Candidly, I think I forgot. I kind of got carried away. Well, I am sure that many can take something relevant from this.
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This is my opinion
