Two Beginner Questions On IV Please

[tommo]

When it comes to trading, there is no such thing as zero stress, especially when we trade our own money, not OPM.

We retails are ripping people off too if we are profitable: ripping off fellow retail traders. Furthermore, I feel morally bankrupt, compare to the average US workers, working their tails off but only making peanuts.

OK, enough complains, back to printing money. Just kidding.

To be honest I’ve managed OPM and I find that WAY more stressful than managing my own. A loss is bad, a loss then having to justify it to people is twice as bad.

Also, I think markets are the fairest system on earth (assuming you trade legally). Every transaction is an agreement. It’s an ecosystem of millions of ppl disagreeing yet finding a consensus.

 

[zdave83]

We retails are ripping people off too if we are profitable: ripping off fellow retail traders. Furthermore, I feel morally bankrupt, compare to the average US workers, working their tails off but only making peanuts.

Always find the "morally bankrupt" perspective interesting. As tommo said markets operate fairly. There are almost no barriers to entry (degrees, who-you-know, experience, age, human bias, etc...), anyone can participate with very very small amounts of capital ... even allows endless practice via paper trading. What other entrepreneurial endeavor is so free-market open to so many people ? Maybe YouTube or Instagram ?

I think markets are the fairest system on earth (assuming you trade legally). Every transaction is an agreement. It’s an ecosystem of millions of ppl disagreeing yet finding a consensus.

 

[globalarbtrader]

Always find the "morally bankrupt" perspective interesting. As tommo said markets operate fairly. There are almost no barriers to entry (degrees, who-you-know, experience, age, human bias, etc...), anyone can participate with very very small amounts of capital ... even allows endless practice via paper trading. What other entrepreneurial endeavor is so free-market open to so many people ? Maybe YouTube or Instagram ?

I was referring more to the client facing part of an investment bank. When operating as a market maker, or a trader, sure you're dealing in an open and competitive market. But when dealing with clients, you're often facing people who are much less sophisticated than you and don't know what they're doing, and who are unprotected or badly protected by regulation, and whom aren't operating in a competitive market. That's why I think being a HF manager isn't as evil as being a banker.

One of the reasons I left banking was because of a particular kind of trade we were doing, for which I subsequently turned whistleblower (see my blog or videos like this:

).

GAT

 

[zdave83]

I was referring more to the client facing part of an investment bank. When operating as a market maker, or a trader, sure you're dealing in an open and competitive market. But when dealing with clients, you're often facing people who are much less sophisticated than you and don't know what they're doing, and who are unprotected or badly protected by regulation, and whom aren't operating in a competitive market. That's why I think being a HF manager isn't as evil as being a banker.

One of the reasons I left banking was because of a particular kind of trade we were doing, for which I subsequently turned whistleblower (see my blog or videos like this:

).

GAT

I don't know the full extent of the situation you were faced with, but in-context it sounds like you took the high-road, and the road less traveled, in reporting practices that needed to be addressed. Very commendable.

Please know that my comments responding to use of the term "morally bankrupt" were in the context of traders who willingly enter the field with reasonable knowledge and awareness.