When someone asks "what you do for a living" what do you answer!
- Thread starter alanrof
- Start date
one last point and i'm outie:
Is social security zero sum? If so, what's the difference between pay as you go social security and pay as you go GE or IBM? What happens to the guy holding GE when it goes bust, as most behemoths eventually do? What happened to the guy who tried to retire on Woolworth?
Winners and losers in all definable time frames, borrow a little or borrow a lot, the wheel always spins 'cause the wheel never stops, youngster buy in, retiree cash out, round and round she goes....
Is social security zero sum? If so, what's the difference between pay as you go social security and pay as you go GE or IBM? What happens to the guy holding GE when it goes bust, as most behemoths eventually do? What happened to the guy who tried to retire on Woolworth?
Winners and losers in all definable time frames, borrow a little or borrow a lot, the wheel always spins 'cause the wheel never stops, youngster buy in, retiree cash out, round and round she goes....
Ouch, seems liek everytime you speak you remind me of the proctologist.
Oh, so you're the ASSMAN.........
Dark,
I disagree with some of what you've said. The main thrust of it, for me anyway, is that in the aggregate trading is not a zero sum game. All the time that companies earn profits then the value of the underlying company will increase. I think, as traders, we forget what it is that we are buying and selling.
You can focus on an individual stock or time frame and argue that for every winner there is a loser to the same value, but that isn't the market.
All the time that capitalism is in force then markets are a growing and renewable resource.
If we bet $1 per time on flipping a coin and start with $10 each then that will be a zero sum game. Equities are not the same thing IMHO.
Cheers
I disagree with some of what you've said. The main thrust of it, for me anyway, is that in the aggregate trading is not a zero sum game. All the time that companies earn profits then the value of the underlying company will increase. I think, as traders, we forget what it is that we are buying and selling.
You can focus on an individual stock or time frame and argue that for every winner there is a loser to the same value, but that isn't the market.
All the time that capitalism is in force then markets are a growing and renewable resource.
If we bet $1 per time on flipping a coin and start with $10 each then that will be a zero sum game. Equities are not the same thing IMHO.
Cheers
I started to post a reply to your posting of yesterday, and somehow it got sent before I said anything. Anyway, I thought your remarks to the friends dad were great. I would have loved to see his face when you informed him about the profit you made from his loss.
I am not a day trader-yet. I would like to be. To that end I am studying and trying paper trades. In the meanwhile I hope to at least better my position in the marketplace.
If I were a day trader, when someone asks what I do for a living-I think I would reply "I am a professional investor".
By the way, what is a bullet?
I am not a day trader-yet. I would like to be. To that end I am studying and trying paper trades. In the meanwhile I hope to at least better my position in the marketplace.
If I were a day trader, when someone asks what I do for a living-I think I would reply "I am a professional investor".
By the way, what is a bullet?
I guess it becomes apples and oranges in terms of how we want to look at capital flows and how we define zero sum.
No offense to stockrock1, but I define a zero sum game as one with a finite amount of dollars in play at any given time, where competition limits available levels of success in dollar terms. Pick a time frame for measuring success- second, hour, day, year, decade- and this simple definition can still apply and still sort out winners and losers. My use of the word 'game' is not meant to be disparaging, because in many respects life itself is a game.
Some would argue that long term inflows of new capital make the stock market non-zero. I disagree simply because capital can flow outward for long sustained periods also, and because there are other zero sum games where capital flows in and out and affects players in the process. And at any given point the pie is still finite, it just moves in and out.
I agree that genuinely increased wealth through productivity and efficiency gains can increase valuations as a whole, but I guess I see this as a separate issue. Wealth creation is what sustains the game and lets the game get bigger, but is not the game itself. If all stockmarkets were closed, companies would still exist and progress would still be made. At a far slower pace of course, but the market is more a result than a root cause of our capitalist system. An allocater of wealth rather than a generator of it....
Some people take the game seriously, others are only gambling or messing around. Trading is a game in many respects but so is selling cookies or making shampoo. Oh no, we are creeping into the realm of philosophy again....stupid label! Bad label!
Perhaps let's say we fail to disagree the market is a sero gum zame and leave it at that....
Alan:
An ER physician, who's startup I raised 400k for (which led immediately to another million -- it was a good 1st round back in 1989 - 1990), refused to pay me my 10%, this at a time when I really, really, needed it. He later sold the company to Baxter.
Recently an ophthamologist looked into my son's eyes, said some nice things, and sent me a bill for $300.
I took my son to the ER 2 months ago nearly comatose with a head wound. They argued with me for over 10 minutes before examining him...by then he had vomited and had a seizure...
When I had a landscaping business, the BIGGEST houses were owned by the MD's who would not come off of a hundred bucks so a guy could earn an honest living breaking his back in the Florida sun.
Don't get me started on the Medical Profession. If a doctor ever made a remark like that to me about MONEY, I'd be very tempted to tell him what was what ASAP. Dr's seem to be taught to think that they deserve your money.
ps. Sorry to hear about your father.
I have met a nice physician or two. My daughter's dentist, who comes from something like 3 generations of MD's and lawyers, when I mentioned that the market was so awful, just said, 'tell me about it. I'm putting more money into real estate.' He is fellow who is a credit to his profession.
An ER physician, who's startup I raised 400k for (which led immediately to another million -- it was a good 1st round back in 1989 - 1990), refused to pay me my 10%, this at a time when I really, really, needed it. He later sold the company to Baxter.
Recently an ophthamologist looked into my son's eyes, said some nice things, and sent me a bill for $300.
I took my son to the ER 2 months ago nearly comatose with a head wound. They argued with me for over 10 minutes before examining him...by then he had vomited and had a seizure...
When I had a landscaping business, the BIGGEST houses were owned by the MD's who would not come off of a hundred bucks so a guy could earn an honest living breaking his back in the Florida sun.
Don't get me started on the Medical Profession. If a doctor ever made a remark like that to me about MONEY, I'd be very tempted to tell him what was what ASAP. Dr's seem to be taught to think that they deserve your money.
ps. Sorry to hear about your father.
I have met a nice physician or two. My daughter's dentist, who comes from something like 3 generations of MD's and lawyers, when I mentioned that the market was so awful, just said, 'tell me about it. I'm putting more money into real estate.' He is fellow who is a credit to his profession.