Quote from sle:
Here are the facts.
The company is there to make MONEY, not to please old ladies. Most of the IB revenue comes from trading and by defenition, you are going to trade AGAINST the clients to make money, not for them.
I don't get it. What are the breaking news? What exactly did Mr. Smith expect to be doing at an Investment Bank, saving lives and watering the Sahara desert?
Your facts are correct! But you should get it, even though you don't.
The first step, as I'm sure you know, toward becoming a profitable trader is to recognize that you are dealing with crooks when you deal with Wall Street. That's the way it is, I recognize it, you recognize it, and we know that if we are going to trade that's how it will be.
Your grandmother doesn't know what we know, and it's unacceptable to take advantage of these folks as far as i'm concerned. But then there are things in life that are more important to me than making money.
The chances of everyday investors, or hobby traders, really understanding how Wall Street works are slim to nil, because these folks, "muppets" if you will, are bombarded by a constant stream of hype via the media and sponsored by and originating on Wall Street designed to present a false image of legitimacy.
Those who are selling should by law not be allowed to trade. They get their profits from the spread and that's it, plain and simple. Those who trade should not be allowed to issue recommendations nor "analyst" lies. They should get their profits from their trading activities. These two roles should be separated by law. Plain and simple. You're a dealer in securities you can't trade them. You're a trading outfit , you can't deal in securities. That's the way it should be, but isn't!
We separated commercial and investment banking for a good reason. And now we've seen twice what happens when you don't separate those activities. We need to go back to Glass Steagall for banks and go even further to enforce the same kind of separation between trading on one side and security dealing and underwriting on the other. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand why those activities need to be independent if you want legitimate, competitive markets.
Also we need to recognize that the idea that a bunch of crooks can regulate themselves is absurd, and let an expanded FDIC and SEC assume finra's role.
