Quote from Tom Williams who's an ex-syndicate trader talking about trading professionals.....
"It’s important to realise at this stage, that when we refer to the definition of a professional, we are not talking about the ‘professionals’ who run your investment fund or pension. At the time of writing this section (June 2003), the vast majority of investment funds have been making huge losses for the last 4 years! Furthermore, some of these investment fund companies (including insurance firms) have even closed down, owing to their inability to invest wisely in the markets. People nearing retirement are extremely worried, as the value of their pension plummets further into the doldrums – some pension companies have even been reported to be teetering on the brink of financial crisis. In the UK, the vast majority (if not all) of the endowment funds are in trouble, even failing to make meagre returns of 6%, which means that most homeowners are now at serious risk of not being able to raise funds to pay for their homes. The ‘professionals’ in the previous examples do not live by their trading talents, instead they receive a salary from the respective investment or pension fund company – which is just as well, since these people would otherwise be homeless! I make no apology for these scathing comments, since millions of people have been adversely affected on a global scale, and billions of dollars have been lost to the witless idiots who have been given the responsibility of investing your hard-earned money. The truth of the matter is that most fund managers find it difficult to make profits unless there is a raging bull market. So what do I mean by a professional trader? Well, one example is the private syndicate traders that work in co-ordinated groups to accumulate (buy), or distribute (sell), huge blocks of stock to make similarly huge profits. You can be absolutely certain that these traders have made more money from distributing stock in the last four years, than they did during the bull market in the 1980s. Why? Because we have just witnessed one of the best moneymaking periods in your lifetime – the largest fall in stock prices for decades…"
"It’s important to realise at this stage, that when we refer to the definition of a professional, we are not talking about the ‘professionals’ who run your investment fund or pension. At the time of writing this section (June 2003), the vast majority of investment funds have been making huge losses for the last 4 years! Furthermore, some of these investment fund companies (including insurance firms) have even closed down, owing to their inability to invest wisely in the markets. People nearing retirement are extremely worried, as the value of their pension plummets further into the doldrums – some pension companies have even been reported to be teetering on the brink of financial crisis. In the UK, the vast majority (if not all) of the endowment funds are in trouble, even failing to make meagre returns of 6%, which means that most homeowners are now at serious risk of not being able to raise funds to pay for their homes. The ‘professionals’ in the previous examples do not live by their trading talents, instead they receive a salary from the respective investment or pension fund company – which is just as well, since these people would otherwise be homeless! I make no apology for these scathing comments, since millions of people have been adversely affected on a global scale, and billions of dollars have been lost to the witless idiots who have been given the responsibility of investing your hard-earned money. The truth of the matter is that most fund managers find it difficult to make profits unless there is a raging bull market. So what do I mean by a professional trader? Well, one example is the private syndicate traders that work in co-ordinated groups to accumulate (buy), or distribute (sell), huge blocks of stock to make similarly huge profits. You can be absolutely certain that these traders have made more money from distributing stock in the last four years, than they did during the bull market in the 1980s. Why? Because we have just witnessed one of the best moneymaking periods in your lifetime – the largest fall in stock prices for decades…"
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