<re: what GrandMaster is contributing to the betterment of us all...>
Raymond, Killer post! I no longer feel guilty about my choice of short-term stock+index trader as the new career path! And, come to find out, I AM engaged in a noble, worthwhile profession. Consistent with your post, my maid (and her assistants) who immigrated 9 years ago, now drives a T-Bird and packs a cell-phone, while her daughter attends the local university;))
Seriously though, I think you make a very good set of points, which are quite valid. What, I would ask, are our typical corporate executive counterparts, who spend a good deal of their day playing personal power politics, making both their underlings and peers miserable, really contributing to the welfare of society? Same goes for many of the Lawyers. I think those in the Health-care profession are truly higher up the nobility ladder than us, because that are truly, directly helping other people. And perhaps high-tech can be rationalized as a noble calling, on some large, galactic scale for the betterment of society. But the chance of an individual company really being a net + to society? Little chance. In most cases, if they hadn't become king of the hill through brute-force marketing, someone better would replace them.
Just my sunny, cheerful thoughts on the matter ;)
The widely-held, incorrect sentiment that traders are just economic parasites in our society is something you get tired of hearing after a few years... there have been professional traders for centuries and centuries, when they were doing it on the docks with Cotton and Tea it was the SAME THING - risk-takers providing the "glue" (liquidity) and risk transferance which is essential to basic economic functioning - making the economy more efficient and stimulating it (it can work the other way, too witness the currency shorting in Asian markets a couple of years ago). Today, the role of "trader" is just dressed up in high-tech clothing. The true "parasite" traders are washed out, by the forces of the market, supply and demand. FYI (no plug intended) in Pristine's trading course, they have an excellent analogy on this which really drives this home - it was an epiphany for me, when I "got it". -Steve |
