Herrrre I am to save the DAYYYYY-traders! (Not that they need it!)
I know I'm replying to an earlier post, but after scanning this
thread and seeing this particular post by Steve Goldman, dated
Nov.16, 6:14 pm, I feel I must point out some things that have,
so far, gone unchallenged. I am not flaming him, I just want to
say some things that need to be said to, and for, all.
First, this phrase that "8 out of 10 traders don't make it" may
be true, although I'm not aware of any official surveys on the
subject. "Personal" opinions on how many make it are interesting,
but without hard numbers, who really knows? For all I know, 9 out of
10 don't make it. Or 5 out of 10. Whatever the percentage, the point
is there are many well-known reasons why traders (whether day, position, swing traders, etc) don't make it. We all know what they
are, and any good book on trading will talk about them. I feel that
anyone who is sharp, has capital and is determined to succeed WILL
succeed. It's like any other venture in this life. If a trader is
willing to do whatever it takes, he/she will make it. That last
sentence will eliminate a lot of Jeopardy contestants right off the
bat. We individual traders have to cover all the bases ourselves.
Trading, research, money management, etc. We don't have a multi-
million/billion dollar organization behind us to delegate some of
these things to. This entails some evening work...oops, didn't get
to watch Seinfeld tonight...DARN! Well, Jerry's making a million per
episode, how about me? I haven't recieved any checks from him, so I
better flip off the TV and go do some charting and planning.
As far as what traders "contribute" to society, there are many ways
of doing that outside of one's job. This Christmas, my wife and I
are spending most of our alloted funds on toys and food for poor
and disabled kids and families in our city. A well-to-do trader
could sponsor one or more of these starving little kids that we are
always seeing on TV or in magazines. Give to medical research. The
list is endless. Besides, many traders have already done their time
at the office jungle, or driving a cab or a million other jobs, some
professional, some not. Many of us don't want to punch a clock for the rest of our lives. Break for lunch, then back at the office and the
dysfunctional "boss" who hates you for no reason other than he/she
needs someone to hate. Try to offer kindness and they percieve it
as weakness. Stand up to them, and be fired, or have your office
life become an even worse hell. Being a "productive citizen" at a
day job isn't always what its cracked up to be. Those who are lucky
enough to have found jobs in that most rare of companies- An emotion-
ally healthy one, and have been there all their working lives (and why
not?) can only attempt to understand the experiences the rest of us
have had working for these nut-cases.
As for doctors who leave medicine to trade, well, let 'em go. They
were in the wrong profession to begin with. Medicine requires
compassionate, committed men and women who care deeply about human
pain and suffering, and want to do something towards easing, curing
or preventing it. No others need apply.
As for lawyers who leave law to trade, well, at least they are going
in to a respectable profession, finally.
Lastly, I would like to address this idea that somehow, those people
or institutions who "buy and hold" stocks are morally superior to
those who trade shorter term. As another post on this thread has
already stated, unless a trader buys into an IPO, the buying and
selling of a security affects that company not one whit. Also, who
was doing all the panic-selling in the crash a few weeks ago? Why,
the INSTITUTIONS, that's who! Heck, the institutions WERE the crash.
Ever seen an institution suddenly dump hundreds of thousands of shares onto the market, not long after buying them, because of bad news on that company? Uh-huh. Of course, institutional buying and selling
often allows us individual traders to profit, too, if were're careful
to be on the correct side of the trade. So, Rock On, institutions,
but don't tell me about your "moral superiority". Whether one holds
a stock for 30 seconds, or 30 years, we only do it for one reason:
TO MAKE MONEY. I will finish my rather long-but-neccessary post with
the following...perhaps some have heard it somewhere before:
A wealthy man was at a party one night, and found himself speaking
with a very beautiful but quite stuck-up woman. She seemed to delight
in letting him and every other man around know that they simply were
not good enough for her. Curious to learn more about such a woman, the
man, in the sexiest voice he could coax from himself, asked the
woman, "Would you go to bed with me for $200,000 in cash?" To which
the woman slyly smiled, and said, "Why, sure...!" The man then ask
her, "Would you go to bed with me for $20.00?" With a scowl, the
woman shot back, "Of course not, what do you think I am, a whore?"
And the man replied, "Well, we've already established that. All we're
doing now is negotiating price."
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