thats a shame considering that you're dumb as a rock "wall street trader" success was built in most circumstances off inside information, fraud and deception. the real incredibly outstanding trading minds out there have traded their won money successfully for many years/decades and grow themselves into what they are today.
Thats fine with me! The "professionals" @ Wall Street are the ones that took this country down to its knees last year as they considered what their bottom line should be! and Lasner stop throwing rocks. You have no idea what you are talking about based on what you posted here.
the " professionals" could not have it done it without the encouragement/ coercion and cooperation of the government. (interfering with the free market place). i.e. making foolish loans to low income individuals etc etc.
You can argue about the politics* until the cows come home, but it doesn't change two fundamental reality: (1) they make a LOT more money than just about any retailer will possibly can (2) despite all the myths about "family connections" or what not, the vast majority of guys sitting around the office are normal folks with normal upbringing and normal parents So, why wouldn't you take that trade? especially when you have a back stop in the form of the government? That's right, because you are retail. [*] Also, are you financially illiterate? You do actually read reputable newspapers right? Did the equity traders at Lehman, or the treasury traders at SAC, etc have anything to do with anything? The average union worker in Detroit has more blood on his hands.
How much the other guy makes is not my concern..retail or not. I pay a fortune in taxes as it is. [*] Also, are you financially illiterate? bad real estate loans made into bad real estate derivatives which were sold round the world took AIG, Lehman, et al down and we had to bail em out. wasn't this thread supposed to go to chit-chat?
What? the equity trader at JPM doesn't pay taxes? He probably pays more in both absolute terms and in % term than you. What did that equity trader ever do to get us in this mess? my point is, it's a disingenuous at best and morally corrupt at worst to group all the "professional" traders together. Unless, of course, all you want is a target for your misplaced outrage (why is it not directed to those assholes who lied to buy homes they can't afford rather than the wall street "machine" that made it more affordable for everyone in america to realize the american dream of owning a home?) Move this to chit chat mod. It's done.
I know I do...but it is pretty entertaining. There are just a bunch of armchair quarterbacks on this site and not much traders
Yeah that's right I'm not smart...like you. The great trading minds trade their own money....my ass. If you have such a great track record why would you trade your own money. You don't think George Soros, John Arnold or any other top trader has all of their money in their own fund including all the other billions their making money off of. Why would anyone just trade their own money when they can leverage it and make twice as much.
The inability to understand why you wouldn't want to trade just your own money is .... hard to understand. (1) leverage. getting a 2/20 payout on OPM means you make money a lot faster (2) scale. a lot of strategies have high fixed costs (see fixed income arbitrage for example). (3) downside protection: if you risk all of your own money, if you have a bad draw-down, you are screwed. OPM, you might be out of business - you might have lot of withdrawals, you'll still be in business. What's not to understand why this is so attractive?
So people that roll the dice with opm are pros, and folks that trade their own real $$ are pikers? Interesting.