Yes it's tough but you just keep going at it and one day you will find the way. It's tedious and stressful and at times depressing but you just keep going, trying one thing after another, one instrument after another until you find the one that works out the best for you. When that doesn't work anymore, you go back to square one and start all over again trying something new until it works then it doesn't again...When you run out of trading capital, you go back to the corporate world and work for several years until you have accumulated enough trading capital then you try to trade again and etc. This is why it's best to start trading when you are young in your 20's when you don't have a family and kids and in-laws to be responsible for. It's just you, the trading and the world. You don't have a care in the world. When you profit, it's great. When you lost, you just dust yourself off, pick yourself up and start all over again. I tell you when I first started, I traded on a laptop. I used to take the laptop everywhere with me to trade, in the middle of a plaza, in a coffee shop, in a library...I have traded everywhere. Yes I was stressed and at times frustrated with the losses and all but overall I felt free, like outside of the Matrix free!! That's the most enjoyable thing about trading I find.
(1) Trades for earnings (doesn’t sell books or courses or media) (2) generates excess returns relative to a benchmark of the asset or strategy they trade (3) does so in a way that is repeatable and not from luck (e.g. 25%+ of their net worth comes from long calls they bought at the bottom — this is a great trade and I’m happy for those who did it but this does not make you a great “trader”)
I guess I'm your exception and I know quite a few more. In many countries the investment banking sector and traders don't necessarily intermingle as much. The methods are also quite different. Taking your Chinese clients to the right club might be important for investment bankers but useless for traders.
I think there’s some confusion here. I didn’t say someone had to work as an investment banker, rather they just needed to cut their team at a firm within the investment industry. Bankers, traders, salespeople, etc., all fit within that. It’s very hard to develop a professional skill set without that exposure. Are there exceptions? Yes but rare. It’s like how most professional athletes played for a college (in the US) or went through the club system (europe).
Trading is the only "profession" in the world where guys walk in off the steet and think they are good to go without any training or prep..