In order to be a billionaire you would have to manage institutional money. You arel You are competing with market makers. You have to be better or more knowledgeable than they are. Many market makers are automated programs now. They don't really know where the spread should be. Supplying liquidity means you facilitate the trades of others, such as institutions. If an institution comes in with a large order to sell, you have to know where you are willing to hold that position. You know the value of a bond or a company by doing your homework. It is helpful to know how to read a balance sheet and income statement. If there is news moving the stock that you don't know about, that is simply a risk you take. You should always be on top of the news and have an idea of where you would like to hold a position if it becomes illiquid and you are forced to hold for a longer time frame.
So this is a real problem for me. Even though I can understand fundamentals, you can know only a few companies really well. Problem is that these companies might not be actively traded or volatile. Do you pick the mega caps like FB, GOOG where there is humongous competition for your due diligence? How do you factor in the effect of SPY movement into the stock itself. Has nothing to do with company specific fundamentals.
As Shakespeare was known to say "the actor's talent is in the choice of the part". Likewise I believe a trader's talent lies in what he chooses to trade. I suggest people find less heavily traded stocks that they can value correctly and try to provide liquidity when investors look to lighten up on positions. What those stocks are depend on the risk tolerances and preferences of each trader. There is no holy grail for every trader. You can come up with some fundamental characteristics of stocks you would like to own and then filter the market for those characteristics. You may have to keep up on tens, or even hundreds of bonds or stocks. No one ever said it would be easy. You have to know what you are getting paid to do in the market. I once heard Goldman's Blankfein put it best when he said "we are in the customer facilitation business, we aren't in the guess what happens next business". Speculators tend to be in the guess what happens next business. I don't know many successful speculators over the long term.
Find a plan that works for you, stick with it, don't get greedy. When the plan doesn't work anymore, find a new plan, and repeat ad nauseum. Most traders, myself included, get lost in the details. Manageable bets around carefully planned trades with predetermined stop losses and profit targets is usually a good starting point.
Please don't stop trying. We need traders like you Just go through your trades. Analyze them. Learn to analyze trade results. All answers are written in your trades. Use energy (time and money) to find a good mentor. Current or retired succesful trader who is willing to teach. To find a good mentor is not an easy task either but lot of easier than learning to trade by yourself.
To be a successful trader in the stockmarket you should: 1) learn risk management, how to calculate the proper position size for each trade otherwise, you blowout your account, 2) maintain a trading journal, it logs every single trade you got into including your reasons for getting into the trade. If you do not have a trading journal, how will you be able to correct your mistakes? 3) Study, study and study some more! Watch You Tube videos on trading. Learn from others. Not everything you learn out there will be useful to you as a trader. 4) Figure out what kind of trader you want to be: day trader, swing trader, position trader. You might find that you are a better position trader or swing trader so, why even day trade?