So now you are just picking on me because I hurt your buddy KCalhouln. Sheesh. Yer such a tough guy on stocks, but so sensitive on fakers. WTF.
Kalhoun is not "my buddy".... he's just another character here at ET as far as I'm concerned. But I can call out some dickhead loserish attack when I see it. And I saw it. That was uncalled for. >Case closed.
So you never saw any of his dickhead looserish attacks on other users here, EVEN WHEN HE WAS A SPONSOR! Man, you have missed the memo. Look them up, they are fascinating.
Okay, let me share my story, in a nutshell. After graduating from university I started working as an engineer in a technology company. My monthly salary was higher than my expenses, so I started saving money. At first I kept that in the bank, gradually building up an "emergency fund" to take care of sudden, unexpected, expenses (e.g. car breakdown, etc). After a while these savings became larger than I would need in the emergency fund, so I started investigating investing this excess. At first I let my bank handle these investments, but over time I got curious as to what they were actually doing and whether I would be able to do this investing myself. If I were able to do it myself I could spare the fee the bank was charging me. I read everything I could find related to investing, economy, fund selection, diversification, risk control, and many more related subjects. I have never been a trader, and I have never sat a whole day in front of a computer screen, trying to place trades. What I did do was to study programming and creating programs which could control my investments. This offloaded the mundane tasks from me, and I had more time available to study how to further improve myself. All in all I considered that I had gained financial freedom at age 50, and quit my job. Now I can decide myself what I do, and what I don't do, instead of a boss telling me what I'm supposed to do. I enjoy this freedom, but the freedom comes with the responsibility of taking care of my investments. This will never go away for the rest of my life: I will always have this responsibility for me and my wife. Beware of this consequence of freedom as many people can not handle this: many people like to be told what to do and get scared/nervous/uncertain when they have to make their own decisions on how to lead their life.
That's a pretty mechanistic way of viewing things. Sure, the exact mechanics doesn't care. Where it matters is personal motivation. If it is possible to earn money AND be helpful to someone, I'd much rather prefer that over the option of just earning money.
It's a tough business. The failure rate is over 90%. I suggest you take the time to study why traders fail. Make a list of the top reasons then don't do any of that.
Well, it all began with curiosity, mate. I started by learning the basics online and reading up on forex trading. Then, I opened a demo account to practice without risking real cash. Slowly, I got the hang of it, developed a strategy, and eventually started trading live. It's been a rollercoaster, but I've learned a ton along the way!