How come you think traders produce nothing? A value investor "produce" correct price so that the market can function properly. Think price discovery. A trend follower "produce" more efficient market by shortening the time between disequlibrium. Think faster time from Price A to Price B when an event happen. A scalper (or market maker) "produce" liquidity so that people can trade any time they want. More liquidity = more stable market. A loser "produce" incentive for the above 3 parties so that they could do their job... So everyone is producing... trader's are not robbing, they must be producing something in a voluntary transaction... or else why would someone give you their money?
As a trader, you allow people to buy and sell assets quicker and at a better price than if no traders existed. If you have ever tried to sell an infrequently traded asset with a limited number of buyers and sellers (such as a house, antique, or classic car), you would know the true value of traders & trading. It is the difference between being able to acquire or offload needed goods quickly and at a reasonable price, compared to being forced to dump them to the only person you can find for a pittance, or pay through the nose for the only one on the market. An economy with traders is superior to a economy with none, in the same way as an economy that uses money is superior to a barter economy. Look up the economic problem of the "coincidence of wants" if you want some further explanation. As for the other part of your question, no, it does not bother me in the least. I would happily trade if it created no value whatsoever to anyone other than myself. That would put it on a par with playing solitaire, or doing chess problems - a harmless past-time. Not something harmful and damaging, such as holding strong opinions about subjects one knows little about.
I don't think anyone glorifies stockbrokers. "Wall Street" and other films tend to portray them as greedy money-grubbing backstabbers. Society as a whole has a fairly negative view, and as this thread shows, many traders themselves have a poor self-image. But ask yourself, what provides more value - some uneducated chump putting in his hours on an assembly line, or the guy who had the vision, balls, and organisational skill to found the company and create all those jobs in the first place? Who gave him the money? A bunch of speculators. Without traders & risk-takers, joe blow would be picking cotton or fishing 14 hours a day, barely able to feed his family, and liable to die of starvation any time the weather took a turn for the worst. If "real work" was so great, wouldn't communist russia or rural India be far better off than "paper economies" like the US and other G7 countries? Do you think it's just a coincidence that the societies with the most bankers and investment funds tend to have the highest standards of living? And let's take an honest look at most of these "real" products that are produced. The manufacturing process is incredibly polluting, often spitting out hazardous waste and carcinogens, whilst exacting a heavy toll on the work force. By comparison, a trader uses almost no resources and produces very little pollution, many work at home or walk to work, this using less oil and spewing out less greenhouse gasses. Does anyone in this world really need SUVs, junk food, McMansions, Hollywood blockbusters, top 40 hit singles, designer clothes, boats, planes, $5000 hi-fis, or anything else that 98% of the American economy produces? No they do not. The vast majority of all economic activity, indeed all *human* activity, is completely pointless and unnecessary. Is there any necessity in keeping someone alive 5 more years so they can rot away in an old people's home, or give a 45 year-old chain-smoker lung surgery so he can continue puffing away to an early grave? Most people saved by doctors do nothing of any use, are generally prejudiced, small-minded, and lacking any distinguishing talents whatsoever, and do not make the world a better place. If people confined themselves to occupations which "did good", 99% of humanity would never work again.
Actually if we take futures as an example, traders absorb the risk of volatility so producers/farmers etc are ensured a stable price and dont get wiped out from 1 bad year/crop etc So I feel pretty damn good to provide such a critical service to society and get to enjoy the challenge of trading against the best to boot... doesn't get any better than that
Jeez 500 companies... one of them must be genetically manipulating a watermelon so it's seedless and tastes like imported beer
I think the term "paper pusher" is a bit over your head. And top stock brokers are glorified, so are I-bankers, hedge fund managers, top tier "traders", etc. It's all paper pushing & games, with no real benefit, only over consumption, waste of resources & exploitation of third world labor. You are helping me prove my point of the disillusion of today's views. Assembly line is a simplified & dumbed down manual labor that enables the capital to exploit the labor. See, you do not even bother to think about people that actually create something non-factory style that involves both brains & manual work. It's quite rare nowdays, so I see why you tend to think like that. The general view of manual labor is that it is for idiots & losers, meanwhile this is where the self sustaining products come from. Of course, when you have a profit driven institution controlling this production, it will only reinforce the perception to become reality. Ironically, the rural of russia in 1920s was heavily resistant against the communists because they did not want to lose their land & substinence. The truth is that the self substinent "peasant" is actually much richer than the rich but skillless capitalist who would not know how to provide for himlself, can't have that. I know it's hard to believe, but most rural folk are happy being able to live off the earth and keeping it simple. It's when extraneous forces are applied that it gets hairy I suggest learning about urbanization and understanding that self substinent small farmers are a huge obstacle to capitalism. Before you even try to bring up third world as examples, I strongly suggest doing research behind the "mysterious" forces that somehow transformed once self sustaining villages into masses of cheap labor waiting to be employed by "the guy who had the vision, balls, and organisational skill to found the company and create all those jobs in the first place". LOL, I see the concept of paper pushing is definitely over your head. Let me put in layman's terms, it's basically a scam, a global one. I think I was pretty clear about the corruption of these industries. I think it's pretty obvious where I stand in terms of pollution & ecological destruction by conglomerates. However, it's hard for me to explain what I find respectable labor, it's usually small business, family owned, where people come in and produce something that they believe in. I will give the outmost respect to biodiverse family farmers who make quality food with ecologically friendly farming technique. They do not make much money doing it, but they stand for the right thing. No, a trader just pushes paper like the rest, just at a much smaller and way more obvious scale (hence part of the reason for the general disrespect, the facade is easily seen). Yet the trader still consumes resources (sometimes at an exorbitant rate) which come at the expense of the environment and globalization (aka wage labor exploitation). You can explore this issue further by learning about consumerism. It promotes overproduction & a waste of resources. Our current paper pushing economy is heavily dependent on it. However, I think it has gone too far. There is a lot of wisdom to the Native American, Okinawan & Buddhist philosophies and no, I am not religious. People nowdays simply do not respect where our life sustaining resources come from. We are so caught up in the paper pushing world, completely taking for granted where the life sustaining products come from. 90% of the population (99% of ET) measures success in $ amounts. But it's just paper and an illusion. Look in today's times this "traders provide liquidity" argument is full of crap. This is not early 1900s, we have fragmented order algos & black boxes who do the job better, cheaper & more efficiently. If 75% of the daytraders quit today, only the clearing firms & LLCs would miss them. This can be said about most of the jobs today, however, this whole paper pushing economy would crumble. I'll end this philosophical discussion with this. It's far from the first time that a nation has turned into a paper pushing economy, with priorities turned completely upside down. More often than not, it involved fiat money. The first well known one involved flowers. P.S. I have stated before that when comparing being a self-trader to other professions, it is the wiser and morally better choice when considering all factors. That's the part that kinda disturbs me, the priorities have been so warped in this country. If you are just gonna be another paper pusher, might as well do it for yourself with little illusions about what you do. Because very few of the jobs that really count, pay you on a comparable scale. Even some of those noble professions have been corrupted beyond belief (like doctors).
You are a capitalist, a businessman. You buy and sell commodities and stocks. Its competition, at anytime people are buying and selling, and if you own it and sometime in the future some one else wants it at a higher price. Then you have provided that person with a service by offering it out at that time. There is no difference between you and say a grocer selling a can of baked beans for a profit. Even a badly run grocer shop will provide a service for a while but like a bad trader will eventually go bust because it cant beat costs or it buys inventory over time that cant be shifted for a profit. Its just that everything is speeded up in the markets and the risk of taking a loss on your inventory is higher. And you never see your customers either.
This is like saying your local grocer doesnt provide liquidity anymore because there is a giant walmart a few miles down the road that can do a better job at a cheaper price more efficiently. If the small guy can remain viable then he can continue to provide his service. However small that might be.