At the very end of each of the Dummies books is a list of other books to read and those books you mention are on the list. The Dummies books are only meant to be an introduction to various concepts. They are designed for someone who has no knowledge of the trading/investment taking and written in plain language. My point with Google and Hans is the following. In 2004, everyone was calling me on the phone telling me to buy Google. At the time, everyone was using Google to search various topics including myself. Even my girlfriend at the time was insisting that I buy Google, flat out insisting. I believe Google, at the time, was one of the easiest trades to see. Monster was not so obvious, but still very visable. At the time in 2004, many people were going into service stations buying energy drinks. I soon started trading my daily coffee at the Mobil for an energy drink. Soon I started seeing both kids and adults alike sporting energy drinks. This one also seemed like a no-brainer. Over the summer, the Mastercard IPO was also another no-brainer. Hello, you see the logo just about everywhere you go. The logo has been around as long as I can remember. The real traders I speak of are those such as T-Bone Pickens who predicted the rise of the energy bull market 2-3 years before it even happened. He was ahead of the market by 2-3 years. Brian Hunter on the otherhand was simply riding the energy bull using lots of leverage and hoping not to fall off. To me, that isnt trading. Thats just riding something up that appears to have obvious energy. Trading to me is staying ahead of the game like T-Bone and not just riding an obvious bull.
For position traders maybe, otherwise... absolutely false! Paul Jones, Baldwin, Stevie Cohen, and just about any famous trader you can think of short of Richard Dennis, made their fortunes by being consistent, and making LOTS of trades. Most of em practice a blend of day, position and swing trading as well (well, maybe not Baldwin, but he was in the pit). I know quite a few pros, and every one of em makes their money through being consistent, not relying on that big trade.
Alright, So there is a need to make that 98/2 equation tend back to 80/20 and possibly even 50/50. Why, because, humans and human society has proved itself to be self-destructive (i.e. everyone wants to run to the exits at the same time = PANIC), and one can play the blame game all day. i.e. they have no PLAN. I feel that one way is to make people richer, because money equates to energy, and people can do more things of their own choice, and they can then go on to support other people succeed. So there is a need for (1) work, like there is no tomorrow, as suggested by jimmyjam http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77061&perpage=6&pagenumber=11 (2) education, as eagle as pointed out on the previous page. http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77184&perpage=6&pagenumber=1 (3) positive mind programming = psychology maybe http://nightingaleconant.com/a~Author~Dennis_Higgins_John_LaTourrette.asp or http://www.growthandhealing.com/ (4) having the zero sum equaiton in the individuals favor http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77061&perpage=6&pagenumber=8
practice practice practice. Unless you are gifted in weird ways, practice. With REAL money. Paper trading will lure you into the unreality dream. Its a joke. Having a mentor (or working for a trading firm which is the same thing) can accelerate this dramatically. I burned through 30k and two yrs before I made a penny, and I was a 4.0 student in high school, college, and grad school. Education doesn't help at all. Its a specialty. Having knowledge of econ is actually a handicap for day traders.
Must be what 576,857,956,245 people have thought already, excluding the 5% or so who succeeded. http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=78466&highlight=my+first+post