Volatility kills in the long run. Lose 20% this year and you need to make 25% next year to make up for the loss. Add to that the fact that trading is expensive despite claims of low commissions and it's hard to recover from a large loss. You can only trade successfully if you are not unlucky enough to experience a large loss. Here is another part of the study I linked to before. Excellent work as it explains some the problems.
What really kills traders is the fact that they are not qualified to be traders. Traders should survive any kind of volatility. Somebody should start a therapy group for failing traders. Maybe it will bring more money than trying to trade. If you want to become a daytrader, just try it. If you don't succeed, stop. And don't post all the time how miserable it is as would be daytrader. In all disciplines there are people who succeed and others who fail, is it obvious that trading is no exception to that rule. I cannot play golf so I don't. But I don't post all the time that people should not play golf because 99.99% will never get rich. Trying to become a professional golfplayer can cost a lot of money too. Maybe MS should warn these people too.
The financial market holds the greatest attraction to those least suited for it. Whenever i hear a person say how much they "love" the markets--- i can just about , in most cases, guarantee that person will not survive long. This is how the market survives. There is a seamingly never ending stream of these folks. Trading is a job, not a lifestyle, although done correctly it can provide a great lifestyle outside and away from the markets. surf
They should understand it, not love it. This is normal because many people want to improve their financial situation, so they try to find a way out of "poverty". There are also failures of people who start a business and end up broke. So it does not have to be trading. Starts always as a job, but if well done can become a tool for a better lifestyle. This dream, and potential reality, attracks a lot of people.
We have made a killing trading Altucher's book strategies over the years--- it is one of the BEST BOOKS ever written on the markets-- with actionable tactics--- His Bankruptcy idea alone was extremely powerful. surf
Cool, I am happy you like it. Remember, the book was written some time ago-- not everything in it --still works-- so keep that in mind when testing the ideas.
It seems to me the difference between being successful and not being successful is attitude. A winning attitude regards defeat as temporary before the next victory, whereas failure is an acceptance (rightly or wrongly) of the latest temporary defeat as being a permanent state of affairs. Of course, to overcome an obstacle to success and move from a state of temporary defeat to the next victory also involves some work. “Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do." Napoleon Hill