Well we all know that more than 90% retail traders fail at some point, losing all their money or some part of their capital I also hear a lot that it is not an easy task to beat SP500 on regular basis even for experienced traders. So why don't retail traders just invest their money in SP500? Why take the >90% risk of burning your capital when you have a "safe" way of making money longterm? Because as far as I read here people say that it is VERY hard to beat SP500 longterm Why all that fuss then? Why not just invest your money in relatively safe indexes and live your life? Why spent so much time/effort/money on learning/trading and have an enormous risk of losing money? And even if you succeed you most likely will not beat sp500 THAT MUCH. why?
A cynic may say that most traders don't how to live their lives. the answer is that most traders believe that they are outliers and can beat the averages.
I do still think it's worthwhile. Just to not be a sheep. It is true that you never really know what is going to happen in the market and the odds of being successful trader are small, but by studying the market structure/flow, you get to at least know risk/reward opportunities and how the market operates in a sense. What happened if you invested near the top of 2007 with a mutual fund manager? Well if you held on for 10 years, great......but most people would have sold right near the lows before it bottomed due to fear and panic amplified by mainstream media. But with the knowledge that I have gained, I could at least now get long Nasdaq from the 2009 lows and then sit back and let it do it's thing....
Because it takes a shitload of money to invest in the S&P500 and hope to earn a modest goal of say $500 bux per day. The average return on the SP500 is 10%. So if you throw $100,000 into the SP500, you'll make $10,000 per year before taxes. Yet if you take your $100,000 and try to trade it, your earning (and loss) potential is unlimited. One could achieve $10,000 pre-tax/pre-commish in a year trading the ES and making just $500 per day on 20 trading days. 20 days versus 1 year to make same amount of money. That is the allure. Potential to make a large amount of money on your own terms, not on the average return on an annual basis which you have no control of. And if you try it with $10,000, that other $90,000 could be used for other things. All $100,000 is not tied up in the SP500. I think that is why.
Same reason people buy lottery tickets....... But, yes if you can't beat passive S&P trading of 7% a year stop trading and just buy SPY every month for the next 20 years and you will have less stress and be richer. http://fortune.com/2017/02/25/warren-buffett-scorches-the-hedge-funds/
Yes, it is worth it. A better question would be : Why did you learn to trade? And did you get what you want out of learning how to trade? Information out of these question, should you help determine for you if it would be worth it for you.
Why do people want to fly jets, perform surgery, hit a 95mph fastball, surf big waves, master a musical instrument, learn foreign languages? Most don't and they can get a job selling cars or working for the man and if there is anything left after expenses, they can invest in an IRA. Trading is difficult to learn and most people do not like difficult.
I learned to trade because I did not want to be a sheep after graduating from high school in 2008. I also learned to trade because I learned I could have made millions shorting the crash. And hmmmm lets see, in response to "did you get what you want out of learning how to trade?" Yes because I have been able to see and profit from every big correction in 2011 and 2015 well before it took place. The downfall was I did not align myself with the principle of "the trend is your friend" and too much bias back from 2008 as that was when I first got interested in the markets. But I continue to learn from my mistakes and continuing on the path to consistency.
And many who try even don't have the needed qualifications, they just THINK they have. They think opening a $3,000 account is enough. On top of that most overestimate themselves. Like 90% of car drivers that think they are in the best 10%, which is mathematically impossible.