regarding franchising, my point was that while 90% of lets say new restaurants fail, only 25% or so franchises fail due to the fact that there is a plan and if you execute the plan you have a better shot. There are always external forces that can kill the best intentions. I think buying a franchise for a person with limited means is a lot better opportunity than lets say going to Harvard being 300K in the hole with a degree in........ medieval literature. I think the thing that attracts people to trading still is the idea of being your own boss, freedom, $$ and of course the rock star life style.
to add to this though et has a lot of trolls and some people with obvious mental issues, there are some real players that frequent the boards, some small, some not so small that would surprise you; as you are aware its a pretty small community and an even smaller world!
that depends on the person, I remember this discussion and one guy said he knew a guy in the pit that had like 20 million plus in his trading account who wouldn't buy a new car. There are also guys in this business who drive Maseratis that would drive around the block to give a homeless guy a few bucks. Its really about what you value everyone is different that way. I have a friend of a friend who would definitely be accused of being miserly. I find this an interesting topic personally as some of the very richest people are also the most humble........
> Recent Graduate looking for http://amzn.to/KxYYSt free on Kindle right now... not sure if it covers chatrooms...
For fear of sounding like a shill, I won't mention the firm's name; however, there are some of those crap-shoot firms that do a really, really decent job of training people. It depends on the instructor you get. When I say decent, I mean maybe 20-30% of their students survives past 6 months. But, what I find is that all the wisdom that is poured upon fresh recruits is usually lost because there's no connection between the market and the experience to the wisdom. Not sure if that makes sense to you or not. I started working with some fresh guy who took one of these training courses, and he knew what they taught him, but when it came to putting it into practice, he would lose himself to the chaos of the market. But it's like trainees don't believe what they're told; it's so weird.
I hear ya. I just am a true believer of training someone, backing them with capital, and making a ton more over time than the few thousand these places charge. IF the guys that teach are that good and have solid strategies then the guys they train should be profitable. It takes a lot of work on both ends. The firms that hire guys need to have a rigorous interview process to weed out people. The top firms out there today have 2-3 rounds of interviews....and they are not easy interviews. The firms that charge for training then have new guys put up capital take zero risk and just collect fees/commissions. Great business model for them. The more guys they churn, the better. The ones that have a few week training course are really misinforming the guys they train. Trading takes months/years to learn. The MINIMUM class I could see would be 6 months of training. I won't name names...but there is one out there that charges an absurd amount but has a huge turnover rate...yet they have ads claiming they are the best "trainers" out there. These firms will never talk about how many guys make it past a few months after the training ends.