Was looking to invest capital Started trading to learn how to invest properly. I now know how to invest properly, Well worth the 1.5 years schooling in the halls of hell. Investing and Managing money is the most highly prized skill in life.
who's "legit" in your book? I'm not a huge player but I certainly have enough experience and earn enough trading to rightfully comment on this thread.
Few other occupations offer a livelihood that does not rely on the goodwill of others. If memory serves, that was the initial draw.
I could not agree more with the below post. The surest way to give back a great day is to come in tomorrow thinking it's easy/you *get* it/or that you cannot lose money. The same holds true at the macro level - the moment your confidence peaks, you're in trouble. The market WILL fade it by handing you a sizable loss.
Your aggression makes me think you've been getting your butt kicked and that it's *you* who can't pay your bills. The respondents to this thread are likely a mix of both live and paper traders. No matter. What does matter is that you are taking your aggression out on others for no reason. If you were attacking someone in order to defeat or defend an argument, that's ok (I do that all the time). But, you seem to be just hating here. Quite transparant.
Always loved money. Dad actively traded his RRSP. Took a class in highschool. The swifttrade website used to say that top traders made 20-50k a month. They forgot to mention split, but my mind ran wild with $$$ and of course i was hooked. Then i started, made no money for about 3 months. Things got better in a hurry, now im even more addicted and cant wait for every day.
I hate following orders. As an engineer I never managed to stay with the same job for more than 6 months. I had to find an alternative or be a loser. Trading was one of the possible answers and because I love games I decided to give it a try.
Many moons ago I was an electronics technician and found myself working for a complete jackass (unbelievable what wonderful inspiration that is to move on to something better). One time they sent me to Toronto for some BS training. Well I was there over a 3 day weekend so I decided to bugger off to New York City for some fun. I was wandering around the financial district and was blown away, you could practically smell the cash. Immediately one thought was very clear to me "I gotta get me some of this". Came home and started out trading crap on the old VSE (Vancouver Stock Exchange, or as Forbes Magazine referred to it as "the scam capital of the world"). Took some lumps but took some scores as well. Soon decided to try my hand at Nasdaq stocks. I remember my first day trade as if it were yesterday. I bought 1000 shares of AMLN at 3 3/8 and sold them at 3 1/2. After commissions I made a cool $105. I was absolutely giddy. I would trade for 2 hours in the morning then go answer to the afore mentioned jackass. Didn't take me long to make the switch to trading full time. It was a pretty good time be be a beginning day trader (1998) as everything was going up and then 18 months later came the Bear, the angry, cash hungry Bear lol. Thank God I came out of that with a decent amount of cash and was able to finally figure out what the Hell I was doing. That particular Bear market reminds me of a good quote by Paul Rubin "Never confuse brilliance with a bull market". Well that's my story, it's been 8 years of fighting markets and I wouldn't have it any other way. Actually, I probably couldn't have it any other way as I am probably completely unemployable now. Good thing the Nasdaq is a virtual ATM. ............. To my former boss in electronics land who helped inspire me to greater things. I'd like to say thank you for being such a miserable prick. You can kiss my A$$.
But the question comes down to was that life worth saving? What if that person is a hindrance to society? Would your life be worth anything if you are oncall 24/7 ? Would you be anxiously waiting around for that social security check because your broker put you in another Enron because they get underwriting fees? I spend an extensive amount of time thinking about this issue before I gave up my pre-med gig. Coolweb is right , money management is the noblest of all pursuits.