Sometimes I think that trading is a very bad job

TG · Jul 21, 2003

This place gets stranger every day.

peg_leg_joe · Jul 21, 2003

Quote from maxpi:

Most wealth winds up in the hands of old women. Their hubbies work themselves to death and then leave it to them. My job is robbing old ladies with nice cute young money manager guys.

Max
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Good luck trying to rob my grandma of her $$. She's the meanest trader I know. A real pit bull. No joke.

PEG LEG

JT47319 · Jul 21, 2003

Stocks aren't a zero-sum game, but futures definitely are.

I think the spirit of the initial thread was that, as traders, there is little to no prestige associated with being a trader, especially for, *gasp* retail day traders because of the perception that traders are non-productive bottom feeders. Whether or not thatâs actually true is irrelevant in the fact that people perceive this to be so.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

nitro · Jul 21, 2003

I have not read this entire thread, so I do not know if this has been mentioned, but trading is absolutely critical in a complex economy such as ours.

The goal is essentially to transfer risk from people that should not be bearing that risk, to those that should or are willing to do so. I cannot emphasize the enormity of that single concept to the financial markets of the world.

All the way in the food chain are the daytraders that step in and provide liquidity to facilitate trade. We are definetly the grease that keeps the markets oiled.

nitro

stock777 · Jul 21, 2003

The argument is utter nonsense.

If nothing else , look at all the brokers , data providers, and headshrinkers we employ.

Horseplayers suffer the same 'stigma' as professional stock traders. They too, support an industry, from the tellers to the grooms that muck out stalls.,

Come to think of it, don't they have to muck out the trading floor at the eod too?

iceman1 · Jul 21, 2003

Quote from mali:

First of all, let me excuse myself; but I gotta say so.
Yeah, it's exciting, it's challenging, I have to admit that but we create nothing, no job for other peoples (except for broker), no value for the society.

The money we made is the money that the other people lose.
Ask 100 peoples outside of the trading field, probably 90 would say that they got no respect for a trader. I remember that I have never heard or read of anything in the newspaper or in the news about respects for the traders.
In the Jack D. Schwager's books, he have interviewed about 45 traders. There are a lot of them whom he calls "legendary". What the heck ? Legendary is not that easy to find.
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:eek:

Maybe you are just reflecting on your self-image?! I never knew that what someone DOES is what they ARE as a person!

good luck bro.

Ice

plumlazy · Jul 21, 2003

I sure am glad that I'm not looking for respect. (one less thing to worry about)

SmoothTraderFX · Jul 22, 2003

Quote from Scientist:

I don't think you're trying to be fair. You've criticized me with a bunch of invalid and subjective statements, that's fact.

Regarding "Zero-Sum society", YES, it IS as zero-sum society. The only reason why it grows is because we're growing more population are exploiting more resources.

Let me tell you this, just for speculation's sake: One day, we will no longer be able to reproduce at this rate and all the resources will be exploited.

Only then will you see that there's nothing left and it's indeed zero-sum, because then we'll be beating each other's heads in for the last resources. The world economy is already faltering right now, simply because the growth given so far can no longer be sustained.

At least not until Science comes and finds yet another way to further exploit the resources available to give us yet another "push" towards capitalistic superiority.

One day, the capitalistic empire will fall, like every other empire in the past has fallen from growing too large. When the beast grows too large and cannot be fed anymore, it has to start feeding off itself. You will see. Or maybe your children will.

The Zero-sum game is the root of all this evil.

Yours Sincerely,
~The Scientist
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I reread this, and still think this 'zero-sum-game society' hypothesis is invalid, or too simplified.
This guy just take the problem as distribution of the resource. Quantity, or amount of exchange, so on.
I don't know. This guy may wants to say something about capitalizm or communizm.

What about techonology for example? We have more power than past. It canbe productive, also destructive.

Well, maybe, if the guy carefully select the factor of the system, and biuild the model, in narrow sense, in the model of the small, view, it might be zero-sum.

Hittfeld · Jul 22, 2003

Quote from Scientist:

As for Adolf Hitler - I don't know about "criminal offence" - are you sure? I lived and studied in Germany for over 13 years, speak German more fluently than English and have read Hitlers "Mein Kampf" in the original language.

While I'm not a fan of his cruelties at all, his literature gives us a vast and true insight into the darkest sides and corners of human psyche. Scary read. And yes - He was deemed a genius - His was IQ150+ and is listed on "genius" lists.

But yeah. Genius in his own way...

Yours Sincerely,
~The Scientist [/B]
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Hi Scientist, for Germans and in Germany it is a criminal offence ("strafrechtlich verfolgbar") and even trading the books is not allowed. If you read "Mein Kampf" I just wonder how you got hold of a copy. Even at libraries (Uni- und Staatsbibliothek) you can get it only with special permission for scientific research.

But then you are The Scientist!

Best wishes from Heidiland

Hittfeld

Ubi bene, Ibi patria!

Uni · Jul 22, 2003

For me, trading is a valuable profession for two reasons:

1) It provides income for my family and allows me to contribute to the greatest nation on earth through the taxes I pay (however I and many others could debate on the amount we should actually be contributing and how that money is being spent, but that's another thread).

2) It provides me the time to pursue the most noblest of pursuits; i.e. spending a lot more time raising my child to be the most productive and benevolent member of society possible. Even if you don't have children, you can still donate your time or money to children's causes. This is a cliche, but they truly are our most valuable assets. In the richest country in the world, it is deplorable that we are ranked lower than a number of nations in such categories as education and the provision of basic needs. Children first!

Uni