I didn't mean to fly off the handle there but ignorance and arrogance are the two things that really push my buttons, especially when they are combined.
Anyone with a lick of brains or common sense wouldn't get into something as difficult and chancy as trading.
i work on the equities side, and yes, a good proportion of comp is bonus. not sure how many people are in the division as a whole.... i'd guess at a 2000-3000 globally. i agree with you that there are far fewer people earning the really big bucks (i.e. 7 figures) on wall st., but a mid-range salary is still very achievable, and once you've put in a couple of years, it really does become a "gravy train", so long as you can put up with the politics etc.
hmmm.... from my experience, the best traders are those who keep their cool at all times.... guess you're not one of them!
Or you can trade for yourself, set up a partnership and take on a few friends as investors to increase your leverage, and make more money than any lifer Ibanker does, being your own boss, trading from your own home office, in your bathrobe if you feel like it, thousands of miles away from office politics or anything remotely related to wall street. but i guess that's just sour grapes.
Show me a trader who's never lost his temper and I'll show you a trader who's never been screwed by a market maker....I doubt any such trader exists....
darkhorse Well said, superb posts, couldn't have put it better myself. Don Bright Are you really Don Bright of Bright Trading? Is this your first post on this board? Forgive me, I jest. Don you mentioned 'signature', surely just about everyone on the board knows by now that you are the 'genuine article' and hence it is time to drop the tag, not an alias!
i'm sure you can, and i'm equally sure that the probability of you being able to do that is about 0.0000001% i think i'll work on Wall St. for another 5 yrs, and with a probability of at least 75% i'll be worth $3-5M.... then maybe i'll give daytrading a try.
Okay...if you think the probability of being a successful trader is less than the probability of winning the powerball lottery, then you must be one of those randomwalk types who came on to this site to break balls. Or maybe you are a die hard funny mentalist. Talk about sour grapes, dude... p.s. I'm not a daytrader. p.p.s. I'm not just talking it, I'm walking it. So I guess I'm one of the 0.0000001%- I'm sure it's nothing but random luck, had nothing to do with my years of study and preparation, and I'm no doubt like the monkey at the typewriter who finally banged out some Shakespeare.