The stock market is rigged. Consider the following: A select few can take stocks wherever they want them to go, Keep them at a certain level for as long as they wish, take them up and bring them down at will. The SEC is a corrupt organization which is apathetic to the trader's problems. Brokerages, clearing houses and MarketMakers work together to ensure that traders don't succeed. Information is passed on readily and on a daily basis to the upper echelons - enabling them to stay in control. Supply and demand do not work in the stock market where manipulation is the order of the day. Unless and until sweeping changes take place the current dismal state of affairs will continue to prevail ensuring the abnormal failure rate. This will be my only post on this thread since I know that I'll be hit by a barrage of flames and derisive remarks about my intelligence. However, if even only a few can reflect and benefit, it would bring solace to me.
LOL.....where did this pathetic guy come from? Ive been trading stocks, and futures for almost 2yrs and making money(its my living). Dont bash the markets just bcuz you dont know how to run with the bears or bulls. Get off ur lazy ignorant ass and learn the psychology of the markets and you might get somewhere as a trader.
The post above has it right. I hate to beat a dead horse, but the more I spend time here, the more I realize how many people look outside of themselves to explain the outcomes in their lives. Let me ask you this. When you look at the chart of a stock that has gone from $12 to $43 in 1.5 years, what is it in the chart that would have prevented you from buying at $18 and selling at $39 for a nice gain? There are countless stocks that go up and down in fairly smooth waves. There are easy risk/reward setups available which would work with reasonable stops. Let's take it as a given that you're right - the markets are rigged to make money for insiders. So what? You can participate with no problems if you know what's going on. To know what's going on and to still be unable to make money is sadder than just being fleeced because you're ignorant. And one more thing... to make a statement like this and then to say 'I'm not going to respond to any comments/criticisms engendered by this post' is really weak-minded. If this is your thesis, that money is lost by 95% of privateers in the markets because they're rigged (and not because they don't have the ability to make money), then stand up and defend it. Both your assertion about the reason for retail trading losses and your closing warning that you will not respond to posts in this thread indicate that you are the type of person that looks outside of himself to account for his personal outcomes - that is, failures are not your fault, but the fault of outside forces over which you have no control.
Wahhhhh...wahhhhhh., I want my mommy. Shut the f**k up and learn how to trade you whiny little douche bag.
Lol, your name reminds me of a garbage pail kid from the 80's. ScaryLarry and his twin brother SpookieMookie
Akeyla. there may be some truth in what you say, but you exaggerate. I certainly disagree when you say "supply and demand don't work." Frankly, that is nonsense. Whether some of what you say is true is immaterial to the question of whether money can be made by trading. It can be and is by quite a few traders. There is no reliable data so far as i'm aware on the percent of traders who wash out. It is just assumed to be a high percentage based on anecdotal evidence. It is my opinion that the primary reason traders do not succeed is that trading well is not easy and not easily learned, at least by most; yet the barrier to entry into the trading world is very low. Anyone who wants to try their hand at it can, and these neophytes supply fodder to the many highly skilled and experienced traders. With rare exception, only those who invest a great deal of time, money, and intellect, are likely to succeed. Like most other highly-rewarded skills, trading can be exceedingly difficult to learn, but once learned well, seems quite easy. This steep learning curve coupled with absence of a barrier to entry, explains very nicely i think, why the percentage of those who try trading and succeed is low. added in edit I want to comment on your statement that manipulation is "the order of the day," because this is something that non-traders usually assume is a bad thing and don't understand that price manipulation is a legal and normal part of market strategy. Prices are often "manipulated" by buying or selling in size. Major market players do this all the time, particularly with the less liquid issues where it is relatively easy to push prices around. This is a normal part of trading, and there is nothing wrong with doing this. It's expected. There are also illegal manipulations some times, but these don't often concern us.
<a href=http://www.freeimagehosting.net/><img src=http://img3.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/6e822d60d2.png border=0 alt="Free Image Hosting"></a> Heh-heh