Lets look at the key elements of success in making youself rich from trading. And lets start by taking out of consideration the entire menu of sloth and defects of the individuals who are the 95% (or 98%) that fail. Recognition There is a general overarching desire to see anything but what is in front of you, staring at you relentlessly, on price charts. Its price gyrations. Smaller gyrations within larger gyrations; the swings of price up and down. This is the architecture of price, repeated endlessly, over and over and over, day after day; and it goes unrecognised for an easier, inaccurate notion of so-called 'trend'. Time You have to put in the time. In this quest you'll never make a dime if you don't do the time. And this is the endless hours of study looking at charts on the screen .. the thinking, the study, the preparation, the logging of information. 'Why can't I just borrow or steal all I need to know?', anyone might ask. Because you have to do it yourself to imprint all that required information and experience on your own brain, to make your succcess happen. Temperament Whatever outer self you portray, the inner strength and calm needs to be there for robust, unstressed playing to be a winner day after day in trading. You have to have, at center, a still, undisturbed rational mind as your dearest ally. Now how often do you read in so many posts, endlessly on ET, the cacophony of irrational or irrelevant outbursts and meanderings? Problem Solving This is the function that elevates humankind from the rest of the animal kingdom. And in the individual it is the stronger problem solving capability that favors the few over the many with weaker problem solving capabilities. Its not whether you're better or lesser educated; it whether you have the savvy that puts you in front of most others for the task of trading a market with a very high degree of consistent and lucrative success.
"simply let life distract them". Many can probably look back and see this was a huge factor, as it weakens discipline and focus. Without those two attributes you are dead in the water.
I rarely actually laugh out loud but this made it happen. From whatever LATimes article someone linked ""The ads made me think, 'This is easy,'" said Ouma, 52, an administrator with the Grand Prairie, Texas, police department. Ouma used her credit card to fund an account with an online currency broker. Within a few weeks of swapping dollars for yen and euros, she said, her $3,000 of borrowed money was gone. "Even if you make money for a little while, eventually you just end up losing," she said. I haven't had such a good laugh in a long time. I wish I could send her a card at Christmas thanking her for her money.
emg actually right.one should never forget it and emg does an excellent job to everyone to keep this in mind at all times.
Just basic knowledge of economics would probably stop a lot of people from making bad trades. They may also be effected by Wall Street's attitude to buy and hold no matter what. Whatever the case is, I do not believe 98% is correct. In fact, I would say if 98% really did not make money, there would be no market. If you are talking about weekly results versus decade results, anyone who has taken the time to research a good portfolio to invest in will nearly always be profitable at the end of long time periods. The micro forex account can be blown from overtrading and churning. Letting that be representative of the experiences of many forex participants may actually be true in my opinion. I have not met many people who have made significant profits in the forex market. It is there to facilitate trade across borders and currencies. Depending on your circumstances, I don't know anyone who has trade for multiple decades who hasn't made money. If that were the case we would not have a public market. I am very concerned about what looks to be the first United States debt default coming up on August 2nd. I am deeply worried about the deleterious effects that will come from a devaluation of our currency. As long as we, the US, remains the sole policeman of the global power structure, though, I think the dollar will maintain its value out of this virtue, and until foreign countries quit classifying our AAA T-bonds or debt instruments as junk, I think the hyperinflation of everything in the economy may lead to more growth. We may be able to get out of debt this way, but at the expense of our marginally low purchasing power particularly in the Euro zone, which, without question will definitely see a catastrophic collapse in its global value in the financial markets due to government printing of new money by the IMF and loaning it to what could be a "deadbeat countries" where the greater good of the country is destroyed by the promises that politicians have made in their entitlements. Trading quantitatively tends to have higher success rates, however, requires years of preparation, including work as an MBA, completion of economics curriculums, or more generalized financial courses that could teach options price theory, capm, icapm, and many other definitions known commonly in the financial services profession. I do not believe 98% is right, however, in the short term, that could very well be the case, but I guarantee not if you apply basic and not even advanced money management, you will be profitable over long periods of time.
Keep in mind many people fool themselves by remembering their wins with more enthusiasm than their losses. As far as defaulting, we won't. Read the 14th amendment of the constitution. It basically states that the US will pay on its debt no matter what. The people who will lose are federal employees who go on furlough, social security beneficiaries, medicare doctors, and possibly soldiers. That said, who is retarded enough to buy 10 year notes at 3% other than people who are absolutely required to do SOMETHING with their money?