I totally see your point. The way I look at is.. Why do we want money? We want money so we have the freedom to do whatever we want, whenever we want. Sure we all want to be wealthy but my answer was focused around why do we want to be wealthy.
Well written post, but interestingly you picked two fraudsters in your example. What does that say about the industry?
Let's keep it real.. #1 Person trades to blow accounts and eventually quits. #2 Person still trades after 30 plus years, with no retirement in sight. #3 Person trades to earn enough to eventually RETIRE. The rest is complete BS.
Do you think RenTech took a quote like that to heart? You build trading skills and strategies. That is what you take with you from one day to the next. No different than anything else in life.
This is a great topic and very timely for me. I am a woman, I am retired from federal government, I receive pensions, I don't really need the money, although it is always nice to have extra. Over the years I've had various businesses, sold on eBay, been in MLMs, sold Rainbow vacuum cleaners, demonstrated Tupperware and other party plan products, I have done pretty much everything. I did most of those things while working full-time, so they were side hustles. I generated enough income to retire early. I recently discovered trading, I never knew it was a thing, I thought it was for Wall Street people. I researched for a few days and decided to give it a try, funded an account, read books, watched videos, practiced on Investopedia's simulator, I got really good at picking great stocks, then I learned about screeners, and continued learning as much as I could. I didn't do anything with the real account for a couple of months, until I was confident that I knew what I was doing, once I got going I made money with my very first trade! It wasn't much, but it started adding up, and by the third day I had my first $100 day, which was fantastic because I didn't put much money into my account. That's been a few months ago. And now I LOVE trading! Besides winning lottery money, this is the easiest money that I have ever made. It gives me something productive to do, it keeps my mind occupied doing the math and the research, it gives my life more structure, and it just makes me so happy. I can automate things so I am not stuck to my desktop computer or laptop. I can do other things throughout the day, I can go back to sleep or take an afternoon nap, I can do whatever I want. Trading is perfect for me right now and I will probably do this for the rest of my life as long as I can access the internet. For the people that fail at trading, I think they don't want to put in the work, they expect the money to fall into their lap, and they give up when they lose their money. It takes time to learn, hang in there and don't give up so easily. For those that it's a career for, it's just as valid as anything else if they are profitable. I don't think of it as a job or a career, but as more of a lifestyle. As with anything, life is what you make it. I'm not fancy with the technical jargon like the rest of you guys, but I'll be right up there with you on the money in a couple of years.
What do you mean by active trading community? I don't think you are really arguing that a world without any financial markets or ability to trade commodity futures really be more efficient than what we have today, are you? Sure if you could wave a magic wand and remove all scammers, chronic losing traders, degen gamblers etc from the market and put them into productive employment instead, obviously that would be a positive compared to the current reality. But it's not the same thing as saying that all active trading is a net negative. Also, I'd say you gotta be careful with this sort of logic. Depending how you define it, almost anything could be a "net negative to the world". If the only goal is maximizing "efficiency" then 99.9% of people are useless eaters and the other .1% are only useful to build the super AI to replace themselves.
I mean the hedge funds, quant funds, retail day traders, etc. I completely agree a strong financial market is essential for a strong economy and society. but have hedge funds, Day traders and the like really made the financial market stronger? I think your logic is flawed. 99percent of the world is actually productive. They are building things and providing services that benefit our lives. Only a small fraction are not. When I left Wall Street, I saw this. It still amazes me the number of things people do in this world and almost all of it provides value.
Trading; What have I accomplished? Back in the day when other people paid me for my time, I always subscribed to the bucket of water theory. Make a fist, put it in a bucket of water, pull it out quickly. The hole left is how much you'll be missed a month after you leave that job. When I want to see what I have accomplished I look at my equity curve. I have been increasing my net worth while funding my lifestyle. I use the market index as a benchmark. I have a sense of accomplishment being able to out perform the benchmark. You get a sense of pride being able to succeed in an industry where there is a 90% failure rate. I enjoy trading. I can't say that I'd do it if there weren't financial rewards but it is challenging. If you keep in mind that the markets are not there for the average person to make money, they are there for the people who run the markets to make money, it's rewarding to put a bit of that money in your pocket.
By default I would say yes they do. If you think not, then can you explain how those guys make money if their trading is not providing a good (usually liquidity or price discovery) for other market participants that they transact with?
Don't know what makes someone else think they can define what another chooses to do, as to whether it is valuable to society or not. "Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one".