Reading RealMOney today, I was struck by the animosity the traditional "investor" types like Cramer, Kass and Marcin have for daytraders. Terms like parasite and moron seemed to be their favorite adjectives for daytraders. Wonder how many subscribers that site would have, if all the morons left? I understand where Cramer at least is coming from. He grew up in this neat orderly world where GS and other wirehouses ran rigged markets for the benefit of their big institutional clients. Whne daytraders came along, that world ended. So Cramer, who thinks it is perfectly ethical to get advance word of a research call so he can frontrun it, sees daytraders as "parasites" because we jump in front of some MM's attempt to move a size order. My question is, how can you be clever enough to be a parasite and wreck the markets but be a moron at the same time?
It's a very warm and fuzzy feeling to jump in and get the "push". It is important to be thought of as someone who doesn't matter or is a moron or is ridiculous. It is the neatest thing to be traded against by people who think that you are wrong.
Sometimes they hate short sellers even more. What do they call a daytrader who sells short -- a "second order moron"? I just tell people I deal crack cocaine to school children. It explains my nice house and car and why I don't go to work in the morning. It also avoids long philosophical discussions on the merits of my work.
I think I will adopt RWK's way of answering what I do for a living. I have read Cramer for a long time. He always talked of jumping into and of the markets with 50k blocks of stock. Maybe some one should explain to him that he was nothing more than a really big and glorified day trader! I have a few hedge fund friends, some of whom will admit that they will make daytrades all time if that is where the money is.
Well Cramer is the moron who lost almost everything in the crash with his investing ethic. Overall, he is just upset that good day traders basically make money from his 50k blocks, as well his institutional buddies. However, I must say that most day traders are complete imbeciles. So Cramer is not all wrong.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote from grob109 "It is the neatest thing to be traded against by people who think that you are wrong." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why ?
kramer is a crook... look up his affiliation with statestreet... or how about why he wasnt on cnbc for some time because of some of his "activity" in the industry... a sophomore... agreed...