Most people who try to do ANYTHING where the sky is more or less the limit, end up failing. What's your point? And FAR less people become Warren Buffett types than they do successful mid 6/low 7 figure traders. I really don't think you thought this through.
Pretty good point actually. Buffet got rich from smart investing, but most of all the enormous cash flow his company raked in from DIVIDENDS. He got to reinvest the cash and get more dividends, along with stock appreciation. He approach is brilliantly simple, and could be replicated by an investor today with enough discipline and patience. Traders do not get the benefit of dividends, which is a big negative.
I am disappointed there is so much skepticism here about trading. I've found my edge, and I'm quite successful. So are many of my friends. I'm not quitting my day job, the several simple tools I use in my trading allow me to focus on other things, you could call it a hands-off approach, basically. Why all the negativity here? Read the Market Wizards books, great and inspiring stories of trading success. I've learned a great deal from them.
Im a trader and collect dividends all the time. I also end up paying some for short positions. Overall though it adds to the bottom line nicely.
Do you know how much those traders at Goldman Sachs make from their bonuses, which are based on their performance in TRADING? (They sure don't "invest".) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124649352055183157-adfadsff.html Quote: Based on analysts' earnings forecasts for 2009, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is on track to pay out as much as $20 billion this year, or about $700,000 per employee. That would be nearly double the firm's $363,000 average last year, and slightly higher than the $661,000 for the average Goldman employee in fiscal 2007, according to analyst estimates reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. End-Quote Averaging $700,000 per employee for 1 year. You can make that kind of money from your investments too, right?
What makes you think you are in any position to give advice... we all know that you blew your account on SSO trades, get over it!
Also, I think you should study more on your supporting examples in your assertion. George Soros rose to fame from his overnight one billion dollar win against British Pound. He shorted the pounds. Shorting - is that what INVESTORS do? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros Quote: On Black Wednesday (September 16, 1992), Soros became immediately famous when his fund sold short more than $10 billion worth of pounds, profiting from the Bank of England's reluctance to either raise its interest rates to levels comparable to those of other European Exchange Rate Mechanism countries or to float its currency. Finally, the Bank of England was forced to withdraw the currency from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and to devalue the pound sterling, and Soros earned an estimated US$ 1.1 billion in the process. He was dubbed "the man who broke the Bank of England." End-Quote