Huh? Algorithmic trading is still trading, why the difference? Just because a computer can beat the world chess champion (see Deep Blue vs Garry Kasprov), it doesn't mean that people would find chess any less interesting or fun, right? The retail mom-and-pop are still going to buy their 100 shares of IBM / AT&T, and put it aside for 10 years, and watch the appreciation. Computer have only made the very short-term games harder, that's all. A computer will be hard pressed to be world bridge champion (a highly cooperative game), but a computer have been world checkers champion for almost 10+ years, because it is a mechanical game with limited search space.
Volatility has been good this year .. index futures and certainly the DOW. It was Summer last year which had a patch with a lot of small range days. But, hell, every day is good. The money is in the gyrations.
There's been a clear correlation between the increase in program trading as a percentage of NYSE volume and lower index volatility. What is NOT clear though is whether it's the programs causing tighter ranges or whether the tighter ranges help facilitate the programs. I'd say a bit of both...
Unfortunately the title of this thread rings a bell in my house. I was a millionaire when I was 27 and as I push close to 30 I barely have enough money to buy food (sad but true). Trading has been a surreal experience, when I look back I wish I had not taken this path.
As someone noted in another thread there seem to be fewer and fewer traders on ET. Most of the new posts do not strike me as being started by traders. Markets cycle between extremes where almost anybody can make money and extremes where almost nobody can make money.
truth is 95% of people on these boards trade with 5-10k either threw futures or threw prop. if this were 1999 and one had to have 50k these boards would be getting 10 notes a day instead of 1000