yeah, I guess I could have shortened the post a little. Go job, thanks for pointing it out. Next time you are in a long position, think it through. Look at the short side, who's making money? MM's, other daytraders, or you? If everyone is makin' the cheese, then it's certainly not a zero sum game.
nope, it's a minus sum game, because you gots to pay da middleman too- winners take from losers, brokers take from both.
Too bad a broker is even needed. Why not a For Sale by Owner market? By pass the broker man like in real estate. Nobody wants to pay Realtor fees. The same goes for the financial markets.
"a real big edge is all the non professional traders losing. They pay the very small minority of pro traders. Nonsense!! Bigger portion of your profits come from anybody who is so big that when he enters or exits moves the market. Basically you make money from anybody who owns the mutual fund of any kind.
Cesko you are right. I regret this statement. I think it is true in some markets where market makers really do profit from small traders providing 'liquidity'. But I fully agree with you that does not represent the vast majority of trading. I should know better because the things I trade don't see many retail traders at all. Therefore day in day out I profit from institution trading because they don't care about the small potatoes and a few cents here and there. I am sorry for this slip. it was clear in my mind what I was talking about, and it is a very specific and narrow area of the market. tntneo
Tntneo Therefore day in day out I profit from institution trading because they don't care about the small potatoes and a few cents here and there. Not only that, I have read an article year ago or so, basically giving the examples of situations where mutual fund managers base their buy and sell decisions not on market conditions but on politics involved in running the mutual fund. As Walter Wriston said: " The first and foremost goal of every bureaucracy is to preserve itself."
Thunderbolt: The bad news is there will always be brokers, because someone has to keep the matching engines running and pay the backoffice people. The good news is that competition and technology are slowly but surely driving commission costs toward an asymptotal line above zero, just like long distance and bandwidth will continue to get less expensive by the year. G Morgan: Of course I've seen Office Space, why else would I make a reference to it as being hilarious in the "worst slippage" thread? Or maybe you were just making a new reference to it unrelated to my recent mention, which is possible I guess as that movie practically has cult status among us Gen X'ers....