But I would guess that a large % of the 95% are breakeven traders... so with discipline, they will always have a shot at becoming one of the 5%...
Shooting baskets, running touchdowns, scoring a goal creates value? Hopefully you mean as a score for the event. Maybe you are addressing all the ancillary things that are connected with these contests. You know, hot dog & beer sales, parking fees, property taxes, etc.. I've played semi-pro ball for some years and we always joke that one day someone is gonna' realize that there really is no society value improvement in what we do and someone is gonna' figure it out and pull the plug. I guess in looking at the average salary of today's mediocre crop of sports talent, the alarm clock still has not gone off. But the owners are stirring! There's hope yet. Many athlete's today are overpaid whiners and most contests are no longer really entertaining. At darn near 50, I can still hoop with the most of todays' NBA benches. I still do every summer. I've carried a 20+ point average in the summer leagues for the last 20 years and I am under 6'. I do it for the love of the "pure" game also. What I would give to see youngster with a competent crossover dribble that doesn't involve palming/carrying the ball? Maybe a dunk without the traditional "allow them THREE steps because they are pros" rule. We've become a society that accepts minor rule breaking if you can excite us. I teach the game as it was understood when I truly played it. And old school techniques following all the rules is still very effective. But we're told/led to believe that there is no market for that (unless you look at the audience size and interest for todays' clowns). Somone somewhere determined that the formula is, violations make for excitement which leads to profits! Attendance is down just about everywhere. Just about every NBA team pays out about $3 or $4 million annually for a bench that never see's any actual game time. It's value is only to the team that they are on as you couldn't trade most of them if you had to. Go figure that world enhancing value. Market trading is a whole different concept. Old stock does seem to carry value. And it does have the prospect of returning should it go down. Sports is not a good measure for comparison. I love my old MSFT.
************************** Here is another interesting quote, concerning the profession of trading." It is squiggly lines and numbers''[ Hunter age 2.5] Not just squiggly lines ;don't forget the numbers.
Good post, david. The value of trading probably lies somewhere in between football/bicycle racing and gambling. (1) Sports are good for health, so it has intrinsic value. And they directly contribute to the production of bicycles, footballs, tennis rackets, which create jobs for people. (2) However, in order for traders and trading to exist, other people have to produce things for them to trade. If nobody produced anything of value, there would be nothing to trade. So trading belongs to a secondary or a tertiary service industry. I believe there is some merit to the liquidity argument, but I still don't see why you need to flip stocks 100 times over every day. (3) You are right on the money about gambling. I agree absolutely. It's a form of "legalized thievery" and it has hardly any intrinsic value--perhaps as a form of entertainment at best. Good exchange of ideas here. stock.
Do you mean me? Perhaps, you are right. But I have a clearer picture of the issue now than I did before I created this thread. Somewhere down the road, you'd probably raise the same question yourself: "What am I doing here sitting in front of the monitor all day long watching those squiggly lines and hitting all these "buy" and "sell" buttons?" In any case, thanks everyone for posting. Keep them coming. stock.
You must have had a drawdown. Take it out on your dog or something. If you can't produce a good argument other than expletives, don't post. Folks like you who don't have some minimum public decency or courtesy should get off ET.
When you're sitting around on your butt all day long you tend to produce fewer farts, which is good for the environment.
For those who think traders dont do anything just take a look at commodities markets where there is potentially a commercial and hedging interest (electricity, shrimp) but no traders to provide liquidity. Those markets never trade and the commercials can't offload their risk in carrying the physical. Now just imagine if farmers or producers had to function like that without access to the grain futures markets. Our food supply would be much more shakey. The activity of the trader should not be thought of as merely parasitical upon the producers who make real 'things.' (Something like entertainment or gambling which is unecessary to the underlying, real economy.) The traders provide a market to farmers and commercials that they could not provide for themselves. Its a real thing that makes a real difference, its just not something you can weigh.