Easy money is always available. A fool is born every minute. Professional traders on their own accord? I've met 5. In a bank? I've met about a hundred.
Yeah that's him. I'm wrong about him going bust. I remembered reading something negative, but I guess it was just a bad down month, and something about another wiz kid where he was mentioned. Sounds like HK is doing fine: https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/praetorian-harris-kupperman-massive-loss.133865/ https://www.theguardian.com/money/u...ior-reportedly-makes-72m-in-financial-markets
Not exactly. There is edge available, you just have to find it. I personally have two edges anyone of you can find. It isn't hard, you just have to think.
I found this thread interesting. Being fortunate to learn on the proprietary desks back in their hey day, then pooling capital and doing my own thing I think it comes down to ultimately diversifying risk. When you are dealing with a certain amount, the frequency of compounding is important and you are willing to take the leveraged bets on yourself and others in efforts to grow. I recall at one point before the financial crisis and regulations changed having built a position from a BB of 50x1, and we were not talking intraday. Looking back I should have been terrified if that position moved against me more than a few days. As your capital grows and notwithstanding your still around from a survivorship bias or pure luck, then older traders would fit into this category of risk off. At a certain amount those risks are untenable unless you have the personality traits of a narcissist or a megalomaniac. Both characteristics I've seen haven't ended well for people I once knew. Capitulation tends to happen at the extremes. Markets are constantly evolving and trading doesn't look anything like when I started, the robots took over the timeframes I traded and they seem to be doing an ok job of providing liquidity I used to. To those participating in that arms race I salute you. I still positon trade when I see something good where the bots can't get me, yet that leaves time to diversify into other investment classes like real estate, private equity, angel investing, and philanthropy. So if you are young and have the drive, I say go for it. When you are older and have responsibilities and can't take the same levels of risk to push the needle forward, you will look back and be glad you did. Elitetrader will alway be my favorite trading website, and I have learned so much over the years from many of its members and treasure trove of posts.
Glad to hear from an old pro sharing war stories. Some of us older mom and pop traders still have the drive and not risk off because we like the odds, better than going to Vegas.