Says the Hollywood actor playing a fictional character, who has made $300+ million over his career. Of course it's about the money. I smile when I hear a ballplayer says they can't believe they are paid to play a game. No, they are paid to play a game well. Well enough for their team to sometimes finish as champions. If not they will be out of the game pronto. Getting back to Michael Douglas, likewise if his movies bombed, nowadays he would be living in the actors subsidized nursing home instead of one of his many mansions.
There's a video on youtube from a guy that works at that SMB capital prop firm. They call him shark. They mention him in almost every video, apparently he is by far the best trader at their firm. They praise him like crazy and mention him on almost every video. And here's his take on the topic. He says that he was never motivated by money. He saw many people who want to buy a nice car, buy this, buy that...and it just never works out for them. He says he like the challenge and that he's always liked playing games and that trading is a way towards continuous improvement. There is no ceiling, you can always set new goals to pursue. He likes setting goals, working at them every day and then reaching those goals. Likes the process of chasing goals. He wants to be the best short term trader out there(that's what motivates him), and if he is succesful at that, the money just happens. Anyways watch for yourself, timestamped. Atleast from my experience, thinking about the money and the reward is one of the biggest handicaps in trading. On his other video he says his biggest losses came when he was thinking about the reward(money) and i can relate to that. The money aspect can take an enormous toll on your psyche and more than anything, it's a big fkn distraction. And distractions are the nr#1 obstacle to performance. You have to focus on playing the game well and the money will come.
Pro and con can always be found for a subject, any subject 4,030,000,000 results found for .... It's always about the money ................. IMO because it always is. Of course thinking about the money while trading is detrimental to short and especially long term success but people are deluding themselves if they believe money does not motivate. Like the fallacy of emotionless trading. Doesn't exist, if when using an auto-strat to trade.
Bingo if it wasn’t he could just shift a few $$ over to some struggling ET traders or give it all to charity. Of course it is about the money. Take the money factor out and would he continue day after day? Doubtful!
Arbitrage. Figuring direction and getting there first, "assisting" where I can, taking a piece for my part of the risk. "Service provider." (It is easier with option-writing. With trend-following, it's more like being a remora -- not nearly so fun or entertaining. Or stressful.)
in the beginning (stupid me) thought this was a way to a 'quick get rich' that had better odds than the lottery or casino then quickly realized it was gambling & the only people making money was the house/brokers & pit bulls. stepping back, I needed the 5 years of education in the psychology of trading, how the market works, how the folks that move the market made it what it is, the jargon, trade types, terminology & eveything else aseasoned trader would know. The 5 years spent learning, the thousands spent on books, courses, time paper trading, all the in's & out's, banging my head- confused me even more. I figured this was so complicated there wasn't a chance that I could consistently achieve a better than 50% win rate. by comparison to the hedge funds, the banks, brokerages - what chance had a person with a small $10,000 capital have to becoming wealthy. I was reading about the folks that made a silk purse from a sows ear or playing penny stocks that made zillions. It was something I tried but was not successful at. So what was I doing wrong! then one day out of the blue the penny dropped - 'trading was just a game', there isn't anything clever about it, that one did not need to have a degree or a securities license, it was a different mindset, that (like every game) required knowledge to play the game successfully & to keep learning & impove ones game, follow the winners. That trading is not to be taken seriously or be stressed about. the key was knowledge & understanding I found my niche in 3x ETF & options, learned how to cleverly hedge & leverage, learned how to minimize risk.... this is the playground that I play in & I am 'right at home' with other 'not as smart as 5th graders'.