Give your alumni association a call and get some back issues. Try googling "financial industry" some names may turn up. If you read, get some wizard books like Harry Potter, et al....
The serious traders making money would not talk about it, nor would they need to. Read Market Wizards. Plenty of success stories there.
I have had the privilege to work with some exceptionally good and consistently profitable traders. As far as I know not one of them ever looks at this website, and some even made the firm they trade through sign a confidentiality agreement to not divulge anything about their trading. So to answer your question there are a lot of profitable traders that don't talk about it. There are also a few traders here who do know what they are doing, but you have to wade through the muck to find them. The majority of small businesses fail, everyone has heard that statistic. Well there have been studies that show the majority of small business started by someone with proper experience, sufficient capital, and a solid plan do succeed. It is the same in trading. If you have been reading this website you should already know what has been stated several times: that there is no point in claiming to be successful, no one will believe you and if you are what possible motivation is there.
Hey Bagger, As you will find out, I am one person on ET who doesn't just talk, I can back up everything I say, so here goes: First, about the poker- Interesting that you say you are a professional poker player. What is your screenname? I'd like to check your name out on sharkscope to see if you are legit. Mine is Olivia3435. I am profitable, but nothing to write home about. I guess I'd call myself a semi-pro poker player. The online poker sit and go's are just something I do for a short time at night after work or for a few quick minutes, so you will see the profit is not much, but my chart is positive and always was. As far as your claim that boatloads of poker players make a living at it, I'd say no. Ask someone like Mike Salem what the percentage of grinders out there and he'd say 1 out of 200. I have heard 1 in 100, which sounds about right. There are about 5% of the players who are about my caliber, they are break even or make a small profit playing. I tried grinding it out when I was between jobs. I kept daily logs with results and hours played. I made about $300/week playing 10/20 stud and limit holdem. The results you will see on sharkscope for me are the sit and go's. I play mostly $11NL sit and go heads up matches. I have serious concerns with the possible cheating online. As for the trading goes- If you do some homework you will see that I have posted a near exact description of one trading method I use that is profitable. Many have asked me for my homework and I have shared a few months of past results with some hoping I'd get some good ideas on how to improve my results. Somehow I think they got the better end of the deal. Anyways, yes there are profitable traders out there and you are right that most just cruise thru ET looking for some info and ideas with no need to feel they want to brag about how good they are. One last thing to think about- I played in the 10k event at Foxwoods about 3 years ago and Eric (Edog) Lindgren was at my table. He was in the 9 seat, I was in the 1 seat. He had been very aggressive raising and stealing my blind alot. I was very nervous and playing very stupidly. Anyways, about 3 hours into the event, Edog raises to 500 preflop. Only one limper before him. I looked down expecting to fold but see AA. I go allin. The limper folds and Edog starts talking to me. He asks me "you got a big hand eh?". Stupidly I say "yea, I got the best hand." After a couple minutes Edog folds his KK face up. I was shocked. At the time I didn't know who he was. About 3 months later I am watching the WPT on the Travel Channel and see him and all of a sudden I am like "oh my god, that is the guy!". When he folded the KK face up to me, I told him I'd probrably play the rest of my life and NEVER EVER run into a player good enough to fold KK to an allin bet preflop. I saw EDog on Pokerstars a few months after and typed in a question to him about whether he remembered the hand and he said he did. Amazing how different the pro players (and traders) play compared to the rest of the donkeys out there! peace.
You can sharkscope me but I am not a winner at SNG's I don't think, and haven't played much of them. My name on stars is bcblack. I play cash games only, and I work as a prop on smaller sites. It is a great deal and makes for a relatively low variance income. Been doing it full time for about 4 years now. I did try the SNG thing here and there and by the time i got into it games were pretty tough. Thx for your response.
i thought they banned online poker. apparently, i'm wrong. on the main topic, i do agree that about 10-15% are profitable traders. but, defining profitable is the issue. does someone who is up 500 bux net at the end of the year profitable? in my book, no unless that's just supplemental income. i would say that 5% make a decent primary income but about <1% make an exceptional living (>500k a year).
There is a very big reason you do not hear much from people that make money. In many cases a trading method that works for you will not work if 20 other people tried to do it at the same time (on a board of 80k members I doubt anyone is willing to share their hard earned tried and true trading secrets). So unlike other businesses where self promotion helps (think of you local realtor or Donald Trump) this industry it can really hurt you. You will find traders very tight lipped unless it benefits them to help you. From large hedge fund managers (many of whom would rather donate a kidney than give away their trade ideas) to small day traders that grind a living day in and day out it does not pay to boast or brag. So the on boards like this you will find a disproportionate number of neophyte traders to career traders (that make a living this way) sharing thoughts and ideas. My guess is if you can make a living playing cards, you have a good shot at making it in this business. Look at it like this, with 1000's of listed stocks, do you think you can find a way to make 10 cents on five trades per day? .10 x 5 (2000 shares) = 250k per year I can assure you more wealth has been created (and lost for that matter) in the global markets than at the poker table. Like the poker table this is a hard way to make an easy living. Good Luck.
Many successful poker players write books about how to play and win at poker. The classic Godfather of all books written by none other than the legendary Doyle Brunson. I have actually never read the book either, anyone got a copy of it I can buy? lol. If you listen to what Doyle said too about the book. After he wrote it he had to actually change the way he played. Very interesting. Then there are the books the pro's write that are not even worth wiping your A$$ with like Phil Hellmuth's book! peace.