That's a very interesting point. I much agree with you and DB than trading is much more than simply putting a few indicators on charts and making huge money. But this deeper understanding of the game... what exactly drives it? I suspect that winners and losers in trading (as in many other areas of life) tend to be driven by different motives.
Here are the reasons I wrote in my trading plan: Why am I Trading? To fund my leisure time. The challenge of being a successful trader and the bragging rights that goes with that designation. To keep busy. Trading gives me something to do that is interesting, challenging and hopefully profitable. To learn something each day. To gain knowledge and wisdom, not only about the market but also about myself.
For me the reason why I wanted to trade changed many times because of what happened during all these years. So my priority list with reasons why I traded was adapted a few times over the years: In stage 1 I was young, ambitious, naive and stupid; so I wanted to become very rich very quickly. Had no clue what trading was. In stage 2 I realized that I should stop to lose massively money. In stage 3 I wanted to get of this rollercoaster and have less steep ups and downs in profits and losses. In stage 4 After creating more consistency it was time to go for bigger profits. In stage 5 Profits rose and quitting my job was a realistic aim now. In stage 6 Enough money to live comfortably, but not super rich. So ultimate pleasure is to beat the market and try to be right all the time. And enjoy life!
On a surface level, I think there are quite a few elements to it such as determination, challenge, pro-active, will power, open-minded, focus, concentration, right understanding, a need to analyse and to know more, effort and maybe perfectionist. You can probably group all these under "right mental attitude" On a deeper level, likely to be naturally interested in the markets, the passion, creative, analytical minded, great self-control, awareness. On a even deeper level, all meant to be.....one will naturally have it. It isn't something everyone has no matter how hard one tries. I don't agree here, again, I would say it is all meant to be. "Motives" would be on a surface level. If you were to investigate deeper, it should reveal those who succeed are different, in the way they do things. They are very efficient and they know their subject in a lot greater detail, they know how it works, they know how to take advantage of it, after probably years of effort/experience/testing. It is certainly not something an "ordinary" person "can" do, hence I say, they already have it in them to do it. A good example here would be: Say Bill Gates and you!.....say we turn the clocks back before Bill became successful and swap positions. You will not be as successful or equal (at least) as Bill in his position simply by switching positions. Bill Gates cannot be "replaced" by another person and achieve the same results. No one can do what he "can" do.
Totally disagree. 90% of all trading profits are from computer programs. Nothing to do with the button pushers. The market is numbers. Numbers can be quantified. Computers eat numbers. Computers are not made for making charts so humans can see. Wake up.
So your belief is: ability to trade successfully is genetically predefined? Absolutely agree. With one note. People do things differently, because in the first place they know how. Which in the first place has the intention to know how. Coming back to motives in the logical loop. Of course. Me and Gates have very different set of unique mental, emotional and physiological abilities, so the outcome would be very different. Every person, however, can achieve the #1 priority - quality of life, which is somewhat ideal for that particular person. Which I believe is the ultimate success. Everything else is optional attribute of success or failure. That's why I stopped day trading and switched back to investing/running business/writing/counseling. I realized just having another well-paid job is not exactly what I want in life. Especially such stressful and risky as trading. Whenever I succeeded in life, I was rather an investor and a manager, not the performer. No wonder some issues showed their head when I tried to shift balance to much weaker side of my personality. Just an example of such analysis from life quality point of view.
Bullshit. Gates had a modicum of technical skill but he mostly got incredibly lucky. His company had just purchased a new disk operating system called Quick and Dirty DOS; the name alone tells you we're not talking a top of the line program here. Meanwhile IBM had finally noticed the profit potential of personal computers going beyond hobbyists and mega-nerds into businesses. But being the corporate assholes they were, they wanted to do it as cheaply as possible. The first IBM PC (yes, the corporate assholes sought to trademark "personal computer") was barely state of the art -- it didn't even have a hard drive. As for software, they went el cheapo there as well and eventually wound up purchasing Quick and Dirty DOS from MicroSoft. Gates' lawyer father made sure to get him the sweetheart deal of the 20th century: Gates could market his own house brand of PC DOS to third parties! The rest as they say is history: with the long-revered IBM stamp of approval on the PCs and Gates marketing the same software separately, the creation of IBM clones and the success of MicroSoft was all but written in stone. Gates smartly took advantage of an unbelievably lucky series of events but the idea that he couldn't be replaced is utter nonsense.
Daytrading is not by definition stressful and risky. Stress depends also from the personality of the trader. Stress depens also from the fact that many tradres have no clue what they should do, and mostly when, if the market moves. if you have a clear trading plan you always know what to day and your stresslevel will be much lower. Same arguments for the risk.
Anything but net long options or no leverage net long in other instruments is riskier than most think.