Why Do We Trade? For Real.

the internet killed my business, but it was a long slow decline....

 

What was your business? I thought you were linking investors with a fund of funds.

 

That's now. My first business was real estate marketing/publishing. Basically an MLS magazine for high end properties.

 

I have begun to think that for a lot of people............. pursuit of trading is not based on money as primary motivator. Money is secondary motivator for many.

I say this because again and again I see people falling for BS and seemingly not caring when the BS is exposed. You see it all the time with "true believers" in the vendor/guru landscape. I used to wonder why do people do this?????

The answer is....... these people are running on pure emotion. Not logic and reason. The emotional brain has taken over completely.

If trading was all money and nothing else, then it would be approached as a shrewd business person, asking tough questions, leaving no stone unturned, etc. But when there are other emotional needs in play, the person behaves irrationally in attempt to keep pleasing the inner emotional needs....

 

Thanks for this post.
I will add: those who give a go at trading should continue till they have sorted the core
of these "emotions". Golden opportunity not to be thrown away.

 

Because back in 2005 I read a few (advertising as I later understood) articles about how lucrative (and easy as I thought) it is. Plus the same impression from a few movies.

Obviously I overestimated my own abilities and probably had wrong impression about what the markets can really give to me according to those abilities.

Currently I trade, but expectations as much more in sync with reality.

 

Still trade, just not with expectations to day trade for a living. Counseling and coaching I did even before started to trade as well as some other business ventures (mostly trading too, just not financial markets).

 

Read past few pages. Very interesting discussion developed, thanks a lot to everyone for participation!

 

Thanks for the corrections.
It just shows that exactitude is not always a given.

So you got lured into trading because of the media?

 

You shouldn't trade for a wage, it's not that kind of a job. Only a relatively small percentage of your profits should go to living expenses as a bad period might just be around the corner, at any time - I'm going through one now and if I had spent what I earned before, things would look quite grim now.

For me it was part challenge (what's the best you can do with limited data), part allure of the lifestyle (freedom to move + limited financial freedom) and the procedure (I loved my morning coffee with some charts and code, it was fun).