http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=AAPL&k=300.000000 It looks like those put options traded last at .06 on February 11th.
And anyone who buys a ticket can win Poweball, but few do. The odds are, like trading, dismal. You write well, but narrative doesn't clearly support the conclusion.
The question should really be why, despite all these various advantages, investment banks have been going bust throughout their history. Without bailouts, the rate of failure would be even higher.
First of all most of Wall Street is just shaving commissions in various formats, not actually "trading". As for the advantage of the small percentage of actual traders there, it mostly boils down to risking LOANED money and having political clout to force bailouts of their bad bets. Political clout to gain inside information and manipulate dispersed data doesn't hurt either. Gee, I wonder how much money I could make with billions in zero interest money from the Fed and tens of billions in bailouts when I made a bad bet.
I generally agree with the first post - the odds are much more against you as a sole trader, until you make it. However, there are offsetting benefits, if you like to be a sole operator. Freedom and autonomy have considerable value for some people.
Cheese has been around for a long time, a very long time. I would take his post and dissect it. Trading is not like powerball, you can make an educated guess which will prove right enuf of the time to provide a living. Good words, please take them to heart.
In the end, there's really no need to worry about who's doing what. Just go with the trend. How can you better that? And then you might even look down at those Wall Street traders you envy now. In fact, I know you will.
that is pretty much it... if one of us has the misfortune to be very successful doing that, to become as big as they are, then we are in deep yogurt because we would be on their radar and targeted for dirty tricks...