I don't think anyone here has said that it is easily attainable. The fact remains, however, that there are people who succeed at it. So it is ludicrous for people to tell the OP to give up before he even starts.
Try sports betting , better odds.No wonder it's illigal in here , Uncle Sam doesn't like bettors , Uncle Sam loves people who use his system.
I personally see little difference between a trader and an investor, and I don't want to get into an argument on who is better. Buffett, Livermore, Jones, Soros, Seykota, Cohen, and Simons belong in the same category. To me, a good investor is a good trader who let his profit run much longer. As for who can learn what from whom, I don't agree with what you mentioned, and I have absolutely no other comment on that. Amen
Please do NOT read any of my commentary; Traderzones is correct that no one should read anything I post. My other handles are bubba7 and Grob109. Check out the backtest by trader666 which proves unequivacolly it is important to not trade the PVT using our approach. We cannot help young and ambitious traders in any way whatsoever. A person named Eto should also be disregarded; reason: he is converting (translating) our approach into plain English. For 250,000 you can pm Traderzones and he will help you out for a week at which time you will be fully operation; Joe of ET will verify this. You will not need any luck if you follow traderzones advice.
I dont want to fight either, and all those guys mentioned contributed plenty to their respective fields However, saying buffet and livermore and soros are in the same category, is completely foolish. Its like comparing Peyton Manning to Shaq and comparing Shaq to Michael Phelps. Their all athletes and play professional sports, but not much else is similiar. If you don't know the difference between a trader and investor then you obviously misunderstand the definition of one of the two, or maybe both. I could go on and on about how I think your wrong but I'll stop here and we will agree to disagree and move on.
ludicrous? That is like saying "some people win at the roulette wheel, it is ludicrous to tell people not to play." If you ignore a whole spectrum of risk, likelihood, money invested, the person's bankroll, their obligations, time invested and many other variables and considerations. There is no black and white here, but a lot of due diligence and a huge amount of work, soul searching and an assessment whether it is right for the person.
When you go to Vegas, do you walk around telling people not to play? I don't. (FWIW, I also don't play myself...) I guess that everyone here is over 18 and can make their own choices, and they are smart enough to read and write, or they would not be posting here. So I think they can decide for themselves whether they want to roll the dice or not, and are capable of doing some homework to figure out what it might cost them. Most of the questions on this site from newbies are about "how do I trade" and some of the answers are along the lines of "don't even try"--which wasn't the original question. For every single significant thing I have accomplished in my life, there were numerous people who told me I would not be able to do it. People, I presume, who either could not do it themselves or were afraid to try, or even in a few cases, may have wanted to see me fail, out of envy. Listening to negative people who see failure and misery everywhere does not provide anything worthwhile. So I ignore them--a practice which has done me far more good than harm. Failure in trading is extraordinarily helpful. The trader who makes small mistakes by making small bets, and studies and learns from those mistakes, can learn to do trade successfully. This practice of studying errors encompasses knowing oneself, which has been rightly mentioned in this post as an essential component of successful trading. So, there is nothing wrong with failure, as long as you get up and try again instead of wallowing in it and trying to infect everyone else with a losing attitude.
Maybe you should start listening to them. The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of newbies will fail in trading. If someone is really dedicated to being a good trader then it doesnt matter if someone tells them to quit before they start. They are not going to listen anyway. It is that attitude that will eventually make them successful. However, for those who think they want to trade but really are just young and ambitious and think trading is cool, then they should seriously consider some of the advice that has been given here. Inspirational stories are nice but they are often misguiding.