So here it is: Johnny Futures on T2W . com told us he had tried every way in the world to make profits on the Market and had finally given up. He asked us what he must do to make money trading, and nobody could tell him. At the time we were all automatic trading, trying to be the fastest and smartest guns in the West.
I personally, started with a book called Swing Trading and joined an investment group so somebody had my back. It was comfy at first. It evolved into 12 hour days doing research online, and working a graveyard shift after the market closed, which I would not recommend to anyone... I was sitting most days alone at my two computers, with redundant internet connections, five screens full of streaming data, instant messaging, auditing two online trading rooms up, and possessing multiple trading accounts... just in case there was a server crash. Data and mentors cost me about $800 before I made the first trade of each month so eventually I figured out that I was feeding the lion that was trying to eat me.
It was a blast, just about like some video games I have played... but eventually my friends online went broke, one at a time. Most of them started with a quarter million; and traded it away. One friend went through $7million and died on Social Security without being able to afford his heart operation when he needed it. My so-called online mentors decided they wanted me to join their triple platinum room because they were shutting down their "cheap room." In other words they wanted $4000 instead of $800... because they were going broke.
Personally... My health declined because I was living on a few hours sleep. My employers went broke, my friends left me one-by-one, and I have never been the same physically after trading for seven years. Even the place I went to lunch burned down, so I lost touch with my investment club. Yah, some people thought I was a real big shot because I survived somehow, but I didn't think so. I constantly lived in rage or fear as the daily chart dictated my emotions.
When my young child got old enough to need his Dad a great deal of the time; I went long and quit trying to scalp the Market Makers. Together we joined Little League and Soccer, and basketball, and flag football, and Scouts. I got to know my wife again, and was amazed by her intelligence rather than my own. I coached, while my son did the heavy lifting as a player. I loved it, and hated it at the same time because I thought I was missing something.
I certainly did miss something. Wall Street robbed Main Street and then half the Market Makers went broke or had to be bailed out. Kung Fu schools opened in buildings where Mom and Pop used to have their clothing and furniture stores. Corporations downsized for tax advantage. Our Business Schools puked out a generation of people that export their own jobs, thinking they will be CEO some day, living in Hollywood, married to three people at once...an Asian, a Muslim, and an out of work trophy wife that calls herself an "actress." (It is a sick world out there when a singer can't make a living.) Banking became the new Royalty instead of our servants. Like the S&L's from the 90s, they proved to be idiots. The government intervened to keep the whole Country from collapsing. One crook out of 10,000 got held responsible for the grand theft of an entire nation. My son is just in Middle School, and the Country's debt is now set at $17 Trillion.
Sure, we were all sad to see CS close out its era as a dot com "wunder kine," but the truth is; we moved on technologically. Another icon of Traders everywhere, became a victim of changing times in the cyber world. Yes, Etrade is a jerk like everyone else in their shoes, my mentors included. I have no doubt that they will struggle in the future. But in the real world: What the puke kind of a life have we left the good kids like my son? While our kids make the Honor Roll, play their Piano, and hit the ball over the fence; do we suffer with Osambo or a Mitless Romney in the White House? What the blazes did we rebuild Iraq for, only to let Iran start another war? If we are going to war, why are the presidential riff raff NON-military men?
In the end, I realized that I had a more difficult question than Johnny Futures did. In fact I had about a dozen questions more difficult than his.
