Re: How difficult is it to trade?
It's not an easy thing to be a trader because it's a big risk. You are investing money, time and effort. It is difficult to anyone who is not willing to learn how to trade but it's not rocket science. If you work hard and learn the market, it shouldn't be that difficult.
It's not easy to start any business though. I have often met people who have large debts taking years to pay off because their businesses failed. Any sphere of operation - import/export, decorating, opening a shop, financial advisory services, you name it.
Those are just more acceptable things to most people in society, so perhaps they perceive the risk to be smaller.
I guess it's why parents advise their children to become lawyers, doctors and accountants. Good money for low risk.
So what was the conclusion of this thread though anyway? An open verdict?
In comparison to other professions, to become a successful trader, on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means occupations like dustman, streetsweeper, McDonald's staff and 10 is astronaut, armed forces commander, international drug baron, I'd say it was 8/10.
On the one hand, you can start trading if you decide to, you don't have to persuade Goldman Sachs or Deutsche Bank to employ you first, which is presumably very difficult and I'd imagine only 1 in 20 or even 1 in 50 people who apply are given trading positions.
But after starting, 9 out of 10 or perhaps 19 out of 20 hopefuls will lose their capital and stop. So if you think about it in comparison with applying for a job at Goldman Sachs who reject 49 out of 50 candidates, it's actually easier.
There's a poll at the moment asking how many people are actually active full time traders making a living at it. The answer is anyone's guess. It might be a lot less than we think. only 19 (50% of people who answered the poll) say they are, but almost 1000 people have read the thread - so assume the rest of the 1000 are people who are trying but not succeeding, that's 1 in 50.
