Dear Comino,
Here are the answers to your questions:~
(1) I can tell you that of every hundred properly trained to a primary level of competence, roughly 95 succeed in the initial stages, but as time goes on, more of are these are forced because of their own ineptitudes or inabilities, that are now beginning to be seriously tested, to drop out, for different reasons. ALso some are too busy with other things and are forced to put trading on a back burner. Others realise its not for them. Others discover they just can't cope and so on.But a very small proportion are lazy,greedy,impatient and undisciplined by nature.These individuals have been able to hide their failings very well in ordinary life so far, but, when they enter the world of trading and now discover the remorselessness of reality in real time with its yes/no outcomes that they find brutal and unfamiliar ~ now because they cannot manipulate the outcomes to make them right when they are wrong ...Then this is a different matter! Here the ninnies receive a shock.The weakest are sorted out straight away. It is not that they fail - these do not succeed, because they prevent themselves from doing so by the way they go about it, and what is worse, the ninnies that persist in remaining have among them whingers who try to corrupt the others.What they are lacking, that they have been able to hide so far all their lives perhaps is the right character. They start to do experiments, all on their own, trying to find a shortcut, that does not exist for anyone's benefit. Then it starts........
they do things they should not be doing, they look at things they should not be looking at, they explore ideas they should not be exploring, they forget what they have been taught, they make a mess of everything. In fact they work very hard at trying not to work to start with. All this in secret at first, because everybody wants to be right as a result of ego, this is a natural human reaction that works in ordinary life - but not in the world of trading. Now these individuals are totally corrupted and confused. Their pride prevents them from admitting these mud pies. They form little knitting circles. They are not only corrupted themselves, they do their best to seriously corrupt as many as they can, because they want to be proved right even though they are wrong. It's horrendous. They now become targets for unscrupulous individuals who try to take advantage of them as victims,by suggesting to them short cuts. Short cuts that at first appear plausible. There are no short cuts. This is a cruel world of yes and no, there is no room for individuals seeking priviledges. Then there is another tragic category of individuals who are not bright enough, but accustomed to the scenario in ordinary life that I have just described and refuse to modify their behaviour accordingly therefore they cannot learn on the one hand and on the other hand refuse to be taught because even when irrefutable proof is laid in front of them, they refuse to accept it, and proceed to argue ~ just imagine this nightmare, and everyone looks the same but is not. It is funny and sad at rhe same time, but practically impossible to carry out instantaneous character tests that are reliable.
Whilst all this is going on the greater majority are plodding along and slowly disengaging from the corruptive element( bear in mind that in normal life sharing is the best way of achieving - in trading being alone and coming to terms with what is laid before us is the best way of achieving) The plodders begin to succeed but have to pretend they are not in order not to be pestered any further. Time passes, and with help the plodders that remain are helped to higher levels of knowledge and awareness until on the basis of a pyramid the best are at the top. This process takes between 6 to 8 years. All those remaining in the pyramid succeed each according to their merits in achieving consistent profits over time. The best are not the best because they are geniuses. They are the best because they have what money cannot buy, which I have discovered to my amazement is the right character for this profession. I have discovered that it is impossible to develop the correct mindset in individuals that do not possess the right character. This is very far above mechanical trading. Only those individuals that have the right character can aspire to go higher.
