In reply (continuation?) to the above:People pay thousands and...

In reply (continuation?) to the above:

People pay thousands and thousands to go to investment seminars to learn strategies, to learn broad market ideas and to learn specific techniques. Thousands.

Even some of the great traders and investors of the past have said something along these lines:

You will probably lose money in your first year(s) of investing/trading. Consider it a tuition fee.


You would be silly (or wise?) to go to an investment seminar or 4 and not then invest.
Our Government is kind, it allows us to lock in the capital losses we made(make) that we can use to offset future capital gains, so all is not lost.

The critical part to the above is that you must LEARN, if you cannot point to various factors, preferably about your strategy and what went wrong, then you did waste your money.
Don't blame market manipulation, you don't learn anything from that.