gold, page-18193

I think most (or certainly very many) on HC are active traders...just look at the enormous popularity of the DT and STT Forums.
Even eshmun says he trades (but only when bored), Ophir now shorts gold stocks (to my surprise, while at the same time as buying gold stocks - even more amazing), martis is in cash - must have unloaded the truck, to stop the bleeding....he's not young, and doesn't have infinite time..(like me).... we get new surprises every day here at the Circus Maximus.
Proprietary (aka Principal) Trading, along with that for Institutional Clients is perhaps the biggest business in the world, certainly one of the most profitable in Financial Institutions .
Just look at this photo (quite old, and only partial image - the room is just too big), of the UBS Trading Floor in Stamford, CT. Size of 3 football fields. It was over a decade ago...surely bigger now.
I don't see them with green eyeshades and lead pencils doing complex DCF analysis, for companies to hold for the "long term". This is called "the real world". This is how employees of such firms get re-imbursed, incentivized, paid... how much $$$ they can make for their firm. Be it in Equities, Fixed Income or Currencies, and their various derivatives.
I don't know who you are replying to @AverageJoe, (many are ignored by me), but whoever it is, they must be utterly clueless about the real world...like quite a few here, I suggest.