I never did work out why people think it is so easy to beat...

I never did work out why people think it is so easy to beat legions of highly educated, well paid, enthusiastic, well capitalized professional traders operaring in well structured and managed organizations.

Maybe you should ask one of those young dudes what it is that they teach them. Most of them would not have a clue, but all of them know that they have to obey the rules regarding money management and risk control or they get the bullet. From an organisational point of view, that is really the only controls they need to put in place.

We all still make losing trades, but we all know that if we keep doing the disciplined things that are essential in trading, eventually things will work out. It might be necessary to go through 400 trades to get things into profit, but eventually the numbers work for you.

So when you get around to investing in something else, you can either trust to luck, and someone else, or choose to do the hard yards.