re: showdown to roberter, acturtle and gaweb roberter:Did you...

re: showdown to roberter, acturtle and gaweb roberter:Did you see your namesake on SAHARA on ABC Sunday night?
No mate, I only see the cr*p they dish up on the US cable networks. Chinguetti is the 7th holiest city in the Islamic world, and off limits to heathens. The Oil industry better work for Mauritania cause they are never going to have much of a tourist industry.


gaweb: Ching, you say why aren't there any rich traders ?I say to you, those in the know don't need to prance and parade - traders are naturally very private people - investors are show offs, and how do you clasify rich ? MILLIONS and MILLIONS of that depreciating fiat currency ? I know a trader who is leveraged to $80 million, its not me - BUT is that riCh enough for yoU ?
There's a good book you should read called 'The Millionare Next Door'. The author interviews and surveys thousands of Americas richest citizens and profiles how they made their wealth. There was not a single example of a trader, but there were a good % who made money through Buffett style investment. Perhaps there are a few rich traders, but they are so rare as to be statistical aberations.


acturtle: Many hedge funds use technical trading to make money.
Yes, there are some hedge funds that have flocks of PHDs, nobel prize winners and supercomputers that can eke out good returns on capital (sometimes). This is far removed from the capabilities of the average HC trader hopefull.

It is a fact that most successful traders end up with a fund using other peoples money to magnify their profits. They typically take up to 30% of the profits and give the rest to the fund. The reported profits are AFTER the fund manager has taken his fee.
Buffett also grew quickly through pooling funds. The traders running these funds could make 30% each year but the investors and the underlying market returns of the fund could not sustain a 30% rate of return over a extended period.

It is also fact that the bigger you are - the no longer you can trade the likes of HDR and any other oiler for trading as there is insufficient liquidity for efficient entry and exit. The best traders end up in currencies etc where big big bets can be easily taken.
Good point. The markets liquidity puts a ceiling on the potential profits of trading.

You need to open your eyes to how big the trading world really is. Just because they dont write books about themselves or end up in the Forbes 400 doesnt mean they do not exist.
I'm a natural skeptic. Seeing is believing. I don't see traders on the rich lists, in the book 'Millionare next door', in academic studies or in the media (except for self promotion). The absence of evidence is the evidence for absence.

Some ridiculous report that suggests ALL traders lose money is simply incorrect either in fact or in your interpretation of what it is saying.
The academic studies looked at the average for all traders. It would have been interesting to see some segmentation & trading results of the top 10%.

The trick is NOT to do what the multitudes are doing or you WILL lose money.
This is one point on which I agree wholeheartedly. At least investors and traders have a few common points of agreement. (Buffett says the same thing as you can see from my earlier post)