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The funny thing about people who have a negative view of trading in general
- may have a retirement account
- depend on a broker to make the selection on how to "invest" their money
- depend on traders to increase the net worth of their retirement account
AND yet they look negatively on us doing all that for ourselves.
Even comparing it to something like a Doctor or some field where you need a multi-year degree, in those fields you may be spending $1,000+ a week to receive your education, and it may take 2-8 years.
If someone "earned a degree" for trading, there would be a lot of parallels. I suppose the major difference is at the end of your 2, 4, 6 years or whatever in a non-trading career, you will likely find someone who will hire you more or less based on a piece of paper that says you know what you are doing. Whereas that isn't true with trading. Or is it? Some firms would hire you as a trader.
Maybe the better analogy would be if you went to med school and then decided to open your own practice after graduating, instead of working for someone else. That is probably a better analogy for trading. Even though you went to med school and have x years of education and tuition, it is not a guarantee your new practice is going to be successful.
You could receive your education and tuition from the markets for 2, 4, 6 years and pay your dues, and at the end you may still not be successful. How is this different than "normal" jobs that are "well respected" and accepted by society?
Maybe sometimes we are not convincing when we explain what we do
Maybe sometimes we are not 100% confident with ourselves
Maybe sometimes we overevaluate our failures and underestimate our sucesses (give up too fast)
Maybe, but when someone asks "What do you do for a living?" Then we respond "I am a day trader." or in my case "I trade the markets." The answer stands on it's own merit. No explanation is necessary unless the questioner wants clarification. So I'm not so sure I understand your point. When I was in the Army and someone asked me the same question, my answer was "I am in the Army." Again my answer stood on it's own merit.
I'm 26 years old, working full time in the IT industry (working for my dad's company, just him and I). When people ask me what I do, I respond "I'm in the computer industry." After a little bit of conversation, I also mention that I day trade on the side (throughout the day) when I have access to a computer.
The reactions I get are as follows:
What I'm doing is very cool, and there's money to be made, or
What I'm doing is highly risky, and that it is considered gambling.
I stopped trying to lecture them when they think I'm gambling. I just shrug it off and say "you're right." These are the same people who think their house is an asset, so there's no point of teaching them something new.
Surprised by a lot of the answers here.
The day I start to give a damn about what another person thinks, especially considering it is my money that I'm putting at risk, is the day I need to be taken out back and euthanized. I don't care if I'm moving work between state lines.
