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Top Ten Reasons Not to Trade– and Why You Should Do It Anyway, from Jan-Petter Janssen

2011-04-18 · Jan-Petter Janssen
Original source

#1 Trading creates no greater good
- like when you buy grain futures, the price skyrockets, and you make a killing! A poor farmer plants more seeds as a consequence, third world children get affordable bread, hmm, did I say you make a living?

2 Trading makes you selfish

  • and that's why filthy rich old speculators turn to philanthropy.

3 Staring at screens all day is not healthy

  • which is true, and why slow lunch hours are perfect for physical exercise.

4 Staring at screens all day is not good for your social skills

  • which is why traders are out having fun when the market is closed. (Don't "normal" people spend evenings in front of the TV?)

5 The market is a casino

  • where scrupulous gamblers make it easier (and more important) for sane traders to make a living.

6 Changing cycles make it hard to make consistent money

  • and that's why I take months off traveling the world.

7 Watching the market is sometimes like watching paint dry

  • which is true, and why you should use slow hours to study arts and sciences (while some make #5 come true).

8 Most traders lose money

  • which makes it even more rewarding for successful ones.

9 You won't make it without talent

  • just like a talent is needed to become a piano, chess, or basketball professional. A zillion different market niches should make it possible to succeed for a variety of personality types though.

10 Traders do not deserve all that money

  • if spent on booze and babes. Do good and create exponentially more "greater good"! (ref #1)

Jim Sogi counters:

Good Reasons to Trade

  1. Trading provide capital and liquidity for production of good.

  2. Trading is an honorable profession.

  3. Trading give time to exercise, ski, surf when markets close and you always get weekends off.
  4. The gains have favorable tax treatment.
  5. The competitive environment is tremendously rewarding.
  6. The analysis is deep, wide ranging, complex and also very rewarding. It covers history, math, statistics, current events, politics, economics. No other field is as broad or deep for study.
  7. Trading has economies of scale built in to the structure.
  8. Immediate and easy credit is available.
  9. The Spec List.
  10. You can trade from home, be it Hawaii, Alaska, CA, NY, Bahamas, Singapore.
  11. There are world wide markets, and many niches to fit many styles and temperments.