Quote:
Originally Posted by Relentless
Day Trading is gambling not investing. The fact that a player can win at blackjack doesn't make blackjack an investment.
If you have a good card counting system or a friend working as the dealer that doesn't make the game itself more stable for players.
In this game the house cheated to the tune of trillions of dollars while regulators ignored the cheat.
I'm glad you made money on a few hands, that has nothing to do with whether or not the casino is honest.
By your logic high frequency traders are only bad because you don't happen to be one.
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Don't try and change the subject. No where did I mention day trading. And in no way is blackjack even close to analagous to investing. And don't be infantile, HFT is incredibly different to bank bailouts. It's not even close.. You're basically conflating every component and actor in the market as one big whackamole to tear down.
That said, some HFT isn't bad, I mean HFT arbitrage across exchanges is a predictable and easy to live with outcome. In that sense you're right, If I wrote a program to check prices of one stock across multiple exchanges and buy when it's cheaper on exchange X and sell when it's more expensive on exchange Y I would. Market manipulation or front running is a different situation entirely. That's comparing something that can be done to manipulate all stocks with bank executives not releasing to the market information on bailouts when even in the article it said some did.
There are things you can complain about, like corrupt politicians giving bailouts to their campaign benefactors.. HSBC executives not going to jail for financing terror etc. Calling the market a random casino isn't one of them. Maybe learn a bit more about it first. Matt Taibbi might be one of the few great journalists left out there, but just because storms and tsunami's make great reading, don't think there aren't a lot of nice sunny days out there. You think any of this affects some small stock with good growth and earning potential you're looking to purchase? As though anything shifty is going to happen in it and as though HFT traders are even aware of it because of something that happened in an unrelated sector during a crisis period?
Hell I can guarantee you right now some representative of the people is giving a contract to a defense contractor.. to a solar energy company, to a computer repair company in their building on opaque and bribed terms... It sure as hell doesn't affect any of the companies I invest in.
I'll accept that the market is like a game of poker as there is risk involved, you play against other players, there are winners and losers and you can generally chose whether or not to play a hand. But don't for a second think that if you always bet on bullets that you won't at the end of the day come away with an average profit even though it's assumed you can still lose a lot of hands playing it. All investments carry risk. Even 0.25% in the bank.
Basically don't fall into the trap of the zeitgeist convert where suddenly everything is all one big conspiracy run by jewish bankers and no part of the government is to be trusted, and the EPA is communist, the CDC is trying to kill you with delayed death vaccines and the stock market was tanked on purpose.
Some bad stuff happens, mostly though it's just mundane - people going about their jobs and trying to do their best. If you've ever witnessed a company trying to keep it's stock price up with positive releases you'll have understood how futile it is for most companies to try and manipulate things. And if you have any modicum of intelligence or experience (which you should have before investing) you'll be able to see through any glass-half-full rose-coloured-glasses picture they try to paint.
But if you want to remain ignorant and think it's like buying a lottery ticket then it's sure as hell no skin off my nose, it is quite literally, your loss.