stockstradr: You make my point for me. There’s a massive difference between trading and investing. Your post is akin to an engineer (day job) who is also a high stakes gambler. He’s enjoyed some success at it and debates the merits of chucking the day job in favor of gambling, or at least weighs his gambling winnings against what he makes in his day job.
Gambling is not investing and trading is not investing. Investing involves far more than playing trades. And it involves far more than reading financial media. The amount of contradictory advice found there is stupefying and the little of value that is conveyed is not enough to build a coherent, long-term strategy on.
I remember folks touting their “investments” during the dot.bomb and RE runup as well. There were some definite “geniuses” then, too.
Value based investors are the financial equivalent of distance runners, not sprinters. When you learn how to read a financial statement, and know how to track cash, do variance reporting and generally separate the flyshit from the pepper, you’ll be an investor.
Until then, you’ll be what a buddy of mine in institutional investing calls a “squirrel”: Running around from nut to nut in the forest and not realizing that the predators in the forest really control the game.
