>From "Blaze":
... > In terms of my credentials though, which might be more interesting, I spent about the > last 8 years or so on Intrade making buckets of money on making big bets on highly > improbable events like this which came true. The opportunities for profit there were > incredible. Some examples, I made money on Obama on McCain winning their > primaries by making early bets (admittedly though I had hedged a bit, but was over > all long on them). "Buckets of money." you say. It's obvious to me that it takes a large and well-integrated skill set to make "buckets of money" betting on improbable events. (On a related note, one of my mutual funds is a "contra" fund. It often seems to do better than the average fund.) On a related topic, earlier in my life I tried my hand in the commodity markets. I suspect trading commodities shares many similarities with the kind of skill set you have acquired. In a sense, the commodities you bet on are futures. It's anyone's guess whether the types of futures you buy into will ripen or go sour when it comes time to cash in. As for me and my commodity trading adventures, I'll grant you that it was a fun and exciting time for me... while it lasted. Eventually, I lost all the money I had set aside for this adventure. I'm sure I lost it all due to my own lack of having acquired a sufficient collection of skill sets, and the fact that I didn't possess an appropriate psychological propensity for immediate "trading", and finally not having timely data in which to make proper assessments on whether to bury or short the commodity. I did manage to eventually rationalize my financial losses as having acquired some valuable experiences in the art of trading futures. It's not for the faint of heart! Of course, while I paid my tuition fees I flunked the course. On cannot pass at everything they dabble in. ;-) In the aftermath I eventually learned that many professional commodity traders manage to stay in business because there's a constant influx of newbies (just like me) who come in with the goal of making money. What typically happens, however, is that the vast majority of these newbies end up transferring bulk of their bank accounts into the accounts of the professionals. An irony that did not escape me was the fact that the only way the professionals tend to stay in business is to constantly sell to naive newbies a manufactured hope that there is money to be made in trading futures. In fact, that's how all forms of professional gambling manage to survive. Granted, an extremely small percentage of brand new "newbie" traders actually DO end up become good at the skill, but as someone was known to have sed: A sucker is born every minute. In the end I think the biggest [moral] lesson I learned completing this particular course was to ask myself, what kind of a contribution was I actually making to the world? The more I thought about it, not very much. I then asked myself, what if I had become successful? What would I have then been able to put my grave stone? STEVEN VINCENT JOHNSON 1952 - 2031 HIs contribution to the world was that he made a lot of money extracting it from the wallets of others who were also trying to make a lot of money attempting to do the same thing to him. * * * RIP Just as in the fine art of betting, commodity trading works by profiting from the losses of others. Inculcating this realization did not set well with me. In a sense I actually became relieved of the fact that I had lost money. It meant that I had not profited from the financial losses of others. I realize this was a rationalization on my part. Nevertheless, my own "losses" left me with a clearer conscience. Based on my own memories I will grant you that it probably IS a rush to realize how smart one must be in order to take money (willing so) from others, and to be able to do it in a perfectly legal way! The fact is that a capitalistic economy needs transactional activity of this sort in order for the markets to remain dynamic and liquid. So... in a sense, THATS, the "service" traders and betters are contributing to the system. Hey! It's just money. ...hopefully, YOUR, money, and not mine. Nothing personal! For some inexplicable reason, I don't think I personally would feel comfortable advertising the acquisition of such a skill set on my gravestone. But by all means, have fun with your "buckets of money." Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson svjart.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/newvortex/
