There’s an amazing community here on profit.ly,  where traders from all over the world share stories, watchlists, trading journals and profits. The idea of this site is simply amazing, and I’ve been using it ever since I started dreaming about a potential trading career as well.

Recently I wrote about how trading is a negative sum game.

The principle of the theory is that for every trader that wins an amount of money, there is another trader that loses at least that same amount of money.

If I want to be profitable in this world, that means that someone else needs to be at least equally unprofitable.

That idea makes daytrading a pretty strange game. In a way, its goal is nothing more than taking a person’s money by risking some of  your own. Once you’ve done that, you’ve made some bank and then what..? Have you made the world a better place? Have you build something? Have you helped another person?

No.

You only managed to win some money, at the cost of somebody else. Ethically, this concept is just as bad as going to the casino. But still people think of trading as some elite sport, that only the smartest and brighest of people can be succesful at.

Why I’m saying this, is that it’s actually super strange to congratule another trader on his or her profits. That’s because we all know by now that these profits have been caused by another person’s losses, and it’s not unlikely that you are that person.

I see a lot of times that people are congratulating succesful traders on profit.ly, like Tim Sykes or Supertrades. Then, I have a look at the profits of the persons that are congratulating them, and there are none. No profits. Only losses.

I can understand how you want to cheer for someone who beats the market day in day out, as he/she is some sort of role model. However, I don’t understand how you can congratulate someone when it’s obvious that these profits are partially caused by your own losses.

In my opinion, it’s the same as if during World War II, the allied forces would congratulate the Nazis for each battle they’ve won, or for each soldier they’ve killed. They’d be like ‘Hey guys, congratulations on killing a big part of our army , awesome play!’.

Wouldn’t that be fucking strange? War is a great example of a negative sum game as well.

Therefore, I don’t mind if I see other people post losses on profit.ly or twitter. It’s actually they who allow me to ever be profitable. In essence, every trader that is unprofitable increases my chance of becoming a profitable trader.

That’s why I think we should all cheer for the losses that other people post.

But that would make for a very strange situation as well, right? If you think about it, it’s  actually not very strange at all. Daytrading is a constant battle between traders. You simply need to beat the rest in order to be profitable.

I hope I haven’t scared you off with this blogpost. These are only my thoughts and opinions, and I hope to start a discussion this way. I do sincerely hope you can be profitable as well, as long as I can be profitable in the first place

So good luck out there. Kick some ass.

As long as it’s not mine!