And the devil's advocate here...
It can be argued that those that drop out of med school after one semester 'failed' as doctors as well.
My point being that while the barrier to trading is simply cash, I would think that if you were to examine those that treat this as a full-time business vs. the 'hobbyist' your results would be very different.
A full-time business owner will:
- Realize this is a 40+ hour work week in the beginning
- Realize that creating a steady stream of income will take many months, probably years
- Realize that while any new business is difficult, you have to fight thru the most difficult times
- Take ownership for their business and blame noone but themselves
A casual hobbyist will:
- Think this is a get rich quick program
- Blame everyone, everything BUT themselves for failure
- Give up after a very short period of time
Now, if you were to track the stats of true business owners vs. hobbyists from the beginning, I believe the stats in the end would show the owners having a higher % of those in profit. Of course there will be owners that fail and hobbyists who happen to make it, but the majority will favor the owners in the end.
It's just frustrating to read a stat where everyone is lumped into one pile. I am not a casual hobbyist. This is what I do for a living. I trade. I don't do anything else for my income and wealth creation. Take my stats and put them up against someone that trades when they have the time and really don't need the trading thing to work out and I would venture to say that over the long haul, I'll still be here years from now when the hobbyist is off looking for the next get rich quick scheme.
I'm not disagreeing Pivot, just venting some frustration with how these calculations are done.