Speculation...

I got caught up in a guilty pleasure of mine tonight. Currency trading. I have an account that pretty much sits stagnant right now because I simply don't have the ability to sit and take the time to trade effectively. After watching an hour long seminar presentation, some things confirmed my belief about who really has control of so many things. It's not us, the little guy.

A particular indicator of price movement in the typical stock market is your volume, or number of open positions in any given stock or traded item. In the currency market each company has to compile their own data because currencies aren't traded in one centralized location like the stock exchanges. Blah blah blah...

In this presentation one of the audience asked why the company doesn't offer this data 'streaming' to their clients. His answer was quite simply, "well, we'd lose our edge in the market so we have to have something to keep to ourselves. We offer just enough to give a value to our clients." (I'm sort of paraphrasing that but it's the gist of what was said.)

It's frustrating to trade without actual real news that isn't filtered. It would make life so much easier if I could see in real time what was happening on the trading floors and within the walls of bank conference rooms. If I could scalp a half a percentage of what a major corporation plays with I'd be able to buy out a mid-sized manhattan skyscraper.

If a nobody like me had access to valuable information to make trading even slightly more in my favor, what would someone with a little more leverage than me be able to do? We'd all become millionaires. Except where would the money come from if there were no losers in the market? The reasons casinos are still in business is because they have the advantage. Even if it's only a one percent gain, it's enough to keep the tables from turning.

The reality is, to make a living or create a fortune out of something such as currency trading, it takes a hell of a lot more effort than simply choosing the right direction of the market. Luck may get you through to the next level but hard work always prevails. Hindsight is a bitch when you see a market move that could have made you a thousand percent. What keeps me interested is the fact that in hindsight of past jobs and ventures, I could have spent a little more time doing something better with myself so that when I look to something such as currency trading, desire for riches isn't even close to being on the list of deciding to make a move or not.

Whether we dig ditches for a living or hedge super-funds, success comes from the same place. If we base it on a dollar amount neither avenue will work. If we base it on the little fire inside us that is dying for something better in this world, success will inevitably come when we least expect it.