Protesting Portrayal of Day Trading
* I just can’t stand it anymore! Why is it that every time day trading is mentioned in the media, there is always a negative bias toward it?
Is there negative coverage of the industry because some mentally unstable person killed his family and then killed people in two day-trading firms? Should we close day-trading firms because of this? If so, I hope that doesn’t mean we should close post offices, churches, hospitals, schools and Jewish community centers.
“Warnings Aside, Day Trading Still an Enticement; 2,000 Expected at Expo” [Sept. 25] says that day traders use “souped-up computers.” Souped-up computers? Is 64 megabytes of RAM and a 17-inch color monitor souped-up? Is having a T1 line souped-up? Does anyone think that day-trading firms are the only companies in the country that have these “souped-up” computers available? Anyone think that the brokerage firms have worse or slower computer configurations?
The same article says that “Regulators have railed against day trading, claiming that trading firms profit by charging for training classes and assessing commissions on each transaction.”
I must be missing something. Is it wrong for firms to train new customers, to help them increase their odds of success, and to charge for their expertise? Are there profitable traders out there that are willing to share their time and expertise for no compensation? Don’t the trading firms benefit if a trader “makes it” and is successful and remains a customer of the firm? As opposed to losing all their trading capital? Is it wrong for the firm to “assess commissions on each transaction” like every brokerage firm in the country does?
And speaking of the brokerage firms, aren’t they the ones that without pleading guilty agreed to fines totaling over $1 billion because of accusations by the SEC that they manipulated stock prices?
I’ve been making a living day trading for over three years. I’ve helped support my family when my wife’s job got downsized. I don’t take advantage of brokerage firms. I just try to catch a trend, and buy high and sell higher.
As far as I can tell, no one that I’ve worked with in the past three years had red horns and carried a pitchfork. We are just people with a passion for trading.
JEFF LANDAU
Sherman Oaks
