You see it on Instagram all the time... charlatans hawking 'trading systems' on equities, options, fx, etc. They're targeting people who want to 'take control o

You see it on Instagram all the time... charlatans hawking 'trading systems' on equities, options, fx, etc. They're targeting people who want to 'take control of their lives.' Trading is like professional sports: once in the while a natural comes around, but for most, it's a great way to lose buckets of cash. Even for traders' with a gift, it takes about three years to develop a kind of market sense or intuition. Then there are the markets themselves: with low-latency and HFT, you're almost never in control. You can only hope your algo is close to one the other traders are using. I especially love those flim-flam artists--hawking FX futures trading as a way to financial independence--their own usually. FX markets are controlled largely by central banks who don't always let the market know what they're doing and includes some of the world's most capitalized banks. It's hard to know what to do in a market with all of these massive external forces. Most importantly, the markets have evolved over the last 15 years to a point where if you're not low-touch, you're going to lose. Having said this, last year I beat the S&P soundly. It was a good year. It did take a minimum of 60 hours a week and was a stressful roller coaster at times. This year... forget it. With one of the least stable administrations in place, the market can reverse direction multiple times in a day. You'd better be automated for that.