I've been reading through Barry Ritholtz's old articles on TheStreet.com and enjoyed this tidbit from "Apprenticed Investor: Prepare for Battle":A question I ask people who want to become traders (or even pros who want to become fund managers) is this: Do you have the skill set, discipline, temperament, time horizon, strategy and capitalization to enter into the most competitive gladiator ring on planet Earth?Indeed, Ellis! Someone please tell me again why I'm playing this game :)
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Charles Ellis, who oversees the $10 billion endowment fund at Yale University, once observed:
Watch a pro football game, and it's obvious the guys on the field are far faster, stronger and more willing to bear and inflict pain than you are. Surely you would say, 'I don't want to play against those guys!'
Well, 90% of stock market volume is done by institutions, and half of that is done by the world's 50 largest investment firms, deeply committed, vastly well prepared -- the smartest sons of bitches in the world working their tails off all day long. You know what? I don't want to play against those guys either.