[wallstquant]

You must not be considering the total return of all your wealth just a limited subset. If you started with 10k and earned 300% (138.6% continuously compounded) then after 5 years you will have over $10mm. Wait another 3.3 years and you're a billionaire...

[paulie_a]

I was simply stating I have a substantially higher return than the pros. I've used that money for other purposes. for instance buying American airlines the day they went bankrupt allowed me to pay off a medical bill for a surprise medical emergency. But in that case it was literally 1000 percent return. I bought a bit of their stock the morning they went bankrupt. AMD is also an incredibly easy one to profit one. Wall Street might like to short sell on them to my benefit. From 3 dollars a share to 28 with incredibly predictable highs and lows for two decades. If I had the cash in college I could have been a millionaire by making ten trades a week on that one stock. The pros suck. I beat them year over year vs my managed retirement fund. It's pathetic.

[selectodude]

>for instance buying American airlines the day they went bankrupt allowed me to pay off a medical bill for a surprise medical emergency.

Good job, you got into the same short-squeeze opportunity everybody else did that morning.

[paulie_a]

Be sarcastic, but quite a few pros claimed it was a terrible investment. Same thing has been happening with amd. It's incredibly low hanging fruit. I just wasn't able to or decided not to reinvent the profits. My original point stands, the pros are terrible at their job. If you can't beat the rate of inflation in a multi billion dollar fund get a new job, despite all the fancy pointless tech.

[macspoofing]

>My original point stands, the pros are terrible at their job.

They are. Because no one can be good at that job. I think that's the part you're missing. You're deluding yourself that you've figured out a strategy for making money in a way that you beat the relevant market index consistently.

[selectodude]

It was a terrible investment until they filed for bankruptcy and the stock went to 10 cents. Just because it went back up to a dollar because of everybody needed to close out their short positions doesn't mean the professionals were somehow wrong. They were making a killing, too.