[srckinase123]

Thanks for laying out the logic so coherently.

The comments by Martin Shkreli I was referring to are actually in the video that you linked. The subtlety in Shkreli's comment is that he was referring to amassing "fortunes". That is where he states that amassing fortunes most likely requires using "other people's money". Which makes sense.

He cites Joe Lewis as an example of a solo investor going from "zero to hero", but I would not say he was strictly an "investor" as he was a currency trader. Also, he had initial wealth from a luxury goods business.

Just for curiosities sake, do you know of any examples of retail investors amassing sizable amount of money starting from very little?

[ericjang]

I don't know of role-model investors / traders who amassed a fortune in a short amount of time, starting from a small amount of capital, without borrowing money. There are of course cases like /u/DeepFuckingValue turning a few hundred grand into tens of millions with his massively bullish GME position, but in general, taking this much risk on almost guarantees that you are blow up in a few years.

I agree with Shkreli: if you want to "amass a fortune in a short amount of time" AND do so without taking on an unreasonable level of risk, then doing so with cheap cost-of-capital (e.g. investing friends&family wealth, using insurance float, gift cards) is the way to go.

But "making 10s of millions quickly" is a different statement than "active trading is not worth the effort".