Social internet is complex, downright weird and quite scary in recent times. I don't think I've witnessed anything like what's been going on in the last year.
As I think someone else said, there's a bit of a problem when it comes to content on the internet. It is impossible to know the truth of anything you read. You have to guess to some degree whether what you have infront of you is honest, and what it's motives are. I think what we are seeing is something of a step change in learned behaviour from certain groups, while the others have not yet adapted their approach to it. There is growing scepticism when it comes to reading posts, but nothing like enough yet. Ultimately, is that a sphere that is pleasant to roam?
Saying that, you might make a decent argument that this could just be a standard developmental social net cycle, where eventually the party is spoilt by certain elements that no longer make it a positive and productive place to hang out (betfair forum 13+ years ago).
As a glass half full user of social sites, I have, thankfully, met some brilliant people who have made a big difference to my life, socially and work wise, and I have tried my best to feed that back into the system. So without wanting to sound like someone who says - don't trade this market because it's full of people doing this or that and you cannot possibly win - my message would be, sure go ahead, give 'social' your best shot, but be aware of risks, a. b. and c, and arm yourself with x amount of very thick skin.
And this is the crux with a couple of recent happenings. It's half empty / half full. Your personalised opinion on other people's dreams and hopes, counts for zero, unless of course, it's somehow important to 'you'. If you are a speaker of sense and knowledge, you advise, and say thanks for stopping by and good luck. People don't have to read what you write (an increasingly powerful tool everyone should employ at will). If some people are winning, then people will try themselves. Not everyone will win, but (warning: fluffy BS) to try and to fail (and learn) is progress.
There's some disconnects here. Most people do not win, so why is the World not full of angry people saying you can only win if your edge is unethical or you had surivorship bias on your side? It's because they are still trying, or they have healthy respect for competitiveness, hard work and knowledge they have not yet learned, or they've sensibly hung up their boots on that pursuit and said 'too good'. Or they accept everyone's right to try (and progress), and equally, that some people might outperform themselves. The majority of people are decent - but they are also, not as loud with their voices.
There are other social side effects. Scepticism becomes a weapon of mass boredom in some hands, everything becomes questionable, 'oh you thought that afterwards did you?' 'Didn't you say this 5 minutes ago and now you say xxxxx?' '6183 days ago you said something different', etc etc People tend to think they own you, if you don't reply they get frustrated, and changing your mind on something becomes less socially acceptable by the day. No coincidence perhaps the better discretionary traders are very adept at changing their minds. Thankfully, I have nothing to sell, no one pays me money for any services, I have no obligation. I do feel for Peter in this regard.
I have come to realise that it is a channel for ego stroking, big and small, even the most innocuous of posts can be indulgent, myself included and guilty. More profoundly for me lately, internet social has lost any sense of 'real', and has no relevance on real life, those pushing bad vibes and lies, would like you to think otherwise. Like the playground clique that invents it's own rules, away from the bike shed, normal life really does continue, and it contains family members, nice food, music, games and actual stuff! They can stick to their bike shed and waste their time.
Speaking of which, 99.9% of the time, I'm learning nothing, just trawling through stuff, slowly whittling down my own physical senses as I go. It's joyless.
When it loses it's sense, it ceases to be sensible or healthy to continue reading it, as much as it is tempting to be the moth flailing around a flame. Respect to those that didn't sign up to it, my new definition of intelligent! And my goodness you must have so many more automated strategies.
So, like I said, go ahead, give it your best shot
Did I mention the best traders are also contradictory of themselves.. big up jollyg, letiss, dallas, euler, andy fuller and the rest of the good eggs... whom, I'm sure, have tried and failed (and unashamedly given up where appropriate) many things before reaching success at whatever it is they succeed at.
There's no point to anything is there?
Does he need the money? No, but he likes it, and he likes to win!
