[o0o0o]

> The nicest houses I know are owned by traders who know how to use technical analysis

That's a good point. Best traders know how to use technical analysis, they just don't use it to invest their own money.

[TheOtherHobbes]

This is the correct answer. Selling "advice" and managing portfolios is by far the easiest legal way to make money on the markets.

There was a newsworthy situation in the UK a couple of years ago where a star manager crashed and burned. He locked his trading account, with everyone's money still in it, and continued charging fees.

Apparently this is quite legal.

[Ekaros]

I always found it strange. You get to charge money win or lose. And then take percentage winnings... No wonder low fee index funds made so much sense...

[ProjectArcturis]

Back when there were 20 hedge funds, all managed by geniuses, it was rational to pay for uncorrelated outperformance. Now there are 6000 hedge funds, but there aren't 6000 geniuses.

[mcguire]

This is a key point. The best way to make money in the stock market is to do it with other people's money.