I just read a book about the financial collapse by Michael Lewis called "Short". It made me realize how much trading is like gambling. The same traits are necessary. This explains why my mother could care less about stocks; she'd have rather had a savings account, but my father loved his broker (by that I mean he loved shouting at his broker on the phone). When they went to Vegas or Reno my mother would play only the slot machines, and when she hit a jackpot, she plowed it all into her purse and stopped playing. As kids, my brother and I loved it when she'd bring back all these quarters or dollar coins and give us a few. We were rich, rich, rich! I usually spent it on ceramic figurines from Woolworth's. I'm pretty sure those cats and dogs would be worth a fortune by now (well, okay, actually valueless). My brother no doubt bought candy or baseball cards (which could be worth a lot if he still had them). My father, however, played at the tables, and you could tell by his mood whether he'd won or lost. But my bet is he lost often, because he loved to play. His daring made him a great businessman - he could see the game, not just the facts. But it had a tinge of addiction in it.
Luckily, I inherited my mother's disinterest in making money. I am certain I will lose, and that means down to winning the raffle at Trader Joe's. I have never bought a lottery ticket, because I know it will simply pad the wallet of a complete stranger. Luck will not be a lady for me any night. My mother's family was so poor they never had any money. They ate okay, because they had a farm, but no cash. So my mother thought security was growing your own food and animals. My father, on the other hand, was haunted by the depression in the worst way: his dad lost the family home, and he and his parents and brother often went hungry, as his dad worked in Montgomery Ward's and his mom had lost her teaching job. So I think he saw gambling as what the smart guys did, while the chumps got taken. He wanted to be sure he knew what side he was on.
Nowadays, everyone seems to be a chump, and the ways in are closed. The brokers and banks are playing a game that won't let an ordinary person in - they withhold information and act in their own interests, not their customers. There is no ethics or pretense of it. Being fearless, or taking risks no longer matter, because there is no one to trust. We're all hoping Obama sets some regulations, and protects us chumps, but it's like Fay Wray fighting King Kong (no surprise this movie was made in the depression). It may be that the banks are too big to wrestle. But I'd like to see our government try. Because we've cleaned up and straightened our path before in our history, and we're so off course now we need a whole lot of Lady Luck to get back on track. I'd like to be trusting enough to think like dad - that a person could win with enough diligence and smarts. No cheating allowed. I am old enough to remember when most people felt the cards weren't stacked against them. I'd like to think my children and grandchildren have a fair playing field and somebody is protecting their interests. End of soapbox!
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