Yea incredibly hard to do so consistently. Those that do (the hedge funds) have the security of the ~2% fixed fee they earn to weather the periods when the returns are not there aka "others peoples money".

>> Yep, it’s amazing how many people seem to get sucked in by the idea you can reliably make money as a solo/small trading operation.

You can right!? You can make beta. Sometimes the beta is negative. Hard to make alpha.

Everyone that bought and held on the up movement this week is a legendary "Trader".

You can if you have an enormous pile of cash. Then you can pat yourself on the back for making a few $k per month (which would only be a couple % apy) for acting like a quant when you could make the same amount in bonds.