What is easier, robbing a bank or trading profitably?

actually begging is quite profitable too. make sure you go some crowded places, make yourself really look pathetic, and sit there whole day doing nothing... can be quite profitable for no work done.

To me key issue is risk V reward.

My maximum risk in Forex is losing my account and time spent. My potential reward is financial independence.

My risk when it comes to robbing a bank is loss of liberty and possibly even life (shoot out, what not). My maximum potential reward is financial independence.

Same upside, very dissimilar downsides.

That said, bankruptcy and electronic burglary are decent, low risk, ways to rob a bank.

LOL, you think you can steal water from the ocean.

Well begging is difficult too. Just imagine, the beggar has to act looking pathetic for the whole day and take some money at the end of the day while professional actors act only for a few hours and get millions.

Trading forex is the better of the two because you still get a chance to recover your losses while robbing a bank gets you many years in jail.

This question misses the point entirely.
Smart people = Can rob a bank successfully and/or make profit in the FX market
Dumb *ucks = Gets caught while robbing a bank and/or blows account while trading FX

Smart Person

1. Robbing a bank:
   1. Already somewhat successful in other endeavors in life, educated.
   2. Gets a blueprint of the bank.
   3. Studies the layout carefully, and determines where to place crew while heist is in progress.
   4. Studies the time the cash reserve leaves the bank
   5. Studies at what times of the year and the day the police respond the slowest to robbery.
   6. Determine the entry time for robbery and also the exit time.
   7. Studies people's psychologies while getting robbed. Tries to use it to advantage.
   8. Studies each robbery gone wrong in a case by case basis and tries to determine what went right.
   9. Stays ahead in the security game by looking at the security market news each day. Looks for latest security devices.
   10. Puts the bank under surveillance for more than a year. Tries to find weak links. Tries to find repeating patterns.
   11. Finally assembles a crew and keeps repeating the heist 1,00 times to perfect it.
   12. The whole crew can do it blindfolded. Each person knows the name of the security guards by heart, knows the name of the managers dog. Can respond to any change in situation.
   13. Assembles weapons, robs the bank. Gets away.

2. Doing FX:
   1. Studies FX forums. Can soon differentiate between noise and signal.
   2. Probably already good in some other field that required probability. Eg: poker, particle physics.
   3. Finds a system with and edge.
   4. Understand the fundamentals and its effects on the prices.
   5. Studies market psychology.
   6. Makes friends with other competent trades (online or real life)
   7. Keeps demoing his system.
   8. Researches his indicators very very well. Can write the code for it blindfolded.
   9. Understand probability very well. Probably understands the whole "Schrodinger's Cat" theory.
   10. Demos for a long time profitably.
   11. Finally gets in the game.
   12. Buys a yacht and is bitching about democrats levying high taxes on caviar.

Dumb Fuck

1. Robs Bank:
   1. Tells all his friend he is going to get rich soon.
   2. Watches "Ocean's 11" and some "Fast and Furious" movies.
   3. Decides to wing it.
   4. Spends great time deciding "what is the best gun to use?"
   5. Convinced that there is a secret holy grail code plan that can be used to rob any bank successfully.
   6. Assembles a crew of friends.
   7. Does not see the need to practice the heist before hand.
   8. Does not have the blueprint.
   9. Has no idea about the bank's vault, safe, location of the surveillance cameras etc.
   10. Tires to do the heist in style.
   11. Spends life sucking another inmates dick.

2. Does FX:
   1. Tells wife it's a good idea to put their life savings in FX.
   2. Watches "Wolf of Wall Street" or "Wall Street" or some dumb Hollywood movie.
   3. Decides he can trade.
   4. Picks a system based on coolness of the name.
   5. Spends a lot of time asking "What is the best indicator?"
   6. Participates in a lot of threads like: "Can we really make money trading or is it too hard?" (Irony! or whatever)
   7. Does not demo.
   8. Loses life savings.
   9. Comes to kid's birthday in ex-wife's house. (Cause she left him and married another guy, but won custody of the child.)

You forget the dirty, disgusting costumes that the beggars have to wear in order to look poor and even the props that they have to wear to look disabled in order to look sympathetic and also have to brave the harsh weather (like -30 degree celcius in the cold in Canada) in rags all day just for a few cents a day

Yes I agree trading fx is a lot easier. At least you are able to stay indoors safe from the harsh elements.

I share your sentiment, the consequences for robbing a bank is triple as compared to the one from trading forex. Tarnished image! Convicted! Isolated from the word social! But in forex just your funds which you can always make up for in way or the other. But I get your point here, not really easy to make profits in forex.

It depends who you are asking ?

Don't overrate intelligence in every facet of life. Smart people fail and "dumb" people can learn from mistakes
just like everyone else.

Worth a glance........

"Time for a pop quiz. Try to solve this problem before reading on. Jack is looking at Anne, but Anne is looking at George. Jack is married but George is not. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person?"
Yes No Cannot be determined
http://kurtkleiner.com/stories/ut.wh...id.things.html

and....
11 Very Smart People Who Have Done Very Dumb Things
http://www.buzzfeed.com/alexnaidus/v...ry-dumb-things

So to answer the original question; in whatever you attempt to do you will pay a price. If you
believe that you're "smart" enough to rob a bank and get by with it, will you be happy living "undercover"
and probably not being able to fully enjoy your new wealth.
And what price are you REALLY willing to pay ? If it takes 5 or 6 years to learn to trade with "exceptional profitability" is that better than the 5 to 20 years you might get (in prison) if your bank plan failed.

idk............ but I DO enjoy my" freedom" such as it is.

Have a great day

Why are you so defensive? Do people call you dumb?

Don't sit here and tell me intelligence isn't important.
Intelligent people invented the computer, sent a man to moon, cured diseases.

Not my experience. If you learn from your mistakes you're already very smart.
Don't underrate intelligence. Intelligence is not book smart. It's adapting and learning.



I read through the article. That article is dumb. If someone misspells "professor" that doesn't mean they are dumb.
Edgar Allan Poe, split his pants paying leapfrog, so that's dumb?

Your pop quiz is worthless.
Solving riddles proves nothing.

My point stands.
The same type of people that make money and can rob banks.
The same type of losers blow accounts and get caught.

I'm off to make pips.
Adieu.

Ba ZING!

lol one of the best responses Ive seen in a while and i think they are the same thing xD

Interesting.. I think it would be EASIER to be a profitable trader, since YOU all have already done it for a living..

Option 1 implies robbing banks is profitable. It is not. There are costs and police is going to put you out of the business fairly quickly.

Option 2 tells that you look to more than single profitable transaction. The same approach has to be applied to bank robbery business.

Rephrase your question into: Where are the better chances of succeeding consistently?

Trading may be tough but the biggest loss to experience - your deposit.