/biz/ - Business & Finance

>Start autistically tuning my opteron 6276 server and kernel
>Manage to hit 7KHs
We are reaching unparalleled levels of FAST now

It seems to me that in order to succeed at daytrading, you really have to feel like it is just a game. The moment you fear losing money, you're gonna end up fucked. This guy, it seems to me, is juggling numbers. Stocks aren't pieces of companies to this guy, they're a ticker which has a monetary value assigned to it. A blip on his screen. I also feel that he views money in a completely different light than the rest of us mere mortals. It's just numbers in an account to him. Props to him, but I doubt I have the ability or mental fortitude to pull stunts like this.

If like 90% of fund managers who graduated top ivy league schools, have a shitton of analysts, resources, funding and experience to back them up cannot consistently beat the market, what drives people to participate in the stock market instead of just parking their funds in 3-5 index funds and calling it a day? Aren't there distributing ETFs as well, so "dividends" doesn't really hold up as an argument?

I'm asking because I want to invest a large sum and have familiarized myself with the markets, but I am unsure what to do. Pick dividend aristocrats/kings or a few ETFs? I plan to buy and hold. I think I'm probably going to go with a mixture of both, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this plan.