http://hi.baidu.com/nasd/blog/item/c396a9ed7baf574d79f0555f.html

一本介紹NASDAQ曆史的書

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書中摘錄：

A Businees Like any Other

Small-Business Owners, already used to operating freely, were particularly attracted to day trading. One West Coast day trader described how he got his start after he grew tired of the photography business. "Photography is a kind of feat or famine business," he recalls. "you make good money whey you're busy. But then when it slows down you go crazy." That trader, incidentally, went on to make hundreds of thousands in the market-more than he could probably hope to earn as a photographer.

Yet on another level, there are interesting similarities between photography and day trading. Both are male-dominated professions. Both professions also tend to attract free-spitited, creative types. In addition, both professions require a similar amount of start up capital. A professional photographer would likely need $30,000 to $50,000 in start-up capital to purchase lenses, lights, and other studio equipment. Day traders often began with a similar amount. Assuming that a photographer billed his time at $1,000 or more per working day, it was relatively easy to see a 300 to 400 percent annual return on that investment. Day traders hoped for similar returns.

Many in the financial community questioned whether such returns were possible, however, even in a raging bull market. A study by the National Association of Securities Dealers(NASD), for example, found that 77 percent of day traders lost money. Those who did not earned just $22,000 over an eight-month period. To reach its findings, researchers examined the records of 124 traders and found only two cases where earnings reached $100,000 or more. Because of finds like these, the Securities and Exchange Commision(SEC)mounted a campaign of its own on its Website, warning newcomers about the dangers of day trading. "Day traders typically suffer severe financial losses in their first months of trading, and many never graduate to profit-making status," the warnings read. "Day trading is an extremely stressful and expensive full-time job." These assertions, however, ignored the fact that day trading was a relatively new phenomenon. Nearly all new businesses of any kind lose money at the start. And the great Majority ultimately fail. In addition, thousands of professional traders regularly wracked up profits for themselves and their firms using the same tactics and tools used by day traders.