I don't understand item #2. Do you mean, using a broker in your trading activities? You don't need your own broker when you trade in exchanges. Since you really don't know the people doing the trading, and that's given already, you should know when to get in and when to get out. If you are trapped in a pump and dump schemes and getting in the wrong time, you will be a bag holder of useless coins. You need to understand the coin before plunging into the unknown.
I think he means losing money on localbitcoins as well as on exchanges. When you think of the number of exchanges that have been hacked, usually by an insider, it's shocking. MtGox, Cryptsy, Mintpal, BTC-E, Binance, those two Japanese exchanges, and so on.
Back in the early days when lots of trades took place on this forum between trusted members (trading based on personal reputation and feedback), it was actually safer. Trusting an exchange is a complete leap of faith as most of us do not know all the employees and lots of shady stuff goes down behind closed doors.