Can I have a precise and constructive answer on whether trading is really worth spending time on? My brother wants to do this job for a living, and I'm just curious if it's a dignified, worth-spending occupation. I don't know where to ask, I don't understand technical analysis; when he explains it to me I feel it's some sort of gambling strategy.
I've used to read experts' discussions, papers, books and the like, but I find no such stuff on trading. It's a very vague term anyway. Are there really people who just "buy low and sell high", making a living by just doing that? I can't comprehend how can a person seriously make a living by something that looks complete gambling, instead of providing goods, services, work etc.
It is not as weird as it may seem at first sight, lets take a look at supermarkets, super markets do not really produce any of the products they sell and instead they just offer them to the public at a convenient place and they earn a profits from it, so while they are not providing products they are providing a service.
But what service traders provide? They provide liquidity to the markets and make the process of price discovery, the process in which we determine the price of everything, more smooth, some can earn money from the activity but they are a minority as the majority are not good enough to do this and lose their money to those which have a higher skill level.