who makes money tradng stocks

[SauRoNZA]

Yeah, it is pretty crazy. To have a positive expectation at all is very very hard. There is usually a fundamentally incorrect presumption built in when someone does well on demo accounts or even real accounts over the short term.

Oh no I'm fully aware that demo isn't real purely because I know I would get too emotive with real money.

Not to mention the deeper technical issue like trades not going through in time etc.

I would be very wary of getting information from this type of source. Probably the biggest factor to be aware of is survivorship bias - the people who you know trade the stuff, do so because they've been successful. Those who haven't been successful, don't do it anymore, and therefore don't talk about it or even identify as traders - this is probably a much larger group than the former. Also, in my experience, the day trader types who say that they're doing well, say this on their up months, and just say nothing on their down months, creating a perception bias in those they talk to. More than likely these guys are on average losing or breaking even, and have alternative sources of income that actually makes up their livelihood.

I'm always weary and also aware that it takes a special character to really make it work.

The one guy I've know for many many years and he is quite forthcoming about losses. At the same time he also never tried to convert anyone else into doing it and is very modest.

The others are much like you say and often there's an underlying sales pitch to join them.