It's probably no different than traders who take huge risks in any kind of financial market. They probably feel like they have a better understanding of the risks than most other market participants, but when they fail it always retrospectively appears like an outsized risk to more moderated participants.
I think many traders are likely neurological outliers. Even as an entrepreneur, I can’t take investment until I know I’m on a really sure wicket and investors are as appraised as I am of all the risks involved. I know I could not handle the pressure associated with daily trading others’ money.
I think there's a huge difference between risking bankruptcy and risking your freedom. I mean, even leaving aside the traders who trade other people's money, even if it's your cash, once you were rich, even if you go bankrupt, you are still better off than tha vast majority of Americans, just due to your contacts and education. I mean, the difference between being a rich trader and being a mediocre IT dude are way smaller, say, than the differences between being a mediocre IT dude and being in jail.
(I actually know a few guys who went the failed trader -> IT dude route)
The risks involved in that were well understood. The Count of Monte Cristo is set a little late, but it's got a good treatment of the phenomenon.
Here's an interesting passage from Power and Plenty:
> in 1594 a "Company of Far Lands" was organized by a group of Amsterdam merchants, and a fleet of four ships sent to the eastern seas, returning in 1597 with the loss of one ship and many lives but with enough pepper for the voyage to be regarded as a success. With this encouragement, two fleets with a total of twenty-two ships left in 1598, one of which, commanded by Jacob van Neck, returned with eight ships and sufficient spices to turn a profit of 400%, causing the bells of Amsterdam to peal with joy.
Today, sending out 26 ships and getting 11 of them back might not be a cause for celebration in the city that sent them out. This is the industry that gave rise to modern insurance companies.
