If chess players are so smart why they are not millionaires/billionaires?

All this talk about market strategies and "wise" investing is just silly bourgeois nonsense.

Simple tip:  Just make so much money that you can do whatever you want without worry, and just live your life.

Don't get me wrong, I do occasionally try to time the market.  When it swings up I rebalance to favour cash a little more so if it swings down I have some sheltered money to redeploy, and when I have cash sometimes I sit on it in anticipation of a downturn I think may be coming.  But I do this through rebalancing (and adjusting my definition of balance slightly), not as an all-or-none strategy, and underpinning it all is the persistent bi-monthly contribution.  If I get it wrong, it costs me a percentage point or two on my return rate for that year, not the whole farm.

Get rich strategy: get rich.

Buy pawns low, sell queens high.

If you want to play and have a little more control, set aside a little mad money with the understanding that it's all at risk and might simply be lost....There is nothing more motley foolish as this.

Grobe....I'm trying to help you here....And Suzie's really good - but she's also preaching to the sheeple.

Better yet, convert all your pawns to queens....you get about 9x on your value........

....an all-or-none strategy,

I haven't said anything about going all-in or coming all-out. But, depending on the market, it may mean putting in, who knows, 10-40% at any one time. I average down in high %'s, but rarely average up.

Have you noticed ?....We are starting to get retail talk (ads, media, emails, etc.) about "Now's the time to get in the market or This stock's gonna be a high flyer !"....Well, you've just heard the 1st warning shots over your head. Did you hear that 2 years ago ?

I predict you'll be able to buy this market at least 10%+ lower from where it is right now by October 1st. Now, if only we could rid all the short players out, then this market would stop artificially driving to new highs.

That's a lot of cash to be sitting idle, even in a bull market like this.  You may be right about Oct 1st, I'll buy in then too just as I am now.

Short selling, by the way, is an important peice of the market dynamic.  I was appaled when they banned it in 2008.  Markets self correct, the problem has been opacity and obfuscation (in the case of sub-prime morgage  budnling into mortgage backed securities precipitating the 2008 crash, it was largely the macro-economic housing market risk that was obfuscated and not understood by those investing).  Short selling, in and of itself, actually provides transparency and clarity to a market.  In my opinion t's the increasingly complicated instruments that need a closer look.

I like short selling 'cuz it creates volatility........but that doesn't make it healthy for the markets.

Only a fool reasons putting $ in this topped-out market by saying, "Well, I can't get any return from T-bills, CD's, bonds....so put it in the market....So, utilities !....yeah I'll buy some utilities....they pay a steady 4%" (watch their stock price drop when the market does followed by a dividend cut).

And if you're using your company to "average-in", make sure they're putting it in immediately. Co.'s will withhold it and use it for a short-term loan to itself (it can be up to 3 mo's....is that illegal ?....I've heard not) So watch out....if the co. goes bust in the interim, you'll be scrambling.

There are co'.s on WS that openly declare themselves as market timers (believe me, they all do it, they just don't say - taboo). And they are very profitable.

IMO, frothy markets tend to be fixed. Whereas pummeled markets tend to be more honest.

If you really believed the market was topped out you could always short sell.

The problem is that there is a fallacy in your statement: Smart = Rich is incorrect. Additionally, chess intellect is different from business intelligence.

There's a big difference between a hunch and a belief. A hunch is red and a belief is green ($). Somewhere in between the two (mix them) you get a brown....which may as well be yellow (caution !).

Right now, I think the market is reaching for a 2000 S&P.  My hunch is that it gets there....oh, probably more so than not. Then it backs off....patience my dear Grobe....patience........ 

I'm pleased with my strategy and with the results.

Johnmusacha was being facetious, but there was a good point underlying his post.  Make yourself as marketable as possible.  Upgrade your skills, and make sure that they're marketable skills.  From there, find work that pays well so you have the disposible income to invest in the first place regardless of your investment strategy.

Hint: Chess skills are not very marketable.

....no, but it's sure fun !

And yeah, investing is just passive income. Work skills #1. And when I'm a wrinkled raisin wearing oversized sunglasses and too old to work, hopefully I'll have enuf passive income........

dinheiro é importnte mas o ser humano não deve aprender só por dinheiro

This is true, however the question is all about wealth.

....and that's exactly how big $ WS firms see it. They trade. So, do what they do - not what they say.

They know if they manage their losses their wins will take care of themselves. Insurance. That's why derivatives are so popular amongst them....and like you say, complicated. 

Anatoly Karpov is rumored to be worth over $1B. His reported income in 2013 was $46M.

http://en.mediamass.net/people/anatoly-karpov/highest-paid.html

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2007/07/billionaire-world-champion.html

If chess players are so stupid, how did he get all that?????

Here is an interesting article dealing with the poor, struggling professional chessplayer.

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2008/03/chess-playing-billionaires.html

(How do they live?????)

Another example where a trading instrument or methodology (in this case, high frequency trading, which I also belive provides a valuable service to the market) tends to get confused with the deliberate opacity around said activity (the dark pools themselves):

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/06/25/n-y-attorney-general-to-accuse-barclays-of-fraud-over-dark-pools/

Markets should be 100% transparent, and all instruments and automations should be available within that framework to maximize liquidity and market efficiency.  This includes computational trading and short selling among many others.