Souperman, I too have recently observed this. One person in my circle of acquaintances is a stock daytrader and another is a forex trader; in the previous 56 years of life I have known zero full-time trader/speculators. This is one of the signals of a market top; everybody and his brother wants in on the "easy money".

This situation also confirms Kunstler's assertion that the finacial sector of the economy has replaced the productive sectors that once anchored American prosperity.

I'm sorry to see this, as latecomers/novices usually end up as the bagholders...

PLAN, PLANt, PLANet
Errol in Miami

The local hot dog man in front of the Home Depot here several weeks ago was talking about ARM's and how surprised everyone would be when they were triggered,

A young girl in my local supermarket told me, a month ago, she was quitting her job as a cashier there to do full time options trading and gave me a WWW link so I could do it if I liked.

About the productive end of N.American economy I have German car a Japanese fridge, Japanese laptop, a British motorcycle, the gears on my bike are Japanese as well as who knows what else on it, but I think it was assembled in the US. My guitar was 'handcrafted' in China. About the only two things I have I am positive were manufactured in the US are a pair of 20 year old fruit tree pruners (marked drop forged USA) and a brand new construction hammer of which this must be leftover from the housing boom.

Thanks for responding ya'all
I think it is much bigger than anyone knows.

Just found this at Mish's site;

Japanese Housewives vs. Global Alpha

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/

Tens of thousands of married Japanese women ventured into online currency trading in the last year and a half, playing the markets between household chores or after tucking the children into bed.