If you trade reasonably you won't lose a bunch even on bad days and you'll probably do well. The amazing thing is how many people don't trade reasonably.

I used to be amazed when I started trading how many people would talk about massive losses and how the stock market was terrible and all this and all that. I always thought they just sucked at making decisions. I mean it couldn't be that bad, could it? Just don't risk it all at one time? Only take trades you believe in, with research to back you up?

Then recently I've started reading some of the things people post on this site: trading options before knowing what the difference between a covered call or put and a naked one is, throwing 50%+ of their portfolio in weekly OTM strikes a mile away, taking positions with their entire portfolio + margin in one stock before earnings, selling 30k worth of PCS to collect nickels on the dollar...

And I realized that yeah, the market absolutely gets a bad name simply because they do in fact suck at managing money.