These are the 7 main reasons:
motivation:
It is very different whether you are trading for yourself or offering a service for customers. In my opinion the service for others results in a much higher motivation, even if the standard capitalistic ideology ("maximize the individual benefit") is advocating the opposite. Working for others is also a good strategy to cope with one's own negative feelings (fear and greed). Besides, if a private trader makes a huge profit he won't receive positive feedback, the same success is usually honored in the case of a market letter editor.
---improvement by offering a service
With the help of my customers I'd never have come so far, the questions, suggestions and criticism have contributed a lot to develop and refine the methods and I have really learnt a lot in this dialogue. It may sound paradox but in my experience the best way to learn something inside out is to teach it, a lot comes back if you give out information.
---being a "guru", public & media presence:
I freely admit: I enjoy lectures, conferences, radio shows and TV interviews a lot... a private trader is practically invisible for the public and this certainly makes a big difference, at least for the ego (see also media page). Through the Amanita forecasts an estimated $100 billion dollar or euro capital are influenced, there are about 7000 subscribers of the free Amanita newsletter, including many analysts, financial advisors, and fund managers.
---opportunity to be an entrepreneur:
Editing a market letter has offered me the opportunity to found and run a company which has been my goal from my youth on and also the reason I chose to study business administration (see also team). Needless to say that a private trader doesn't have this opportunity.
---contacts & insider information:
I do also offer personal astrological consultations that are nicely complementing the typical bureau routine sitting in front of the PC and are therefore diversify the professional routine (direct customer contact). Many customers have found the way to me over the market letter and I have been able to forge links with very interesting people all over the world (analysts, fund mangers etc.). Some of these contacts provide invaluable insider information you don't get anywhere else.
---financial side:
I was traded the markets at the age of 15... I founded Amanita Forecasting immediately after I completed my business administration studies and invested all my money (and the earnings of the first few years) into the company, this projected definitely earned the highest yield. But even now I had to earn a return of hundreds (!) of percent each year in order to earn as much as by selling the market letter - needless to say, this is a completely unrealistic goal. In other words, my income solely by being active in the market without subscription fees would be just a fraction. Or to put it that way: the market activities are a nice extra income.
---"information duty" towards the public:
I have spent many years researching the illuminati who want to establish a global police state (the New World Order NWO) and to defraud people of their money. For me it's a kind of 'duty' to the best of my knowledge and belief to warn readers in order to avert the planned police state.