The Average Joe shouldn't be "trading." But the individual trader absolutely has certain advantages over hedge funds and large institutions. One of the biggest is that the average individual trader can move the needle without establishing large positions. This often makes it possible for the individual trader to take positions in securities that larger players couldn't invest in even if they wanted to (and no, I'm not talking Pink Sheets issues).

There are of course lots of reasons many individual traders are not successful. Lack of discipline and poor money management are far bigger contributors to individual trader failure than lack of dedicated staff and institutional tools.