He thought it would block the security camera from recording his dumb mug (he had tested the idea with a Polaroid camera...I'm guessing the shine from his face reflected the flash).

In other words, he was an idiot who didn't understand he was too stupid to be a successful bank robber.

Dunning and Kruger wrote about him in their 1999 paper -- Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments.

While McArthur was a ding dong, there are a lot of smart people the over-estimate their trading skills and blow up their account (put yours truly on that list...I blew up three in the 90's).

My buddy told me about his cousin who was day trading the S&P 500.

His technique was to trade in the opposite direction of a gap (long gap downs, short gap ups). I told him that I have 100% certainty that he'll lose all his money.

He did.

I told everyone the same thing when the Meme Stock craze hit. I had already gone through the Internet bubble and it was exactly the same thing 20 years later.

Different ticker symbols, same frenzy, same outcome.

I hear all the time about people having low self esteem, and how that's a problem in our culture...when the opposite is true.

The biggest problem I see -- especially in trading -- is being over-optimistic.

You'll see a trader read a book or two on stock trading, then think they're a genius...only to have their ass handed to them by Mr. Market.