op: yes you are wasting your time. sorry to be blunt. for you, don't trade, just get a full time job and do "investing" with your 401k.
Speculation and investing are a journey. You never “solve your problem: yes or no, there is no gray.” You just keep moving forward. The better question would have been, did those resources help him move forward faster?
I suppose it all boils down to how you define progress/moving forward. My point is that it's easy to discover something (either a specific technique or guru), become enthusiastic and really feel you're moving forward - only to later on discover it was a dead end. Of course - learning trading is just as much about discovering what doesn't work, so you could mark that off as progress, too. At the end of the day learning the markets is a problem solving quest and endless study/research for the lone trader. Without a mentor to guide you forward that's just how it is for most people attempting to master this. One of the pitfalls in trading is that there actually are unsuccessful traders who pose as successful and offers to 'mentor' other traders for free. Been quite a few of them here on ET.
The goal should be to earn a living from a diversify sources...not just by day trading. A person will be less likely be exposed to the risk of ruin. I think people get too consumed with day trading that they forget there are other income sources outside of trading or outside of the markets that they should be equally involved with...e.g. investing. wrbtrader
However, @Tall Mike was asking us if someone could make a good living day trading with $100K capital. Not that I disagree with you because I do agree but a different point of view is if you only need a fraction of your trading profits for living expenses and can compound the rest as a rainy day fund, you don't need multiple income stream.
One of the skills of a good trader is recognizing those pitfalls. One of the skills of a good businessman is finding good mentors. Many consider trading to be a business......