I am 55 this year. I have been trading non-stop for 18 years (except the time I spent in the hospitals). I can tell you that like a good wine you are getting better with age. Day trading or any other trading makes you to watch markets all the time. However, you get more pleasure from making 5 - 8 % a month, every month rather than making 40% one month and losing 30% another. I did not have a losing month since March 2007 and that makes me very happy! I used to be very aggressive; not anymore. I am getting more and more leveled in my emotions and taking small losses as needed is getting much easier. I switched to option strategies from the active day trading of actual futures and stocks, but I am not a "bag holder". Trading is like chess - there is infinite number of winning strategies and there is always a way to improve yours. Constant refinement of your own carefully crafted strategy is a source of constant pleasure (at least for me). This has become my ultimate entertainment, hobby, way of thinking etc. I am getting easily bored at any party when I cannot find somebody who I can talk to about Volatility, Deviations, Deltas and Vegas. My brain constantly requires the exercise and I cannot wait to get back to my daily routine of analyzing the psychology of the markets. It is such a wonderful research lab with "rats", "monkeys" and "dogs" readily available for you to conduct any experiment you want. I love it! MAESTRO
Just look back and consider how much the world has changed over the last 20 years. As a matter of fact, I got into trading 20 years ago. Back then, we didn't even have a color monitor, let alone CD-ROM. And the biggest hard disk sold on the market was 40 MB (that's megabytes, folks!). We've morphed this far in just 20 years. Who knows what could happen in the next 20 years. I have no doubt I'll still be flipping in my sweet ol' 60's. Flip on!
No boss, no schedule that much, pays.. it's the job that don't quit... I'll trade until they pry the mouse from my cold dead fingers...
This thread is awesome, coming from a somewhat (30) still young guy on fire for learning every intricacy of the markets.
I hope my trading account stays alive well into my 65th year and that they will have healthier and more effective versions of viagra on the market.
It's my hope that system/platform vendors will take notice and implement powerful trading systems that is still easy to use for the aging demographics.
Hahaha. Great post. I am pushing 50 and I hope to be able to trade when I am 85 if the machinery runs for that long. I get bored with life if I am away from trading for too long as I too miss playing in the lab with all the animals.