I'm your age - been at it going on 15 years. Beats the heck out of the old corporate grind where I put in plenty of 10+ hour days. My wife was a broker for quite a few years so she understands the market. She hates trading but is happy I enjoy it and make enough $$$$ year in and year out to keep at it. So many positives in trading - freedom and ability to set your own hours near the top.
do you guys over 50 find that your mental sharpness has declined and has adversely affected your trading?
your understanding of the game increases which is what you are constantly trying to figure out,you get fooled less often
At 53, I'm much sharper than I was at 21. My mind works much faster and I can calculate odds much quicker than I could before the age of 30. I also have a better understanding of risk than I did back then, and my style has changed since I got out of the pit. However, I owe a lot of it to my exchange buddies who I've known for 20-30 years and we have a good support group. Guys whom are long term exchange members (20+ years) are so much smarter than the rest of the public. Successful exchange members also realize the necessity to fade the public for the most part.
I agree with most of your post, however one does not need to be in the pits for 20 PLUS years to understand market psychology to profit consistantly.
Perhaps, but time in the pits certainly did help. I presume that you have spent considerable time in a pit to be able to make that broad statement without qualification or quantification. The main advantage of an exchange membership is the ability to trade the inside market, lower transaction costs, lower vig, better information, and exchange support(can't say enough about that one). Still, I don't claim to understand market psychology, I just know how to trade, how to take a small loss instead of a big one. A proper defensive game is what the pits taught me, and I suspect that a strong defense is hard to learn on the retail side. Friends on the retail side have told me that it is also hard to find proper mentor-ship that an fellow members of an exchange can provide.
Actually, for me youth was not great. With youth comes naivete, not understanding myself and basically not knowing how the world works. I am pushing 70 and life was the shits 20 years ago. Even worse when I was 30. So speak for urself Big!
My experience re my youth is very similar (53 next month) although no pits, I think that as I've gained knowledge I have learnt to focus on what is important rather than fleeting distractions such as greed, envy and not least skirt. Staying balanced is high on the agenda. With only casual friendships involved in trading it's not hard to visualize how much easier the journey may have been if I had access to the resources you found available. There has certainly been many wrong turns and dead end alleys along the way to the present. But still the journey continues! I look forward to the enlightenment more experience will reward me with! Regards Johno