I think there is lots of truth here. I knew a guy who killed himself after losing 10,000 in the market. "actively control" is the key point.
I don't make a big deal out of it, it's something a lot of people make fun of and take lightly, but depression is just a mental illness (physically induced) like any other illness, and if you can find something that helps you balance it out, you are probably better off trying it than just "toughing it out." I've thought about it a lot. If you are ever thinking about suicide, the first thing to do is go to Las Vegas and put it all on one bet. That's what I did with ES, and it worked out, and I am still alive and living off that money today. (but I was on probation at the time and they wouldn't let me smoke pot, so I had to take all these medications like prozac (very bad) and trazedone (not bad), but I don't think it would ever have gotten to that point if they had just let me do my thing. So in the end, I guess I could say, not taking drugs and contemplating suicide is probably good for trading (or at least it could be 50% of time) (or at least it was for me.))
I would like to know how many people take xanax or Klonopin or any benzo during the trading day to calm their nerves. Xanax is much more addictive and dangerous than marijuana. You mix benzos with alcohol you could die, no one has ever OD'd from marijuana. Then you have people may even take Oxy which is the worst by far.
with pot, you usually forget what you are doing before you smoke too much, I don't smoke it when I am trading, three days of smoking will usually keep me high for 14 days, and my average hold time is 8 days, then I get flat, so if the market cooperates it all works out. agree, OXY is bad, so is vicadin, nothing more miserable than a prescription junkie. none of those anti depressants work very long, a year at the most. It would be nice if you could just clean out, eat right, move or get a new job, but it doesn't work that way. I am very extreme and have tried all those things, although I must admit, when I started trading full time again I noticed a remarked improvement in my mannerisms. Problem with pot is the people who smoke it. Best to keep yourself at a distance from them. Buy it and get the hell out of there. I miss the old days when I would go out in my kayak in the spring and look for a good place to plant (helpful hint, if you see beaver, there will be a good place to plant nearby) and go out in the fall and see if it was still there to harvest.
alcohol and nicotine are horrible drugs, worst than most of the illegal drugs, hence why the system of deliberate human destruction has them readily available.
Well, then, I hope you are never in prison doing life without parole. But, if you do ever find yourself in that situation, I hope you can continue to post your thoughts on it here at ET.