if you can make a profit regularly, why not partner with some capital people and manager and own part of a hedgefund. Its where the real money is!
To paraphrase Donald Sutherland in The Italian Job: There are 2 types of traders: Those that trade to enrich their life Those that trade to define their life. And his piece of advice is very good: Dont let trading define your life
At the end of the day, it is inner peace that all it matters. It is what you value the most, and then maximize that value. I spent 12 years on wall street, met all kinds of people, there are people who have inner peace making 80k, or 8m, there are people who are emotional wrecks making 80, or 8m. But I must say, not having to work (possibly ever) for a living is a liberating feeling, a certain CEO of a Fortune 500 company told me (among a large group of associates) in '95, that life is "all about making f*ck you money, where you can tell any job or life 'f*ck you' when you are no longer having fun". From a practical point of view, I think that is very good advice, at least to me. The amount of "FU money" varies from people to people, for some peoplel, it is buying a 150k house in Ohio / Carolina / etc, and then just live quietly, then even 600k might be enough, for some people, it is living in the four seasons all over the world, in which case 20M would not be enough. But as long as they achieved some degree of inner peace, that's all it matters. My cleaning lady have it, she lives in a $900 / month rent controlled apt, and she loves her life, she tells me that she has 250k socked away, and will go back to live in the Ukraine in relative upper class when she has 300k. Michael Jordan have it, he easily gambles away a few million a night once in a while.
My advice, which I have a hard time following myself, by the way, is to stop defining yourself by what you do for a living. If you won the lottery, what would you do with your time to make life satisfying? Come up with a plan to do that on some scale. If you would travel, save up enough money to take 3 months off and travel. You've obviously been out of the job market long enough to forget how BORING most jobs are, plus odds are you would work for some a*hole, get caught up in office politics, and have just as much stress. If you crave social interaction, get a part-time job someplace like Starbucks, where you can talk to people, flirt with your co-workers, and have fun. If it stops being fun, quit. Or spend more time doing something that isn't work. I also find trading boring. It's the worst type of job because it requires full attention. Most of the time it's just waiting for opportunities that you will miss if you're daydreaming, browsing the Internet or whatever. But like I said, every job I've ever had has been like trading--90% tedium and 10% panic/exhileration. A job or trading is something you do to make money. If you expect it to give your life meaning, you're going to be disappointed. Do something to help other people using whatever unique talents you have and then your life will have meaning. Help the poor, teach kids, be a friend to the elderly, save the whales, work for world peace, hunt down Osama bin Laden. Figure out why you're here and do that. Chuck
One more thing that has not been mentioned. At your age the best possible thing you could do is go to a professional job counseling service. They will give you a battery of tests to determine what you are most suited for. Not talking about a service that finds you a job. A friend who graduated Harvard Law...hated being a lawyer with a passion. Eventually in his 40's he took the tests which said he would be more suited in Academia as an administrator. He left and found a position in a college and was very happy. He found that his skills as a lawyer also helpful but the energy and enthusiasm in a learning environment was what he needed. As Rufus said its also nice to have FU money but I certainly know ppl with money who aren't happy. If you are basically happy in your life and its only the job you dislike you do need to find WHAT you are most suited to do and the odds are you will enjoy it and make money. If however you are unhappy in your life/family then that is probably what is spilling over into your work and that is a different issue. The friend also got a divorce and moved to a different state so not sure if it was just the job.