You made money between 1988 and 2001. During the biggest bull market in history. It seems the bear market in 2001-2002 effected your trading. And you were unable get back your rhythm even between 2003 - 2006. When the stock market was in a mini bull market.. I think stopping for you is a good idea, i dont think we are going to have the kind of markets that fit your trading over the next few years.. You had a good run, and you enjoyed 10 years out of the rat race. There were many other millionaire stock traders in march 2000. But very few were able to keep it..
Why don't you take a few days or a week off and go somewhere with either your wife or whatever. change the scenery away from home and your regular environment. Don't trade, don't watch news just chill. Then write down the stuff you love to do that u can also make money at. I know its hard but try anyway. Universal truth is that if u help others you will get it back in Spades. You already may be far ahead in trying to straighten things out as u recognize that you may be addicted to trading and having not been successful for awhile need to change something. Everyone of us has some sort of addiction in this world and often times we trade one addiction for another. Just be sure that when you do this the one u choose will be safe and healthy for u and then for your family. Usually it only takes 30 days of consistent change to get rid of old habits be it smoking, gambling. Once that compulsion is idled and you have started to follow another path its becomes easier and easier. I hope you find something to do. the only thing that stands between you and happiness is you.
I think it gets harder every year. You get tens of thousands of people trying to play the same little games,patterns, fibs, etc, all of which are well known and quants exploiting every concieveable edge as long as it lasts. Youre story is not uncommon, I believe.
Well now we know how the handful of successful traders can keep making money. The losing traders are in denial and continually encourage other losing traders to keep trying. Unlike the inexperienced kids from which you are receiving advice to keep trying after failing for six years in a row, I will tell you my almost 20 years of experience and working with thousands of traders leads me to only one conclusion if what you have written is true. Quit trading, move on with your life and your family, and don't look back.
Tend to agree, forget all this High School football coach stuff about never quitting. A businessman does not persevere in a low return market to prove to the world that it can be done against all odds, he looks for the easiest market that gives the best return. In the real world you might be better off investing your time and energy in something else if something is not working.
If you look around, you can find many examples of market veterans talking about "how difficult the market has become". That means it has changed from before when they were successful. And either they haven't tried to adapt to a changing market or their efforts have not been successful. Alan Newman of Longboat Advisors has commented for the last few years about how the market has changed. Mostly, the players use larger and larger positions for ever shorter time frames in an attempt to capture ever smaller percentage moves. He mentioned one instance where a player moved a $20Million position to lock in an $8,000 gain. Shoot, commish should have been bigger than that! (Sounds like "Quant vs. Quant" to me.) For years I've said, "Keep doing what was successful for you in the past, and the market will knock you off". That is, it will periodically morph in such a way that it needs to be approached differently. For this reason, short term track records have little value. And those with good long term records are still vulnerable. (Who knows if they will make the correct adjustments NEXT morph?) Bottom Line.... Success is a moving target. You will not have won until you retire with some of the market's money.
Okay, let me get this right.... I'm supposed to believe that a person traded 5k into over 1M in the markets and now has lost everything? First, thing, you obviously have no risk management acumen. If you did, you probably wouldn't have made that much money in the first place. If we assume you are not lying (big assumption, remember this is the Internet), then you were really living off of the win % of your trades and not the overall number of wins in your trades. Second, if you probably examined your trades in depth, you'd probably see that most of your gains most likely came from a handful of decisions. Basically that law of averages caught up with your ass and the lack of personal control over the psychology of trading is what sealed your fate. Lastly, anyone with any business acumen would not have let this happen to themselves. This "story" only reinforces the immense control the individual has to have over themselves and the actual business sense you really have to posses to be successful. Legit questions to ask: Why did the trader never diversify some of his money into longer term ideas? Why did the trader never diversify his risk exposure into other investment vehicles? Did the trader really ever have control over his greed/fear emotional mechanisms? Did this trader ever really approach his trading endeavors in a business-like manner? One of the most common things I see a lot of people here on ET talking about is the mistake of wealth and cashflow. A lot of that has to do with youth, but it is also a big indicator of lack of business acumen. Too many mistake income with wealth and really don't have what it takes to be wealthy. This little "story" is a good example of this. If you have any business sense then risk management will be almost instinctive. If you know anything about risk management, then control over greed/fear emotions will be easier. If you never approach trading as a career in a business-like fashion, then you will never really be able to accumulate wealth. One final thought, so many of us know what we would like to do and achieve. Too few of us really ever find a vehicle that can enable us to realize our goals. Most of us can point to at least one or two things we can call "strengths". Very few can identify and even fewer admit to at least on thing we call a "weakness". Accept your reality and move within it. Seek to control those things which you can. Accept and deal with those things which you can't. Trading is as much (I'd say more) about knowing yourself as it is the actual trades. Obviously the O.P. had many things that needed improvement, last of which was the actual trading. It may take some time, but eventually "Naked emperors" are exposed. Good Luck!
A good observation, and my bet is that he was trading momentum, or pullbacks in uptrending stocks. The mystery is that after spending so much time in the markets, he was not able to adapt. But, everyone from the infamous 'TurtleTraders' to Jim Cramer are still living off the reflected glory of those easy days. Those who were trading then may recall when the WSJ used to regularly pit money managers against a random throw of darts. And more often than not, the darts one. My suggestion is that he should now write a book called "How I made a million trading stocks." Just don't mention the last few years - nobody does! - and he'll do well.