I disagree with that theory. Many traders I know (myself included) had their best years ever in crash years (2000 and 2008). It was the slow overnight gap up years with little intraday volatility that wiped out impatient traders during the 2000's. Then came HFT which was like the Black Plague to the industry.
I've been around since 2001, but had to create a new account in 2005 as I wanted to be more anonymous. I know Free thinker has had his account since Nov 1999 and would post everyday in the P&R section, but I'm guessing he must have died or something because he just stopped posting about 4 years ago.
How many other handles you think @Baron has where he plays with the other kids in the sand box or gets his fingers and other body parts dirty in P&R?
Had the same idea though was one too late Pretty impressive to see some of those dinosaurs posting and seeing they apparently follow up on threads pretty regularly yet have the ability to scan through all the BS without agitation.
Loved Jack too. I joined in 1999 but left and deleted the account. Came back a few years later, but lost interest a few years later. I posted the code to a few TradeStation indicators, one of which made it into the public domain, although I forget what it's wrapped up in now and what it is named. It combined volume and ATR which was novel at the time. I also goofed around in the Political threads quite a bit. Which is actually why I left. Pretty much had enough of arguing with people etc. Made some comments on IB TWS. Actually, the "modular" concept TWS has now with activating certain "parts" was my suggestion. Now, I just post music, Pretty much.