So how bad is the change in the real trading volume for trading? for industry insiders. goldman sachs is selling their market making business for stocks for less than 30 million. they paid over a billion in 2000. market makers make money on volume same with traders. hedge funds and mutual funds make their money on management fees or size of their portfolio. totally different lines of business. Even in the money management business, hundreds of funds have closed. there is still a "market" but it's not what it seems. it's like shell of what it used to be.
it's not as easy as before and trading was never easy. people were losing money in 1999 in 2000 in 2001 and losing in high volatile markets. for real traders who trade the spead they need volume. as they are making pennies
Just like we have stops for the individual trades we take, every trader should also have their hard stop for the field of trading in general. The ultimate stop-loss to take is the stop to leave the markets behind permanently and move on to something better in life. Remember: time, not money is the most valuable commodity. You can always make more money but you can never buy more time.