Hi all, I've been following and trading the markets on/off for over 10 years now. Strangely, I seem to not be losing interest. If anything, it's getting worse. I mostly day trade ES. Recently started trading the ETH session, too. So it's becoming a bit consuming. Either I'm trading or I'm doing trading research/reading. If I'm swing trading stocks - I usually check the quotes constantly there too. Balanced life? Trading is pretty much the last thing I think of when I fall asleep and the first thing on my mind when I wake up or when I wake up in the middle of the night (checking quotes, etc.) The only time I seem to really unwind is on weekends when the markets are closed. How's this for the rest of you guys? Especially those who've been doing it for a long time? Maybe it gets 'better' eventually, but I see no signs of it so far. It's an all consuming lifestyle. And in some ways it's getting stressful. Regards.
I moved to scalping years back, switch on trade, switch off, stocks become to involved and time consuming, watching all day, running stock screen, checking 100s of charts became an 18hour a day job and even weekends where research time. These days switch on trade for 10mins to maybe 2hours make $200 hopefully, go do something else, trading and money quite low on prioritys these days which is why I'm poor. It'll change when you want it to, if your enjoying it and not losing too much money then it's all good. I do miss the old stock days, but no plans to go back.
When I was a wage slave, every week I'd say TGIF. (Thank God it's Friday). Now I say TGIM. Weekends are too long and they should ban all public holidays cause they also shut down trading then.
Typically, busy all week, not enough time to trade, weekend bored and all the time to trade and no trading sucks don't it.
But isn't it also true that in order to become consistent you need to be incredibly dedicated for a while? I'm fairly consistent now, but not yet 'printing money'.
Hence, my not losing too much, got to pay to learn sadly, living long enough to reap the benefits is the main issue. It seems to be a game of your either HOT or your COLD, when your HOT keep making it, then you'll start losing gone COLD I find the trick is back to Demo work through the COLD patch before you lose too much. HOTTER for longer, COLD for shorter times and Recognise sooner so less given back. Trading will never be easy, as it's always changing
Obsession doesn't sound positive. Passion is. When you have passion, you think about trading 24/7 without misery. It was my dream to do day trading. so I trade day time, night time, Asian session, Eur session, US session. There is no such thing as mandatory retirement. I will probably trade when I am 70 y/o or older as long as my eye sight is ok. Before I sleep, I think about trading. Just before I wake up, I think about trading (more like psycho cybernectics) Of course, I have to engage with family, keep myself fit and healthy, and spend sometime running some errands. Weekends, I would spend just an hour on trading things.
Just my opinion, day trading is too much work for the rewards. My opinion again, when holding multiple stocks overnight for lengthy periods, days/weeks/months, the stocks make you money while you sleep. It is hugely common in my experience, as soon as the market opens my portfolio will leap up in value. This because of the sharp moves up right on open. A day trader will rarely or never catch these moves. A common complaint I hear from daytraders is that holding overnight is risky and they would have trouble sleeping. My answer: If you are careful with your picks, the bias is always upward/positive surprises more so than negative. All of this translates to less work, higher profits, easier to compound.