Firstly, as an aspiring trader who is NOT consistently profitable, I can tell you that I would crawl on my hands and knees for 30 miles to your house if it meant I would become consistently profitable like you are. So please don't forget how fortunate you are. Also, if you need something to make you grateful, I'd recommend taking a job working 12-hour days at a factory making near minimum wage for 6 months...you will run back to your screens in gratitude faster than you can possibly imagine. Or how about corporate middle management aka Hunger Games? At my last company, I was making a good salary, but was working 70 hour weeks, always glued to my phone waiting for company emails, paranoid about the Brutuses at my company trying to sabotage me, constantly worried about job security. Just a miserable environment. I could go on, but you get my point. I think if you talk to even those glamorous jobs like surgeons and pilots, you'd find that even with them there is a great deal of "grind" and monotony to their lives as well. I once knew a GI surgeon - he was doing 8 operations a day, had to spend $10,000 per month on malpractice insurance premiums, and was frustrated because medicaid was cutting reimbursement rates for hernia operations. There is frustration everywhere my friend. It sounds to me that you are probably dealing with some feelings of lonliness and lack of life-purpose. Fortunately, both of those issues are fixable!
Increase your trading account, reduce your time in front of screens, spend more time with your family or things you like.
I live in the EU and only trade the US session, this means that i have around 6 hours of free time before i start trading and most of the time my trading session ends after 3 hours or so. Things i like to do in my free time are playing guitar, riding my Harley, go fishing, spending time with family, cooking, listening to music, bike riding or running, swimming, watch movies, garden work, doing things around/in the house, play snooker with friends, having beer with friends, ... So many things you can do with your life besides trading, as Speedo said trading should be a part of your life, not all of it. I like trading because this gives me a lot of free time and money which gives me the opportunity to do all these things, if i would have a corporate job my free time would maybe be 3-4 hours a day vs now i have at least 8 and most of the days even more and i can take days of whenever i want. Time is one of the most valuable assets in life, use it wisely.
I think trading is a bad career because it’s fundamentally unfilling. You will have to find fulfillment in other things - like family, charity, etc. we all need to feel like we are doing something for the world, other than just existing in it for our own pleasures (whether that be skiing or “skiing”.)
Yes, I also get the same feeling sometimes but I avoid getting distracted by the same. I have set a goal for myself and I believe trading is the best way to achieve the same. I am not trading all the time. In my free time, I try to spend most of my time with my family. My family is my biggest motivation. Its all for them.
The Pacific time zone. RTH end @ 1pm. It feels like the whole day is still in front of you if properly organized. I don't trade full time or for a living, it's just a side game.The density of markets dynamics too easily consume participants lives. They require 24/7 attention.
I struggled with this facet for a while, as well. I recently have had some better mental states making trading my secondary priority in my professional life, and doing a business from the ground-up during non-trading hours. I also cut my trading hours to be done at around 1pm est. Majority of my trading profits come from the mornings, so I was willing to sacrifice the last few hours for a better mental state and time to focus on more exciting things. After all, in trading, all you are doing is trading invisible paper, contributing almost nothing for society, other than maybe the annual donation to some random charity.
I need to do this as well. Start a creative venture that ultimately leads to another stream of income - gives me some fulfillment that I am actually building and producing something. I have always dabbled in writing, photography etc but trading seems to take up so much of my time, the actual trading, reading, thinking about the markets. I think I need to cut back trading until lunch as well since most of the vol is in the first 2 hours anyway. And I do go to the gym everyday, go hiking on weekends, swim etc - I don't have kids though so my life is lacking there. If I could rewind my life 10 years - I wouldn't do this. I would do graduate work on economics and gone on to do some theoretical work or gotten a CS degree and do something interesting. There is no long term fulfillment sitting in front of your screens, waiting for a setup and mindlessly clicking your mouse with no regard for money coming in or money leaving your account - us profitable traders are basically automatons, just repeating the process over and over without thinking or emotion finally having realized the odds are in our favor and our results are just data samples - we are doing the work of a programmed algorithm.
I run carbine and pistol classes in Northern NV (Liberal 2A supporter). It's good cardio and I get sharper from training people. Plus, I've converted a lot of Trumpers to the Light side. There is no money in it. I do a 9-15 mile hikes every few weeks with my two oldest kids. Hobbies are tough with kids as their activities will obviously take precedent. KTM... it's time to settle down with a 23yo. Pick an active hobby that you're genuinely interested in doing or simply one that you do well.