Ironically, 2004 I did better than 2003. Maybe cuz I've grown tremendously as a trader. And 2004 is more of a daytrader market. Lots of intraday action. 2003, all you did was buy and hold and probably did better than most traders. Even including prof. hf using all their fancy mathematical "stat arb" type of strategies.
what a lot of people forget is that 2003's 45% gain only counted if you were OUT in 2001 and 2002 "buy and hold" performance must be qualified in that context