opie should have prefaced, "This thread is about trading and suicide. If you are suicidal please don't reply. We don't want to hear your twisted minds version of life (or death or trading.)" There's a huge difference between suicidal trading and risky trading. And I don't do well with risky trading.
If you are contemplating suicide, first commit financial suicide. It's not as easy as you would think. If you still have something you can sell for a dollar to buy a lottery ticket you are not officially financially dead. And just when you think you are about there you hit something just right. It's Brewsters Millions all over again. Try it sometime. Set up a paper account with a lot of money in it and see if you can make it go broke. Everybody thinks it is so easy until you actually try to kill yourself. Now, trying to stay alive and losing all your money is pretty easy. Most people want to keep on living, yet everyday many of them die. Somewhere out there, some ISIS suicide bomber is probably really pissed off at the boss because he never gets chosen to carry out the next attack. What's he supposed to do?
The funny thing is, when you end up in the psycho ward, if you are suicidal they take away your boots and your belt. And you can't get them back until you can prove to the shrink you are no longer suicidal. So the ones walking around with shoes are real snobs and they look down on the poor suicidal inmates. Every few days you have your appointment and he asks, "So how are you doing?" I would just lie through my teeth and tell him everything was fine. All I wanted was to get my boots back. And finally, I found something I really wanted, and then it went up from there.
He most probably killed his ex-wife as well, so the guy was pretty much a murderer long before daytrading came along, he just needed a reason.
Kurt Vonnegut wrote about smoking in the preface to one of his novels. He said that people used to tell him he should quit smoking, otherwise he was going to die early. He would tell them that that was precisely the reason he kept smoking, because he wanted to die.
At least two-thirds of suicides occur in people with major depression--in fact, some experts contend that all suicide is related to depression. Why do some people develop depression over and over, while others with similar life circumstances and experiences never do? Like everything else, the answer is genetics (and probably not one gene, but many genes, and the interaction of the environment with those genes). Some people are more genetically prone to depression, and therefore to suicide. It is not that likely that career choices and circumstances cause depression or suicide. It is much more likely that the same genetic characteristics that make a person prone to depression also make them more likely to choose certain career paths. Specific talents and interests may be genetically linked to a propensity for depression. So now I will preach a little. The unfortunate truth is that our society frowns on and does not understand so-called "mental illness." I say so-called because it's my contention that all mental illnesses will ultimately be shown to be physical illnesses: that is, biochemical issues in the brain. Neuroscience is already well on its way in this direction, and more pieces are falling into place every year. Despite the fact that depression is a fairly well-understood biochemical phenomenon, the idea that the sufferer is weak is the last bastion of prejudice in our society. Most of us would not belittle someone because their pancreas does not make insulin or their thyroid does not make thyroid hormone. Somehow, in my lifetime, the disdain for alcoholics and drug addicts has completely turned around, and we now cheer on those who work to deal with their addiction by accepting treatment. I hope the same thing will happen with other "mental" illnesses. Finally, if anyone here is feeling depressed or contemplating suicide, please get help.