for me.. personally.. figuring out my trading plan was 500 hours.. and i need 9500 hours to get the discipline. to stick to it. plain simple.!
To the contrary, you are young so should be out there making the most of your age. You are never going to get back your late teens and early 20s, and they are the best years of your life.
Just from personal experience 10000 hours seem about right when you compare it to other professions remember that there are instructors or tutors teaching the right stuff- in trading, finding the right stuff probably takes a lot of time and building confidence, honing your edge, working on discipline etc these take time and they all depend on each persons individuality and intelligence. And depending on above factors your 10000 hour period might differ. Forsome people can never learn discipline and that might be the end of it all- if trading were a degree I think it would have these subjects - edge exploration, probability, risk management, discipline, capital preservation, capital management some might have to repeat the whole year
10000 hours? I read a book that says it takes two weeks and then you can play ping pong all day... I learned to juggle with ease. But taking it from 3 to 4 balls has been harder. Whatever "making it" is for a trader, surviving until then is most important, no matter when that time comes.
It takes 10 000 hours of deliberate practice, not just pressing a few keys and following the motions. Most people maybe even all people cannot manage more than 2-3 hours of deliberate practice before they are exhausted. Problem in trading is that you get very little deliberate practice and the feedback is very very random. You could be doing the right thing and get bad results, you could be doing the wrong thing and get good results. If you can find a mentor and its somebody you trust, it has to help. Otherwise you have to try and figure it out for yourself all the while trying to cope with losing money, better to get a job and forget trading.
are you a ratard? practice? you're either right or wrong. whatever you see on the tape, feel in the order flow or market depth is unique to each person viewing it. do you think you're going to see a familiar setup? or the same trader on a bid or ask? which, as a result, all your practice is going to come in handy? lol
The problem with the required practice hours is that no one says too much about practice quality. Vince Lombardi said it best. "Practice makes perfect. If the practice is perfect." Quality of practice will greatly shorten the time,but you must have quality practice in all seasons.