Yep - thats about it. Good post. I had the same thing careerwise until I learnt to be myself - ego is a hard thing to not be attached to.
i dont know if this thread is dead - cant be bothered to read through all the pages. but here is my experience. began studying elliot wave in may 04 *after* taking an overnight loss of 25k. at that time i was full time working and not an active trader. in oct 05 i went into day trading getting 20% loses/gain per day. one month later, i realized that without *proper* discipline to step out asap if the market is moving against you, i wouldnt succeed. after this lesson my trades began to be profitable between 5-40% a day. yes, i trade leveraged products and enter/exit at extremes - dont wait for 'trend confirmations'. but it requires bang-on attention through out your session. and one day in november i was off for a few moments, vupti - market closed and i was stuck with an overnight position - which was worth nothing the morning after so i began to look for fully automated trading strategies so i could go snowboarding some more. came up with a scheme that would return in average 240-300% a year. i've had it backtested on several markets in north america and europe going back to 1999. based on this i am now writing a business plan to set up an investment fund. there is a big difference in trading elliott-wave by hand, which is similar to art and extremely profitable, and setting up ATS, which is akin to industrial farming. the winning argument for going with ATS, is the time it frees up on my side.