Many a fortune is made by those that would have killed themselves had the deal gone bad. That being true, this case does not seem to be trading related, just a man gone off the deep end.
nyxtrader, sorry about your friend. trading is a very stressful job, we should all keep this in mind. it is easy to forget the fact that traders are always in the middle of a mine field. this is from the top of google search: According to health magazine, people with the following professions pull their hair our more than others. Here's the top ten: 1) Inner City High School Teacher 2) Police Officer 3) Miner 4) Air Traffic Controller 5) Medical Intern 6) Stockbroker 7) Journalist 8) Customer Service/ Complaint Worker 9) Secretary 10) Waiter LT Chris Summers with the Tallahassee Police Department, "A lot of times it's the fact that a lot of situations uniform patrol officers are involved in have an element of unknown. And for anybody when they walk into unknown situation, it's going to rise your stress levels." A few of the least stressful jobs according to health magazine were therapists, natural scientists, and sales representatives.
I attempted suicide 29 October 2006 afternoon, stopped at 7 tablets. Its not a nice feeling. It was totally unrelated to trading but was comparing myself to others of my age group, but could not realise that being an immigrant from a 3rd World African country my life was simply not going to be as rosy as that of an average British person. Often we sometimes fail to account how our personal circumstances change and vary over time. Whats funny is l could not see how much l had achieved, but focused on what l thought l should have, must have or could have done. To make matters worse was going through a relatively good patch trading wise ( churning HKEx IPO's and remember buy the dips days ?) but could not relate it as something great in my life. Not to mention a state of self-imposed social exclusion. Its not nice, hope none of you guys ever experience it or happens to your loved ones
I've been there myself and I have to agree, if it was just about lost money there would be no need to even consider suicide. But trading can consume you utterly if you let it, and the market has an uncanny ability to pull the rug out from under you in every sense of the word. I would like to think, having once gone to the edge, that a trader that decides to fight back and not give up will never have to face that ledge again, having been made stronger for the experience. But Jesse Livermore should be a reminder to what can happen to even the best traders.
Money may not buy happiness, but it does enable you with the potential to find it. It's similar to how the absence of severe chronic physical pain won't directly 'buy' you happiness, but it certainly is a pre-requisite for happiness to develop. ____ BTW, What's the over/under on how soon that Ben Affleck- Boiler Room quote gets posted here?
Very interesting article. Read the entire thing. Thanks. Going to ask a psychiatrist friend on mine what his thoughts are on this. Linus Pauling maintained that American Medicine was way too conservative.
NYX, Sorry for your loss. This hits me really hard as I'm 26 y.o and also a analyst for a small mutual fund firm here in Toronto. The work load can drive you nuts sometime. Hell, its 7:56pm righ now and still in the office, nobody around, I've been here since 7 am. I think I'm gonna go now. Again, sorry for your loss and be strong.. cheers