Interesting replies from everyone. This one hit home a bit. Trading gets quite boring and once you figure out your interpretation of the puzzle, you lose the mental stimulation. At least in my case. I've personally found the best approach is keeping trading as a backdrop to other projects; i.e. progression in another way, via personal projects (like your coding suggestion) or other sources of income to keep the mind busy. I am not looking for help for my own case, even though it is difficult, but I was more interested to see if others have experienced these types of struggles as well and different approaches.
You are not supposed to - chit chat during trading - avoid isolation but to embrace isolation You suppose to do one and only one thing and that is 100% concentration on trading. you have to accept it. Don't try to cheat yourself by entertaining yourself or doing other distracting things during trading. Alternatively, go and look for a non-trading job that involves dealing with humans.
Indeed. While I respect people who do the simpler jobs, I'm also appreciative that I'm not doing their job, especially if you live somewhere where salaries for such jobs are extremely low. OP might be in such affluent surroundings that he has forgotten how miserable some gas station attendant job can be, even more so in a less wealthy country.
Not necessarily. You can automate your trading system and let the computer do the buying and selling for you, even if you are sound asleep, for the rest of your life. That's it.
What code would you recommend to someone that stopped coding years ago. Basic and ADA but that’s been thirty years.
Yes -- always surround yourself with good, positive people that encourage you to be the best version of yourself. I have a handful of traders that I periodically chat with (most of whom have access to my trading room) but only one other am I aligned with and actively collaborate with. We trade similarly enough and know each other's styles, strengths and weaknesses. Further, both of us share a similar faith and values and while we may crack a joke or two, we keep a "clean" trading room. It takes time to develop a relationship with another trader like that and we're only starting to really harness our combined skills but I have to say that it is making trading more enjoyable and I definitely feel less isolated. Tips from George Soros (regardless of how you feel about him, he has done well as a speculator): (1) "There is no point being confident and having a small position." If the odd are substantially in your favor, bet big. (2) "I only go to work on the days that make sense to go to work." And I really do something on that day" Staying busy trading mostly generates fees and mistakes. Sometimes being inactive is the best thing you can do. (3) "If investing is entertaining, if you're having fun, you're probably not making any money. Good investing is boring."
Yes, I completely believe what you wrote... I am now completely bored and having success.. its a neat feeling. when i worked for that broker in manhattan, it was chaos... never seen anything like 20 grown men pounding a desk yelling "up stock up stock!" and im trying to do quantitative analysis
Interesting note on side projects, it seems that doing it well has boiled down to the same key meta factors for successful trading are the same in the projects. So trading has become just another thing I do in the same ways: study, learn, apply, evaluate, measure, improve, repeat. Of course for some people this is simply "life". So the isolation thing can be in anything, not just trading, is my point.
It sounds like you have a good perspective on trading and life. Even on this site, you see folks with issues involving egos, insecurities, etc. I'm not sure why so many folks here have an issue with showing kindness to others but there can be a lot of negativity. Still, there are some good folks on here. As I have said before, in addition to a source of income, I look at trading as an intellectual challenge and a way to continue to improve self-mastery, and it's great when I find others with a similar philosophy.