dreamer you have a problem as much as the guy who is jealous of you... Spend a few bucks on some books: The Now Habit - by Neil Fiore (you're making excuses about your trading, and procrastinating) http://www.amazon.com/Now-Habit-Overcoming-Procrastination-Guilt-Free/dp/0874775043 Taming your Gremlin - by Rick Carson http://www.amazon.com/Taming-Your-Gremlin-Revised-Surprisingly/dp/0060520221 This book speaks for itself- better than 99% of all trading psychology and life psychology books out there. Adrienne Toghraies trading books / sets are a good start from tradingontarget.com You'd get immediate benefit from the 1st two books, I did.
Great post!!! Making conversation with people outside the business about the business at all is not useful. Talk sports, American Idol... hell, even politics, religion, and SEX before talking about your trading in depth. "I came in, feeling nice and relaxed, then and right off the bat 15 minutes into the day I was up a smooth $1500. After that, I started slowly bleeding money, $150 at a time... 5 times in a row, I was up only $750 an hour into the work day. Then I took a $400 loss and got so pissed off I threw away another $400. I was steaming pissed, now I was slightly negative on the day. I walked outside, took a break. Came back in, relaxed, saw a sick setup, because I was still a little pissed I took more size than I should have, but it worked out, and I made $800. From there until the rest of the day, I was able to grind together another $1000 and finished up about $1700." Some might read that and think I trade too emotionally (I probably do, my downfall), but my point is... people outside of the business just can't relate to that! That's what a normal day might be like, but they hear that and are like "wtf."
Here's an idea! Buy your own BBQ, invite people you don't know and who don't know you. You will find that they are much nicer, (until you get to know them!) .
Neither is resent, but we have a world full of it.. I heard a preacher talking about resent. He said "it's the poison you take thinking it will harm the other person". I knew more than one person that didn't like traders at all. They felt that the stock market was there so people could invest in a company and own part of it, not for people to make money off of by trading... My main secret in life, to keep other people from sobotaging what I am doing or interfering or even having some krappy opinion that I don't need to hear is to never tell them what I'm doing... I have my agendas in every area of life, they are moving along ok, doing no harm in case anybody is wondering.. but nobody that doesn't have to, has a clue much what I'm doing or where I'm going.... If I'm highly succesful at some point and it's obvious, I still won't tell them what I do.. if they really press me to find out I'll push them to the periphery of my life... none of them can help, therefore the only thing they can do is to either be happy that I'm happy or they can get in the way. Many will do just that so I learned to just keep them in the dark, treat them to nice vague words, it's not their business what I do or how or where or anything..
An interesting thread. I wonder how many times people here hear this kind of advice from their friends? Isn't the internet beautiful? Still maybe one should question if certain relationships one has with certain people are as strong as you'd want them to be if one feels more comfortable talking like this anonymously over the internet rather than talking to someone one knows. My observation in general is that the word "friend" seems overused and debased by many people.
"If the other person is perceived to be similar to the envier, the aroused envy will be particularly intense, because it signals to the envier that it just as well could have been him or her who had the desired object." -wiki
Success breeds envy, especially in those closest to you. My 2cents: Enjoy your success, but don't go out of your way to advertise it. Help those you can, and leave the envious/resentful individuals to their own devices. "Few of us can stand prosperity. Another man's I mean." ....Mark Twain