I started as a complete outsider,and had no connections or ideas about how things worked, I knew about penny stocks but never committed the cash-missed a huge profit with a 40 to 1 reward gold mining stock-of course. I had read about this strange old guy who traded options from home. I wrote to the exchange who sent me a booklet in '95. By '99 I had a bit of cash to buy a share portfolio and sell calls against my stock. then the market went south and my stocks went to 1/4 of what they had been but options had still made money. In 2003 I got out of my property invetsments which had done well,and used this as my trading pot. I thought I was well prepared-I'd paper traded for 2 years on the S&P, but my second trade on FTSE(I'm in the UK) went deep underwater as Dubya invaded Iraq. I made a reasonable amount of money,had some big losses,and dabbled with futures (mistake trying to hedge). My account hit rock bottom in 2010 and I couldn't make any money. Since then my account is worth 2.5 times as much but I have some paid work for a charity,which kept me sane. Too much screen time drives you nuts. I think to succeed you need a trading style that suits you. Ignore the 'experts' what works for them does not work for the rest of us. There is a lot of great free education for the American market-zero for the UK apart from my own website- optionsinvesting dot co dot UK. I have used real prices to make a paper trade each week (some of them are my own actual trades) 45 trades- I think 42 winners, not one large drawdown. I don't like intra-day trading,sometimes I can take a quick profit though,and have no problem with that. I have no time for the constant 'sniping' at other traders. We are all on the same journey and should do our best to help. My site has no critics, over 200 visitors a week, but I'd love some criticism, or comments. I'm trying to open people's eyes to the options world and the bogus side of investing. Why would you want to cheat people?Never occurred to me to harm another person. Trading is not about psychology, it is about not fooling yourself, in my experience.