I just guess: Trading options would probably take even longer time! Perhaps due to harder books and more complex mindset might be required! Longer timeframe could be also a major factor for forward testing or paper trading. http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/trading-long-straddles.222085/
You had to deprogram yourself of losing psychology/ societal norms long accepted as truths eg don't give up, however in trading giving up on a losing position in most situations is the most sensible thing to do....
Not sure what markets that you've been trading, but the real money is made by positioning in long term trends and growth of the U.S. equities markets via small cap value and mid cap growth stock universes. Short term trends reflect randomness and chaos; hard to tell the "why" of why a short term trend is doing what it is doing. The "why" of what establishes and drives the long term market trends are positive expected earnings of companies that produce goods and services, and with a little help, Fed stimulus. A simple price / 10 month moving average cross applied to the S&P500 has defined long market trends pretty methodically for many decades, for example. Oft times, money is made by waiting in cash. James Director of Quantitative Reseach
You are essentially saying that the 'real' money is made buy and hold investing. Thats not trading in my book, that's investing which has its own pros and cons.
Sadly i fear, it's time goes by too damn quickly mainly as you get older you have to waste your life doing more and more tedious crap, it doesnt really leave a lot of time to do what you want to do, and this annoys me. Or when you have got time, your too fecking tired to care. 99% of the time its annoying woman, that nag you into doing crap for them, cause there lives are soo much more important, he says sitting outside a gig in the car on the ipad bored smegless. Got to move to Spain by the beach, start a new life, zero contact with anyone ever.
Only ONE person on earth did this successfully: Warren Buffet. Don't know of any other investor who did this. If it would be that simple there would be millions of rich investors. I suppose you are very rich?
It requires a lot of time because it's very high up on the list of competitive competitions. The simple solutions are generally speaking impossible to find without a good grasp of numerous underlying principles. Like trying to play chess or another game where u know a few moves but your opponets are using a broader based principle approach which governs or applies in all contexts or scenarios they encounter. They generally beat most of us most of the time. It takes a huge effort to compete with them, understand what they're doing, and join them.