"Too long".
I've been involved with trading (part-time: I've done other things, like a couple of degrees, at the same time) for ten years now - I started "too young" - and have been making what most people would call a good living from it only for the last three years of that. I come from a trading background and had available both facilities and support which few people have; I've done my thousands of hours of education, reading, research, training and practice; I've put in my thousands of hours of screen-time; I'm very Asperger-ish (which helps in several ways); etc. etc. - and it still took me many years to manage it. In short, about as far from an overnight success story as you can get. I think the realities of trading predicate that - with hindsight - it's nearly always one of those "If I'd only known earlier what I know now ..." things, but here's the thing: nobody ever does (not even people with all my undoubted original advantages on the playing-field).
A time and place advantage can help big time, but most will not successfully seize the opportunity, as you have done.
And even with these advantages, few of the Greats or highly successful were overnight successes.
Imported Exception:
When a person or a group enters an area where the oportunity is LARGE and the competition is weak, or the entrants have a large advantage others do not have, World Beaters suddenly appear.
Example: Decades ago a group of Las Vegas poker players armed with superior knowledge and snarts entered the US options market against weak competition and cleaned up big time. They went on to incorporate and make many, many billions of dollars trading: Susquehanna International Group.
The Medalion hedge fund run by Renaissance Technologies has crushed from the outset with few losing streaks, for decades. But they knew things others did not and did things others could not. By many metrics, they are the best.
Professor Thorp traded stock vs options for decades with rarely a losing quarter. When the anomaly he had found dried up, he retired.
A group of Las Vegas blackjack players ran over to Hong Kong and amassed over a billion dollars in winnings after developing edges others did not have.
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Xela, you are winning in a brutally competitive market without (that I know of) highly proprietary edges. Kudos!!
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: i.e., Mavrick74, Martinghoul, newwurldmn, Sig, sel, drcha, and recently, comagnum, Xela, vanzandt, you among others.....
