While the process of trading is a left-brained activity. The decision points for trading is a right-brained activity. Your ability to perceive is much more important than any amount of grinding out models that bang away at a database. In my first trading oportunity I traded OEX (S&P 100) Index options. No training on the product, just a book on the basics on options and a screen with implied volitility for strike prices. I bought my own data from Ed Sekoyta's old company (Technical Tools), wrote programs, and looked for relationships. None of that made me any money. What worked was a old Rich sceen being left on that had been used by a futures trader and had the SP (S&P 500) futures market on it. I watched my equity product move after the futures contract time and again. After a few days I had enough nerve to place some long or short only trades in options by frontrunning using the SP contract. This made me money consistently. Total time investment once I gained the insight was only 20-30 hours. If you're not open to ideas, insights, and don't question beliefs, then you won't grow. No number of hours doing the wrong thing will make you profitable. If you have an idea for making money, question the underlying reason and "prove" it works before writing models and spending endless hours watching charts.