No thine self. I am talking my book (my story, actually). Not meaning to proselytize. Rather I would like to encourage you to know there will be a sweet spot for what works for you. Even then, there can be different strokes for different times in traders' lives.
We all go through an evolution of understanding ourselves after trial and error AND eventually gravitating to what works best for us.
Quite extreme opposites, (1) vs (2), but I went from (1) day trading a number of years (conservatively as described by my peers) and very much liked it until the chase began to wear on me. Also time allocated was acceptable for the gain, but eventually not for quality of life. The years of experience exposed me to alternatives through exposure with other styles of trading. The sweet spot for anyone is subjective to that person, of course. (2) I found pair trading (again, in MY very conservative style) worked for better mental health (relatively low stress coupled with agnostic to market direction) and allowed me to reclaim life, leaving the many hours every day at day trading. It also suggested I could do this fairly well enough when I am in my late 80's, considering the simplicity (especially
my simple style).
The trade off is less excitement but a reclaiming of that mental hygiene I referred to...more important for me than some others, I do understand. And the gains are generally not as sexy but consistently nice for the relatively little time input. On the financial cable shows, there is the incessant drone of the investing population starved for yield. I can't help but believe there is at least a modest percentage (but very large in absolute numbers) that would be attracted to conservative, pair trading with it being void of concern for market direction (Free at last....Free at last) and be happy with consistently nice yields from just a modest, active management of portfolio. It's a tragedy that part of that population is unaware.
What I just described is anecdotal because it subjectively works for some traders, a minority of the active ones to be sure. Like finally finding a career you can enjoy personal passion you can attach to it, many of us traders are fortunate enough to similarly have found that match with a trading style. I hope you don't struggle at "making something work" for you. Assess yourself like you would before looking for a career. Know thine self.
A sample if you like. Today's post.
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3831372#post3831372