You are definitely on the path to enlightenment.
Trading is very difficult and extremely competitive. I know that what I am saying will be controversial, but I think it has to be said: why try and compete with automated trading firms that spend many millions of dollars per year on ECN speed and programming ? And we know that many of these automated trading programs are designed to deceive and to trick - just look at the rash of spoofing cases that have been brought by the CME the past few years. And that's just the surface of it. What fools think is "order flow" is flipping, order crossing, DOM stacking, and spoofing on an industrial automated scale. It's a mirage. Just read the CFTC complaints - "order flow" and the DOM is a lie. And according to the CFTC complaints the automated bots are designed expressly to create deception and squeeze.
I was listening to a podcast lately,
The guy featured was a well known veteran.
He said he was trading monthlies only,
because most of the industry is monthly based.
As they have to close and report to their clients on this basis.
So there is less competition extra than intra month.