Hitman,
I don't know if you will ever read this, but...
I was just cleaning out my bookmarks, and found your old thread on Money Central in there. A quick search led me here. It's funny because a
post in that thread led me to briefly become a professional online poker player, with an outcome that strangely parallels your trading career.
After a year of playing in my spare time, I quit my job at the beginning of 2005, and started playing online poker full time. I made 65K my first year, and was sure I was going to double that in 2006. I did OK for the first half of 2006, and then broke even for the rest of the year, while living expenses drained my account and my risk tolerance.
The form of poker I played had become a lot less profitable as the weaker players left the game and more pros and "wanna-be's" came in. I lost confidence, got burned out, and there was even a "princess" to distract me from the game. She eventually wound up with someone else as well.
I made a little under 30K that year, but almost nothing in the second half of the year. After this I cashed out most of my remaining bankroll and went back to work, but I kept a small amount available to play low stakes while I experimented with different game types. Only now have I found a form I like and feel I can be successful at. I'm not quitting my job anytime soon, but I now feel poker can provide a good extra income stream for me again.
While I've haven't been successful at trading yet, partly from lacking a decent bankroll and time to trade during market hours, perhaps I could offer some advice. You could consider the possibility of keeping a small amount in the market, and exploring different trading styles. For myself, I keep a couple grand in an IB account and trade very small longer term options positions with it, and I still read everything I can get my hands on about trading.
If you can find some way to keep your hand in the market, perhaps you will find a style that suits you, and will regain your confidence and risk tolerance. I know what it feels like to lose it, and in a high variance game like trading or poker it can be debilitating.