[aiki14]

I came at this game differently than most. I retired from a different industry and began full time trading without the worry of feeding my family, and I never excede 15% of my investible assets in my trading portfolio. I trade Stocks and options only.
So to answer James's points:
1) Being an Aikido practitioner gives me the confidence to face anything, find something in your life that does the same thing. Being a husband and father forces one to take responsibility for ones actions in all things. I endeavor to remove emotion from all my decisions but I can't say that I am 100% up to doing so, the markets are emotion driven and my emotions allow me to react to that component of things.

2) I don't know about feeling silly, but there was a sort of apotheosis in my life where I knew I had figured things out and would never want for anything again. Funny, but I have been more successful since then, than I was before. Something about a sense of confidence and inner peace that makes ones decisions more clear.


I'll add one more thing. I believe you have to be disciplined, willing to be self critical, and focused. The other key, in my opinion, to success is research. A methodical approach to researching positions and re-evaluating the positions post trading lends itself to a logical rather than emotional style. It requires time and effort, premarket prep and postmarket analysis.
My trading day is 14hrs long, maybe a smarter person could do it in less.