Big Mike 

Hi guys, Happy New Year! I want to thank @Silver Dragon for the idea for our newest poll, and I ask that you please cast your vote but more importantly post in the thread and contribute to the conversation -- why did you walk away, why did you come back -- what changed during that period, and more. Mike

I walked away 3 times. Not because I gave up on trading, but because I had to because I tapped-out my trading account.
After each blowout, however, I build up my funds and get back into the game. Trading is in my blood!

There are two things in my life towards making a living that I have not walked away from. The first, when I was 20 I worked as a auto mechanics helper. It was physically hard work but I really liked fixing cars, so I stuck and didn't quit. 40 years later I'm older but still working as a Master Tech on Maserati's.

5 years ago I decided I needed something to take the place of car repair due to my age. One day I found Mack of Price Action Trading so I started studying his teachings, bought his books and read all his post. After a year I started a trading account with NT and very shortly afterwards I blew my account. Studied more topped off my account and again lost. I'm now on my third attempt and can say I see light at the end of the tunnel. When I first started it was like I was seeing everything through a gun barrel, everything very narrowly focused. Now I see things in a much broader aspect. I have never thought about quitting, I really love future trading, so I'll keep at it, keep learning and someday hope to be a Master Trader.

P.S. My last trade was a success!

I have never walked away.

Walking away could easily lead to stopping.

You need to push through the hard times to make it as a trader.

Never walked away. Definitely have considered it a few times, but I know trading is in my blood, win or lose.

I stopped keeping track of how many times I've blown an (admittedly small) account. Probably part of the problem... sufficiently capitalized, I'd have more room to maneuver, but trading a small account in Micros presents it's own unique challenges to overcome... I love a good challenge, and it's easy to throw another couple hundos at it if we do it again

All joking aside, the personal strides have been worth every damn penny. If there is any grail in trading, it is the introspection that comes along with it. I'd be a fool not to mention the friends made and camaraderie here. Nice to feel that I finally found my place in this band of hugely successful people and misfits LOL.

I'm fortunate to have been successful in the realm of self employment and self reliance in my life, but these achievements only begin to scratch the surface of what trading and personal development are all about. Talk about an iceberg order haha

To the death, in for a penny or a pound, forever a speculator and trader. To stop now would be pulling the plug on the infinite possibilities of the future.

I walked away from trading in the fall of 2015. After having left my newly outsourced night job of 30 years in the spring of 2015 I thought I’d give full time trading a shot. I was a regular Joe (still am!) with a retirement account that I managed pretty well by avoiding the housing bubble crash. Back in the markets around mid 2009 and riding it ever since. I got the trading (not investing) bug in 2005 and was determined to trade for a living. I ended up spending the good part of 10 years searching for anything consistent in the Emini world. It just didn’t click for me. I turned to trading options on ETFs for about 6 months and that’s where I took some big hits which basically sent me back to the 9-5 world while my retirement account did it’s thing.
I really haven’t been interested in anything resembling trading since 2015.....until recently. I’ve bought a new laptop. Downloaded NT8. Set up some charts. It’s amazing how it all comes back like it’s all been stored in archive on a hard drive somewhere! LOL
Will I trade again? I’m not sure. But apparently there’s an itch I need to scratch now.

Prior to this i was more an investor than a trader...
and for the sake of the quiz, i made the distinction..

I HAVE walked away from investing, forgot about it, then came back...
This due to maelstroms in my life and forgetting to return being distracted
[for a bit on the maelstrom, one can read my journal i am now posting]

however, now i am in the time of life where life takes away more than it gives, I need income and more expertise
After all, I have a retirement that just capped out... i can take the cash now (small monthly payment) in perpetuity, some odd mix of that for me and my wife... wait, but it will not increase in size (but get more a month later), or roll it into a IRA type account, where i get to handle things... then there is a 403b which accrued over the time i worked my last job, and that has a good amount in it, which should be rolled over into an account taking it away from the people who seem not to do so well handling the amounts (i computed that if they gave us the cash and we put it in a savings account, sans their investing and changing over the past 15 years, there would have been more in the account than there is now... ouch! however, this account was only my employer kicking in, not me... so its a wash and being upset will not change the outcome)

so here i am trading... and trying to find my style... which given me, wont be the same as others..
my momma didnt raise any dumb babies.. though luck is another thing...

day trading is a skill... but do you trade stock? futures? options? do you swing trade with it?
in my journal i am exploring the math and how money management is key to the outcome
my sims, which i have not put up yet, show that with a sufficient purse, and great money management
you can be as bad as 35% succeeding, and yet come out ahead...
kind of amazing... even more so given this is a AON basic sim - meaning you have a fixed stop and a fixed target, and you dont change a thing other than choosing entry and letting it play out in terms of your success odds otherwise known as hit rate. It also reduces the problem to just picking entry points...

probably after the math i will start to discuss the various ways one can play and shift things.
for instance... being able to move the stop up in a percentage of those plays, changes the outcomes even more if they dont stop out...

I have walk away too many times.. when I was using candlestick and all this but with Orderbook it is wayyyy more efficient and easy to learn with the good teacher !!