Day traders on the isolating experience of trying to make a living in the stock market
There’s one thing you probably don’t hear successful day traders talk about: it’s lonely work.
Traders say they viewed isolation as part of the deal when trying to make a living in the market.
Trading is a fairly solitary, niche activity, with scant opportunities to meet other people.
Being alone is a necessary evil when you’re trying to make money in the stock market.
That’s the big secret to being a day trader, a profession that, despite its bro-y, get-rich-or-die-trying energy, is isolating in nature, traders told Business Insider.
The topic doesn’t come up much in the day trading community, but there are signs that being alone is a widespread issue among the cohort. One 2022 study found that crypto traders and so-called “real-time platform users” on investing apps scored higher on average on the UCLA Loneliness Scale than regular investors or non-investors.
Daniel Alhanti, the CEO of the trading education and mentoring group TraderDaddy, says he’s witnessed an explosion of interest in day trading groups like his own in recent years. He believes loneliness in the profession is part of the reason.
“I like to call it a very lonely sport. It is a very individual sport. It’s kind of like being a professional tennis player or a professional golfer or a professional poker player. You’re just going to travel to the next tournament and do the best you can,” he told Business Insider.
Enrique Rendon, one 20-year-old trader in Alhanti’s group, said he believed being lonely was simply part of the deal when he decided to get into day trading.
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Rendon, who aims to go full-time and began taking trading more seriously over the last few months, says he studies the market five to six days a week and spends most of the time alone in his room.
But the potential benefits outweigh the cost for him. He dreams one day of being financially stable enough to travel freely, have children, and provide for them.
“I feel like in the future it might change,” Rendon said of his lifestyle. “I understand it does get a little lonely, but also, I’ve come to accept the fact that if I’m going to take this road, this path, obviously it’s the downside.”
Melissa Avutan, the CEO of BullMentor, a platform that connects traders with mentors, says she created the company after struggling with loneliness herself as a trader. Trading is naturally isolating, she said, pointing to the amount of time required to study the markets, especially for beginners.
“You spend so much time on it. I spent all of my mornings on premarket analysis, and during the day you try, and then in the evenings you analyze, and then over the weekends you study,” she said. “I basically dedicated almost my entire life to it.”
It’s also a pretty niche activity. Traders in Avutan’s network often tell her they feel isolated, as many have no one else in their lives who understands the pressures of the job, particularly if they’re losing on a trade.
“Losing that money and feeling the pain — I just lost it — and now I don’t have anyone to talk to about it,” she said.
Mark Lacy, a 67-year-old day trader based in Seattle, says he spends around six hours a day watching the market. He lives alone, but fills the silence by having CNBC and Bloomberg on while he trades.
Lacy admits he occasionally feels lonely and wishes he had someone to talk to, like on Saturday nights or in the mornings. But, it’s necessary to maintain a sharp focus, he said, as being a few minutes late to a trade is often the difference between making or losing money.
“I’ll wish that I had somebody to go out to dinner with, for example,” Lacy said, but noted that markets engaged him and kept him busy for most of the day.
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Kenneth Schweitzer, a 68-year-old day trader based in Vermont, also says he thinks being alone and “completely focused” on markets is also a requirement if a trader aspires to go full-time. In his case, it’s also “desirable,” given his many years of working in healthcare.
“I spent 40 years of my life taking care of people’s problems every day,” the former dentist told Business Insider. “So for me, it’s a relaxation.”
“Why do people do this? Just because they don’t want to be around people and it’s an acceptable way to make money, so why not do it?” he said of why other traders enter the game. “I think that’s a perfect example of finding a career that fits your personality.”
Finding other traders to talk to can be tough. A Google search for in-person trading events in your area will tell you as much.
Avutan said she tried hard to make connections. She joined a Discord group, a popular hub for retail investors. She tried attending meetups. But both online and in-person connections seemed feeble, considering that traders tend to be “not the most social people” to start with, she said.
“I don’t think we’re a community. We don’t have any communication with each other,” Lacey said of traders in general.
Demand for such a community, though, seems to be rising. Global search interest for “day trading group” is up 572% the past quarter and hit an all-time high this summer, according to the Google Trends analytics tool Glimpse. Search interest in “day trading class” is up 700%, while interest in “day trading coach” is up 325% in the same timeframe.
Alhanti, who hosts a nightly Zoom call with traders in his premium group and monthly in-person classes in Manhattan, says he believes it’s better to trade as a group. That’s partly because it allows traders to exchange ideas and learn from each other.
“The goal is to take this from a lonely sport, something you do by yourself, to a team sport,” he told his group.
