I began in late 08-09 as a college kid, made double on Las Vegas Sands and Ford preferred stock and it hooked me. I’ve taken time off a few times for other things, and the first 4-5 was basically a donation to tax writeoff, but now that I can consistently be profitable I actually prefer these volatile situations (election 2016, fall 2018, now etc), it allows us with smaller accounts to grow it with the volatility. I have no problem shorting, enjoy it more actually because there’s a lot of scam out there, but I do everything except my investments via options. Much less capital risked rather than buying 50 AAPL and then just staring at it for months on end. New people without a doubt would struggle, but I’d argue there’s no better time to learn than during a market like the one we’re in...exposed to the worst right off the bat.