I have to disagree with the Olympics analogy. One not be an expert to succeed in trading. I am a SAHM (former project manager) who has been swing trading cannabis stocks for the last year, with a 48% overall return on a measly 15K. My siblings have had bigger successes with less skills (they've put down more). I limit it to a small amount of my portfolio, but there are others who have retired on these stocks. I do my due diligence but mostly rely on others (like chartguys) for my TA. I don't daytrade but rather buy the dips and sell a few days or weeks later. The first step is realizing much of the volatility is based on hype - and yes this is a risk (though the gov't has July 1st announced for rec.)
And yes, I will admit, I partially do it for fun. Relax, people, and set up your practice account ;) The growth in this industry is unprecedented, and there are many smart people here who could excel at this if they start thinking a little more strategically.
This is exactly the point I was opposing in the first place. You're using as your example a single year of trading in which you're up 48%. That is not a statistically significant result. It's not even vaguely close to being a statistically significant result. You've had an above average year (although not as good as you may think, given that the passive equity fund my workplace pension scheme offers is up 39% in the same time frame), but that says absolutely nothing about your ability to do it on a consistent basis over decades. This has been tested and shown again, and again, and again, both in abstract mathematical analysis that indicates perhaps 0.6% of professional investors outperform the index, and in flashy large-scale bets between billionaires, like Warren Buffett's "index fund versus hedge funds" ten-year bet. Incidentally, the index beat the tar out of the hedge funds, returning close to four times as much money.
You will probably not beat the index over twenty years.
If you do, it will probably have been the result of dumb luck.
The odds that you are able to beat the index over twenty years through skill are, if you're being extremely optimistic, about one in a hundred and fifty.
The real odds are probably a hell of a lot longer.
This is not a pleasant thing to have to accept, but it's true.