When I was in the university, I had lots of friends who claimed they were traders then. Now, alot of them have dumped trading for other jobs. I had an interaction with one of them to know why he quit, according to him, trading was not really what he thought it was. He was losing alot along with the restlessness and emotional stress he had to deal with.
Many traders now are like him. What truly proves that one is a real trader is consistency. Those who have been consistent for years are those I call real traders. Some traders who call themselves professionals are not really profitable from trading.
Trading is not bad because if you apply the right techniques and strategies, you will be profitable in it but the problem most traders do have is greed and impatient, you will see a trader who has made some profits in trading instead of them to be patient and wait till they get a clear signal they will just want to trade at all times which makes them lose a lot of money. Trading requires a lot of commitment and consistency just as you said though me am not a fan of trading because of the stress of always monitoring the market.