I tend to swing constantly between being really interested in trading individual stocks and then not looking at a quote for weeks. To make things worse, I live in the Pacific time zone and the markets close at 1pm here. I am not a morning person, which leaves me with about two hours to trade each day! :/

I've always liked the idea of keeping the majority of my retirement savings in index funds, but having a separate money account to try and "beat the market", as everyone says. Maybe either give it $50 a month, or cap it at 5% of my net worth? I've read several investing books that mention this as a way to manage the urge to actively trade, but does anyone out ...