You are facing the right direction, but went off onto the wrong track with the day-trading stuff. The first part of your argument can be a true distraction, as

You are facing the right direction, but went off onto the wrong track with the day-trading stuff. The first part of your argument can be a true distraction, as it is avoidance. It’s the same as spending hours making a checklist of tasks, instead of doing the actual tasks. The second part of your argument is not the same. Trading stocks has nothing to do with programming, so much so that you can’t even use it to lie to yourself that ‘yes indeed, today I have chipped away at being a better programmer by trading these stocks’. It certainly can steal your attention, but it can never ever be used as a form of self manipulation (therefore, not a problem if you do it in moderation, like everything else in life). It’s the first type of distraction that can destroy your soul if you indulge in it.