Volatility vs Opportunity

Can you really believe the ups and downs (volatility) of the NYS (New York Stock Exchange)? I was checking my accounts and looking at the fancy colored graphs that looked like the Himalayan Mountain range; one day up and one day down. Now I’ve never seen day-trading as a steady Income Opportunity, rather I feel the stock markets are long term investment and in general are good investments using dollar cost averaging as part of a diversified financial portfolio.
When I look for income opportunities I look for opportunities that I play an active and controlling role in. For instance, I have owned brick and mortar retail stores and in general my actions dictated profits (or losses). Not like the actions of some friends during the dot-com boom who were “experts” and made lots of money during the window of opportunity. When the bust happened many lost it all… I was talking to friend who was an “expert” in income opportunity via the stock market years 2002 – 2005. He told me that he lost $400,000 when the market tanked – that is not my idea of a controllable business opportunity and the income opportunity I try to hedge against!