So wrong. "Smartest most educated people" are usually bad traders. Of course, you will get some exceptions : Jim Simmons or Edward Thorp for example. But top MBA's from Harvard, Stanford ? etc. => they will generally fail. Why? Because : - they master theory, not practice and psychology - they will earn much more money being executives or managers than traders - they just can't accept being wrong. CM
If getting rich is your prime motivation, trading is the worse career in the world. The best way to get rich is to get a good education and get a good job and live like you are poor and invest every penny you don't spend in something, anything, stocks, bonds real estate, commodities, old cars, art, anything. Trading is for people who want to trade and don't care how poor they are. I've been rich and I've been a trader, and I like being a trader a lot better, even though it doesn't pay much most of the time. otherwise, my bullshit detector says you are not who you say you are, and a good bullshit detector is the first requirement for trading
recently there have been a flood of 21 years olds here with questionable abilities but all want to become traders, and all asking public's opinion if u want to try to be a trader try to be a trader - do not ask questions here or anywhere chances are very slim, but you never know
Most people fail at trading. Getting a top MBA allows you get into a decent hedge fund or bank. That alone improves one's odds dramatically.
Think about it CM You really think surf is willing to admit..., it that dumb SOB staring back at him in a mirror..., that sabotaged his trading/ killed his opportunity or... It has to be the brightest .., most educated ========================== Trading has transformed surf into a eunuch - all he can do now is justify remaining one by regurgitating the same ole - it can't be done Otherwise..., he'll go to his grave... knowing RN
I disagree and believe facts/history prove your idea wrong. Perhaps in the 1980's/90's you wpuld have been correct-- however today the most succesful traders are highly educated or at the very least hire highly educated folks to help them navigate the markets. Take a look at any list of top performing traders today, they are mostly all highly educated.
Being really great at trading takes time and is a relatively rare feat. (that kind of goes with everything in life) You don't need to be supersmart to be a great trader...those snobby degree types are more for fund managers who are happy with their 7% a year returns to their investors.
While I think going to a top notch school is good for a trader in a sense that most people who went to a top school have the "hard work" ethic down. But does that mean they will automatically be a great trader? Absolutely not. You can't teach the discipline and the emotional control one needs to become a great trader at some school. I have worked on trading desks with all kinds. One of my first trading gigs was for a CTA who basically threw 4 of us onto a trading desk for a month and said we will only hire 2 of you guys. We had to execute for their trading model, and were allowed to take small spec positions on our own. They kept the top 2. My background was good (went to Syracuse), but 2 of the other guys were from Cornell and Harvard. The 4th guy came from Michigan. Well......Cornell guy didn't want to execute and had the balls to tell the head trader he wanted to only speculate. They said "you'd better do what the hell we told you to." He did a half ass job executing, and got smoked trading. We had access to 12 markets(this was in 1992, before their was screen trading, all trades were done with brokers on the floor). Cornell would have positions in all 12 markets from bell to bell. He was canned after the 4 week trial. Harvard guy had left Salomon Bothers trainee program to try and get this job. He was probably the first "blow up" trader I ever traded by. He basically was a pure fundamentals guy who refused to take a loss. He would put on positions in all of the currencies and just keep averaging down over and over. His famous line was "My fundamentals are right, the market is wrong". He was a trip. We were told the dress code for was us Khaki pants and a dress shirt. This guy would come in every day in a very expensive suit. He would tell us he wanted to "dress the part". Needless to say he never made it to happy hour with us. Anyways, Harvard was fired the first Monday of week 3 after being told to exit a Swiss Franc short that was like 200 ticks against him from the previous 2 days. He held the position over the weekend as a last ditch attempt after being told to exit it. SF opened down 10 ticks or so. They canned him even though he pleaded" But look, it's coming in". So at the end of the day, myself and the other guy from Michigan got the jobs, and the Ivy League guys got shown the door. I guess my point after all of this is, in the trading world it's not how smart you are, it's how you handle discipline, emotions....among other things. Over the years I have worked with traders from top schools, and one of the things I did notice was a lot of them have a problem admitting they are wrong. Which is deadly in the trading game. In reality some of the best guys who showed me the ropes when I started trading were guys who didn't have crazy pedigrees from top schools, some barely got out of high school. But they had what it took to make a lot of money trading.