If you have $20K, would u use it to trade or you would go for a MBA/MS in Finance/Financial Engineering? Which one would let you learn more?
Question. Are you already a profitable trader? If so, and you can trade the mini's successfully 20K can go a helluva long way. By the time you got your MBA, you could have a very nice stash indeed, compared to a mountain (or molehill, as the case may be) of debt and the need to kiss somebody's ass to get a job and advance in your choosen career path. JJ
$20k is NOT enough to do serious trading. go for your education first, you can always trader after graduation, and have a few years of working experience.
MBA.. hands down. I'm trying to FINISH my eds.... while working on The Street. Difficult, but will pay off... 20k for an MBA is a good trade.
Take the education, the markets not going anywhere and you can trade when your more capitalized and in a better financial position. Only a fool would take a stupid gamble like your suggesting.
I was once in the same situation as you(2.5 years ago) and I traded and I've done really really well. I make $120k++ working for myself, but it's not what should be expected. The thing is, with an education you can do a lot, with a $20k loss you can't do anything. As little as I think of proper education, I would say it's the wiser of the two options available if that's what you have given yourself as options. Do yourself a favor though now while you can...take $5k of it and go traveling in some remote place(middle east, s. america, se asia) and you'll have gained something that most guys who went straight for the MBA or MSA degrees never did and your concepts about the world and yourself will be a lot more formed. I did that for about 6 months after having made a good chunk of cash in the market and came back with a much better handle on things and everything since then has fallen into place in a way I'm quite sure it wouldn't have if I had done nothing but traded the whole time. Good luck.