You're right about not all successful people in the financial markets are "mba types" but I think I can safely say that since they are more prepared for it and obviously have better than average smarts that they have a better chance of succeeding. In general, who would you want to run your financial company? a guy who runs your local Dunkin Donuts or a Wharton grad?
Street smarts, psychology and a slight grasp on numbers is all you need. The guy running the comp surely isn't taking care of the books also....know what I mean? When I worked at Dreyfus they accidently released the officers personal info on e-mail. The highest ranking and highest paid individual (Mike Millard) graduated high school only...while everyone else on the list had MBA`s and the highest credentials from the best schools. I am not saying that getting an MBA is not an advantage...but it certainly is not a sure fire path to success.
I totally agree...the "MBA" has zero to do with trading. What does have something to do with trading is a bit of dedication and some discipline which (at times) tend to go hand in hand with (some) Post Graduate students. We have offered similar programs to other undergrad's over the years, and continue to do so. My main point is that we "expect' that a young college student would not have time to accumulate a little bit of money, but we would expect that a dedicated and disciplined person in their 30's or so would have time to acquire some seed money. This is such a specialized field that we have a tough time finding the right formula (other than dedication and discipline...). Don
The way you've asked these questions is to require some blanket statements in answer. In general, I would answer as follows, acknowledging that exceptions must, by definition, exist. "more prepared for what?" business management, perhaps. that can be an advantage in market analysis, but it isn't decisive. the guy who runs the local dunkin' donuts is probably a franchisee. that's a horse of another color. He's more of a manager. He's bought a package; he hasn't necessarily started anything, going through the rough and tumble process of building a business in a competitive environment, dealing with vendors and customers, etc. Wharton, eh? That's a pretty degree, lots of prestige. that individual would probably be well suited to run a financial company, probably a good administrator of a fortune 500 type enterprise -- a going concern with existing enormous momentum. (I think, incidentally, that the principals of SUSQ are graduates of Wharton.) but would he have the sense to get out of a trade when Geduld did? Does his platinum degree bestow upon him that kind of sense? Not necessarily. finally, the guy who runs the donut shop, if he runs it right, hands down knows more about the realities of launching and running a business than anyone whose chief asset is an MBA.
No. Its Really Not. You - apparently - would be surprised what a bunch of MBA's - yes some from Wharton - will buy. During the top of the dot-com heyday I worked - still do - for a very large technology investor who unloaded many a company to MBA management/investors. He added to his fortune - by the way he does not have an MBA nor a PhD - and the buyers of many of these ventures ran them into the ground through poor management and went BK/liquidation. IMHO advanced business degrees - from any university including Wharton- without experience running and starting companies are really vacuous credentials......