What's funny is bond_trad3r is annoyed with this thread, and decided to start a spoof thread.... http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=276256
No they are not. What if I live a perfectly happy life on 80K trading income? Would you put me down in your arbitrary "piker" category? And some people are not happy with even half million profits... Please link me to any university that gives such a guarantee... I have a degree in women's studies (well, for the sake of argument) you tell me just how good a degree it is for getting employed... Here is the list of the 20 most useless degrees: http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2011/04/27/20-most-useless-degrees.html
After 5 years learning how to trade you have nothing. Even if profitable, you have no transferable skills to anything. So unless you get rich, once the market changes again you are screwed. However a college degree is transferable to many professions and you learn something. surf
Technical analysis has nothing to do with a business plan. I wish I had such creativity! Not to mention, how do you trade what you see, when you can't see it untill it has already happened? You need to trade what you think , as its too late once you see it.
Real colleges/university don't guarantee anything except that you'll owe a lot of money when you're finished... A lot of the for-profit "universities/trade schools" like the U. of Phoenix imply you'll get a job with a degree in your field of study. They won't guarantee it because they don't want to get sued by ex-students or attacked by the FTC for false/misleading promises. Good if you want to become an untenured college instructor for 10 years, otherwise very bad if reasonable monetary gain is the goal. Interesting that they find chemistry to be useless. I'm pretty sure the highly-paid workers in the energy and biotech industries would beg to differ.... I figure that most of the degrees listed are obtained by people actually more interested in the challenges offered by those fields than the money. Otherwise, they would've chosen something else. Or would they? I don't recall picking my major based upon how much money I'd make once I graduated. Don't know about you, but in my late teens/early 20, I never thought about my life beyond college. Perhaps because it was too unknowable...
Or not. One big difference is that chances are during the 5 years of trading I lost my own money, but most students take out student loans, so at the end of their 5 years, they have debts. But again, plenty of degrees around that are worthless and you learnt very little practical knowledge.... Just google the problem... And anyhow, the NSA will employ you with a GED, no college education needed and you still get the 200K per year job.
I see support and resistance. I see a level where price might go if another level breaks. I see ways to participate with low risk relative to potential reward. I see the action of price sweeping me into a position. If "it" doesn't happen, I see a small payment to the market. If "it" does happen, I see a paycheck! http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=276076&perpage=10&pagenumber=13
Did you learn those critical reasoning skills while losing money trading? Comparing having a 100k to piss away in the markets vs borrowing a 100k to get an education as apples v apples. Comparing trading to an obviously unmarketable degree as apples v apples Are you saying your only two options were to lose a 100k trading or to borrow a 100k to study Mesopotamic pottery from an online college?