(One day later) Never went to college: 0 = 0% Some college: 6 = 23.08% Undergraduate degree: 7 = 26.92% Graduate degree: 13 = 50.00% So far it seems the trolls are educated. It will be interesting to see the results a month from now.
Never attended higher education, my vote reflects that. To be honest my life experiences of graduates has been mixed, and has occasionally been a bugbear of mine. Some, though highly intelligent, are excellent people. Thoughtful, humble and capable of realistic critical thinking. Others, not as bright as they like to make out, but they have distinct superiority complex because they took 'higher education'. I also received CVs from IT graduates, when I ran my own business. The work they'd produced was hopelessly impractical, compared to the work of self-taught IT bods. I firmly believe that academic qualifications aren't indicative of one's intelligence or talent.
You don't "need" a post-grad degree to succeed in the markets.... and having one doesn't assure success. You can be a BIG market winner with skills which could be taught to the average 8th grader.
Doesn't "mental makeup" infer something innate? That is, "winning traders are born?" (Of course that's a baited question. If one believes "successful trading can be taught to an 8th grader", then "innate ability" is not applicable.)
Depends if one is being taught an objective vrs subjective method. If there is subjectivity in the approach, then I believe one needs a certain range of natural mental ability (or a certain amount of market experience to overcome the lack of natural intelligence/emotional control). If we are talking about teaching an 8th grader, chances are they won't have that experience but it won't matter much if the method is objective.
Statistics and calculus are pretty important skills for a trader, and in general are only taught in a rigorous way in college. Anyone who doesn't go is going to have a lot of self study ahead of them.