Take lots and lots and lots of math classes and focus on econometrics, statistics, and some computer science at some AFFORDABLE state school. After school, go take math classes at a community college or at some kind of math center, and don't stop ever for as long as you live. One class a semester for life, just make sure your brain is always exercised. There's two traders who succeed: 1) Ones who aren't good at math, but who have an instinctive feel for risk and balancing out numbers. These guys are exceptionally rare, and they will come on the forums and tell you they didn't need math and no one else does, but don't realize their heads are already fine-tuned and operating mathematically without them even knowing it. These guys are dangerous because their stories are what dreams are made of, but they are out there. 2) Quantitative traders who learn from their mistakes and can put real numbers to their edges, and know when a deal is bad. Knowing the math won't guarantee you success, but it's better than not knowing the math and also not having the instinctive feel for risk.
I'm a sophomore and just took honors algebra 2 next semester. I HATE math and I'm not too great at it yet I'll be taking honors precal next year, then probably calculus senior year. I plan on going to UNCW because of their cheap price and great business school. Gonna major in business and then get an MBA afterwards.
This is ideal advice. Since you're in high school and enjoy trading, you have an advantage in selecting your college curriculum. If I were to do it again, I would major in Economics and minor in both psychology and computer programming. This background would make quite competitive in the trading industry. The easier paths are a) going to Ivy league school, and b) having a personal connection at a firm. Certainly take math classes in the summer. I did that too. Focus on statistics and learn all about quantitative finance. Then read Nassim Taleb's books as well as the Misbehaivor of markets by Benoit Mandelbrot. That way you won't have too strong of a bias in how the markets work.
One thing I am gifted with is patience and some degree of stoicism. I never expect to get rich from the stock market easy, soon, without a certain degree of risk, or without hard work. I don't expect to earn ridiculous amounts of money at this point, or even 250 bucks for that matter. Learning is much more important than making a little bit of money to me, and if I can break even or come out in the black at all at this point; I have won.
Would majoring in business and a minor in economics also be good. I'm looking at these kinds of jobs before my financial independence: mutual fund manager/hedge fund manager portfolio manager stock broker any other suggestions for jobs in high demand right now? thanks for all the advice too guys, i appreciate it.
Cross off stock broker. It's a silly profession. Fund manager and portfolio manager require strong quantitative backgrounds, both of which an MBA probably isn't all that great for. The upper crust of MBA students can handle some of the quantitative stuff, but most are worthless loafers looking for a cushy administrative job -- they are all unemployed right now.
In terms of actual trading, then economics is more relevant than business. Since you're young you have plenty of time to decide a career path. But it would give you an advantage to know exactly what you would like to be. I'll try to give you a short summary of the players of Wall Street, but google vault career guide in finance. In my opinion, there are essentially three main roles in finance: 1) Sales 2) Analyst 3) Trader If you want to be a broker, then you are sales-person giving advice to other people. It's not much different than being a stockbroker in some sketchy boiler room pumping penny stocks or being a "financial adviser" at a wealth management division in a firm such as Bank of America.I think its a bullsh!t type of career, but it can make you quite wealthy IF you get good clients. That's the hard part, getting clients to give your advice. If you want to pursue a sales oriented role, then primarily majoring in Business will be beneficial as people's skills will be most important. I would argue that getting a sales job is by far the easiest way to get onto Wall Street. But be prepared to do a lot of cold-calling. If you fail to get a quota of clients within a certain time, then you will be let go. Analysts do research, obviously. Economics and math will be critical for this field. These guys are all about the fundamentals of a company, industry, sector, country, etc. These jobs pay very well, especially at the big firms. In your later college years, I would recommend thinking about the CFA. It is a very difficult exam with a 33% pass rate. Economics and quantitative finance studies at college will give you an edge to pass, and certainly will make you more competitive on the market. At the big investment banks, analyst positions are largely reserved for ivy league students, but there should be opportunities in hedge funds and smaller boutique firms. While these positions have greatly decreases since the subprime mess, people will always hire analysts nevertheless. Traders, in my opinion, are the big d!cks of Wall Street. At big investment banks, you pretty much need to know someone to get in and possibly have a Ivy degree. In the 1980s, 1990s, high school dropouts were traders, but that has changed. The trend now for traders is all about computer programming. That's how traders seemingly have an edge... especially market makers. For this reason, focus on Economics and computer programming. Additionally, try to incorporate some psychology and mathematics. Behavioral finance is gaining ground in economics and the math makes up the programming part. If you have these traits, you should make yourself quite competitive for a trading related position at a smaller investment bank, hedge fund, prop firm (real prop firm and not a retail broker one that advertise on this firm like Bright), or related company. You could be a market maker or execution type trader, or a 100% speculator at a prop firm. The most talented individuals are traders that manage their own money and eventually start hedge funds and so forth. Realistically though, your goal will be to obtain an internship at a trading firm/division, and work up the ladder to trading assistant and eventually trader. For some other notes, mutual fund managers and hedge fund managers are quite different. While they both manage money, their methods are generally far different. Hedge funds generally have short-term perspectives and while they have 100s of strategies. Mutual fund managers can only be long stocks and focus more on economics, mainly the business cycles to time the markets. Both careers require people skills, but aim for more modest goals first. Also, some brokers now a days call themselves traders. Try to differentiate between sales and trading desks and other types of trading. Hope all of this helps. Remember that this is my view and it may not be an accurate description of how the street works, but it may be a starting point. Good luck.
If you want to trade your own money stay away from finance as a career. In general with any of these jobs you won't be able to trade without going through compliance, somewhat will kill shorter term trading for you.