Oh thank you your highness for you wise words of wisdom, I will try to live up to your standards.....NOT!!
No shit. Anyone who as ever worked on the street and had to wear a monkey suit will tell you that. Bud Fox "You know what Marv, My dream is to be on other end of this phone someday." Marv " You got that right! Where the REAL cheesecake is!!"
I think the ivy does open doors more easily... This site is anti-college, anti-educational. I know I don't bother people with less than a masters for a reason.
What do you do ? Ask people if they have a masters before you will talk with them? Or are they so arrogant they where a tshirt with " I have a Masters " printed on it? I admit it, I quit school in 11th grade but the funny thing is every employee I have working for me has at least 1 college degree and some of them have masters.... ain't that a Hoot! Some people can teach themselves...others have to be told what to do.
Not anti-college. Just anti-college when it comes to trading. Why do you think that is? Perhaps it's because we are encouraged to pursue knowledge on our own, and discovering a method on your own is infinitely better than having one taught to you. I wonder how many of the guys posting huge numbers in the 2007 and 2008 P/L threads have degrees. I know for a fact that many of them don't. My brother is a Captain for Southwest, and I was surprised to hear him say that many of the pilots there don't have degrees. He said if he were to do it over, he would simply immerse himself in what he loved to do, and bypassed college. I'm college educated, but the only thing which has helped me as a trader is a couple of statistics classes. Information I could have gotten at Barnes and Noble. If you want to be a trader, then just do it. College is an excellent experience, and I would recommend it to everyone, but this notion that an Ivy League education is necessary to succeed is not only getting tiresome, it is complete and utter bullshit.
In this thread, we are talking in terms of finding the holy grail in trading. This is not about being the captain of industry or the pilot of an aircraft. Of course, there are CEOs out there without degrees. My belief is the golden key is landing in an institution as a trader. You are recruited right out of college and are given a guaranteed salary along with a discretionary bonus. If things dont work out after a few years then there are other avenues to go. In any event, you are making a salary the entire time along with a bonus. The lower bracket prop firm trader or at home day trader is an entirely different ball game for obvious reasons. The Holy Grail might be found there and sometimes it is found there, but its less likely you will find it there. The Holy Grail and guaranteed path is through the institutions like Goldman Sachs. You wont be penalized if you fail at Goldman. Only the day or prop firm trader is penalized. Look at Fabrice Tourre...the "fabulous fab"...even though he was called in front of Congress suprisingly he got to keep his job. It was a stressful situation, but a happy ending for the fabulous fab. There is no happy ending for the failed prop or retail trader if they screw up.
Exactly. And you and I obviously have 2 completely different goals. You want to have an educational cushion when you fail, so you can still get a job. I have a job which I have failed at and bounced back from so many times, I should get a "resilient" tattoo on my forehead. And that job as a resiliency expert will always be there as long as I am able to adapt and come up with new ideas when times are tough. Please tell me of a school which teaches that.
Why be a trader, analysts can be utterly wrong 95% of the time and still make more than the average trader.
Abby Cohen comes to mind. I'd rather wear a suit and tie than wear jeans and a t-shirt while being an analyst. 2 different worlds. Not for me.