Do you have to graduate from an Ivy League school or other top schools to get a job at a reputable proprietary trading firm? Most of the firms I have done research on only recruit from upper eschelon schools.
Sorry Hitman, just kidding. I think primarily recruiting out of Ivy league schools is the most ridiculous thing . I know some very tech-savy, analytical minded people who are just not good traders. Some of these guys are so used to being right all of the time, and everyone praising them for being so brilliant, that they have a real problem admitting when they're wrong, and in trading that be fatal. Quickest example is letting a trade go against you a whole bunch. Take the brilliant Harvard MBA's that ran Long Term Capital Management. It's like Gordon Gecko said, "give me a guy who's smart, poor, and hungry...you win a few, you lose a few but you keep plugging." IMHO that's a trader. Take the guys in the pit for example, my god. Some of those guys have the bumper sticker " my kid beat your honor student up" Enough said about that. The point to all of this is I was hired by a great firm and I graduated from a very average state school. We are competitive with any firm out there, low comish, bullet costs, no tix charges, great mentoring, and so on. Sorry for going off on a tangent like that, but it's something i wanted to get off my chest.
OK. Read my other posts about recruiting advice. It's buried somewhere on this site. I wrote a pretty detailed how-tos. I did graduate from a top Ivy League school and that certainly helped me get into a top Wall St firms and later on buy-side institutional firms as money manager. THe firms I worked with managed anywhere from $1b-$40Billion. So, not small potatoes. But when it comes to daytrading, it's TOTALLY different. It's faster paced. It's learnign to read the tape and the chart. So, it all depends what you want to do! If you want ot work in the isntitutional environment, then go thee and get a top school education! And the holding horizon are much longer- invsting in months to weeks or even years. Unless, you are a market maker, then it's quicker. But trading when you come down to it isn't so much academically related. Though academics is a way to filter candidates since so many people want jobs like those. Trading is about good strategy, risk mgmt, and emotional discipline. good luck! -trader99