You bring forth a very important point my friend...every successful trader have realised this at the inflection point of their trading journey.... Only difference in other fields is - if you don’t have it you still get paid on a regular basis. So yes, absolutely the OP should try to have a steady income from other job while learning to trade..
I lost $105k before I learned how to scalp and long term commodities and yet did well in long term stocks from the start. I had 1 government job, outside contractor for government in different field and rental houses when I started losing in futures, was married at the time so money rolling in but if it wasn't for other sources, would have busted out on futures. I have earned three degrees, heavy math and management, where I wished had gone was programming. I am not in favor of quants cause systems often fail after awhile, have to constantly make new systems as I have gone down this road. Better to learn trading outside a full time employment by charts formations well then can toss in TA. Seldom can one reach millionaire status working for others. And anything you develop for others you can't call your own. Work for others, learn-start small, risk small, build capital, when you have 3 million and house paid, you can trade with much less stress. People generally bust out due to poor money management either at home or YOUR business. Good luck.
@newwurldmn I have seen that most of the successful traders are those who start early in their life. If people start giving importance to these things at the right time, they will not need to look for a secondary source of income after retirement.
I did a degree in math (bachelor's) with the intention of learning anything and everything that could be useful for trading. Managed to graduate magna since I read math at a high level. Personally, I like futures more than options. Basically, error functions are good. A lot of algos are using simple error function stuff. You could call that machine learning, I guess. I'm pretty sure this relates to GARCH or EGARCH and all that. But, I would also say that knowing market making, financial modeling, and market structure/microstructure are just as important as knowing that stuff. For example, in something like an index future, there is the basis trade, the index differential market, and the cross/spread against bonds going at all times on top of the vol trade. Knowing where to aim the machine learning stuff and why is just as important as knowing the techniques. Signal processing, error/residual analysis, and probability theory are very good. If you combine that with real quant finance knowledge, you will have the insight to write some nice algorithms. If you use IBKR you can code excel macros using VBA and the free API. With TD/Schwab, you can use thinkScript which is amazing for algorithms and research -- still, I'm envious of the guys who have everything in their own custom environment. Data feeds and software licenses can get expensive. A lot of traders think you have to use X_Trader or CQG and the like. Not sure about that.
This is the only way to go and it's not really that expensive. I'm not about to put my algorithms on someone else's platform where they can see them. It's also important to have an environment that you manage yourself so you are less dependent on others.
Search for them - they will be great for anyone looking to start and learn trading. CBOE introducing them early next year!