From your posts, it's pretty obvious you should go the dentist route. I won't get into all of the pros and cons because that's already been addressed, but you seem to be primarily motivated by the money. Since that seems to be your sticking point, go into dentistry. If the average dentist makes $200K+, that's more than the average trader makes, and no way do 10% of traders make over $400K. You don't seem to be detered by the negatives of becoming a dentist, so that should make your personal decision an easy one, IMO.
You have motivated me to shadow a dentist for a few weeks to see what the true life is like. If its not too bad, i'll just pursue it. whatever. Money is not everything, but it would truly suck to struggle making 100k-150 as a trader, given the stress and uncertainty of this path.
Just want to add to this. Kind of off topic. Medicare can cut reimbursement rates at any time. If you think that it won't be so bad, talk to an independent pharmacist. Or check out what happened to the anesthesiologists when medicare cut their payments. Stuff happens. But medicine is still less risky than trading. And your odds of making bank are a lot higher in medicine than trading...but trading is a lot more fun
Trust me I know the feeling.. $75k, I'm guessing that's roughly 1x base for a first year jr analyst? I'm not really sure how the bonus structure works at the banks as the level of tenure increases. However I will say this, my luckier older friends who started at the banks and transgressed to HFs (when they failed the "analyst squeeze") have been making 2-3x base as their bonus the past few years. The 2 & 20 rule in a bull market goes a looong way. This is in addition to promotions/raises/VP titles in their late 20s, and none have grad degrees (nor Ivy undergrad), as I said, lucky. It's worth mentioning that they're capitalized enough, knowledgeable enough, and have a long enough list of potential OPM/clients, that they could start their own fund pretty much at a whim if/when the milk goes sour at their current cash cow. If you're trading independently, it's very hard to compete with that payout structure unless you're highly capitalized (7 figures). You also have to take into consideration the personal risk (the aforementioned incur no risk as they're handling OPM). They're already above specialized dentists now in terms of take home pay, no telling how much higher if/when they start a fund. You mentioned lescor & Mill.Man as the 1% that are making >$400k. I haven't followed all of their posts, but I know in lescor's case, he spent years researching & developing an automated arb system. A prop shop is not going to give you that level of training. They'll teach you how to flip 25k shares of F/GE for a penny at a time, as you churn at breakeven and bank them commissions. Ok that may be an unfair generalization of prop houses, the point being, making a consistent +$400k trading will require years of DD on your own. If you can't get into a HF or IB, I'd go specialized dentistry and swing trade on the side.
Usually (well, I've seen it in a couple places) a dentist is used as a foil to the volatile nature of a trader's life, so it's surprising to see someone seriously debating between the two extremes. I think you'd really need to have a natural appetite/aptitude for risk-taking and unsteady returns if you're going to be content as a trader over the long run.
Lescor and a couple of other making good money....all I can say is to not take ET, for all it's value, to be a gauge. Of my approx 500 traders, I doubt that 20 post here on ET, and fewer are regulars. As much as we enjoy the discussions, most traders are not the online chat types... Quite a number of Doctors and Lawyers have made ths switch at some point as well, so maybe consider both at some point. FWIW, Don
op dude, i would become the dentist, save the bucks, trade on the side, when you're good enough go part-time at dentist trade, then full-time at trading. that way, if you suck as a trader, could always go back to dentistry....