wow, i just got through reading more of the posts - how pessimistic! i guess the main thing is to talk to people who are in the field now. i.e. thinking about being a dentist, talk to dentists. thinking about being a finance type, talk to finance types. i guess talking to us sorta covers the trader part, huh? maybe not, though. maybe should talk to REAL traders instead, i mean floor traders. see how they got started and whether or not they like their job. the problem with talking to nameless, faceless folks on a chatboard is that they could tell you anything. they could say they're millionaires and trade profitably every week, when in fact their broke, poor and about to go bust....you might get erroneous answers, not accurate or even particularly helpful. just my dos centavos, fwiw....
I had the chance at dentistry, good references, good grades, legacy.. just it didn't appeal to me. We all have our passions. If your not passionate about dentistry you are going to suck at it or make the minimum for your invested time working for hmos. If its your passion you will attract referrals and build your private practice with minimal HMOs and more PPOs ect. If your in it just for the money your going to max out at 200k or so. If you build a decent practice and reputation, 500K- 1MM is not out of the equation. There are outliers in any profession though. The one common thread is they have a passion for what they do. Soooo Whats the real question you should be asking? That right.. What is your passion? The rest is semantics. Good Luck.
Hmm. Tough choices. If you want to be an independent trader, you will need a nice cushion of cash. Trading is all about turning excess capital into even more excess capital. If you dont have $$$ to start with, then you cannot trade. First you have to earn a surplus of capital...then you can invest what you have left over to create a larger surplus. Also, its key to ask yourself, "If I started trading from nothing, what size trading account would I require to come close to making $200K/year ?" This of course, does not apply as much if you go on to be a trader for a firm. But of course, "trader" is one of those jobs that has a 7 figure salary, up there with "movie star" and "professional athlete". So as you can imagine, there is an insane level of competition for those few jobs. So it depends. If you want to be an independent trader, then I'd say be a dentist first and build a nest egg. Nothing inhibits your success more than worrying about $$$. If you beleive in Maslow's need's hierarchy pyramid, Trading is up at the top with self actualization. If all your other needs(food, shelter, $$$, good relationship....) are not met, you're not going to be able to focus on your trading. If you want to be a firm trader, then do it now. You have the ivy league credentials. Just be prepared for what you're getting yourself into. Best of luck, -T