don't go to college unless you are getting a math / science related major. i don't care if you are on a full ride scholarship 99% of liberal arts degrees are worthless. if you are going to try trading you should also be prepared to fail since as much as 90%+ of traders do fail, so i'd think about going to a trade school at the same time. or you can be an innovator and just take all of the online courses that MIT offers for free since it would not surprise me if 5-10 years from now those "certificates of completion" are regarded with equal respect to small school degrees.
What if you start trading and then develope a "twitch" in your eye? You'll have to go back to college and everyone will laugh at you because your eye twitches.
Day trading has no transferable skill set to another profession-- that is its main issue---as a hobby its a blast, or if you have other income its a great challenge-- but if you are poor like most of us, its the wrong road for fulltime emersion for almost everyone. Starting a business is the only hope for most young people today. Here's how i saw the light i was hired out of law school( never completely finished) by an insurance company's legal department. I was happy to move away from home to the "big city". I enjoyed the work, atmosphere and people. Then one day, the VP of our division had a party at his house-- man, i was psyched to see how large the guy was living, after all i would likely have his position in 10 years or so. We went to a typical toll brothers type track home in a non descript neighborhood ikea and pottery barn type losers--- boy, was i let down. I knew several high school drop outs in Miami who lived large with mansions, art and boats--- right then and there, i lost all respect for the "corporate man" and quit immediately. surf
I am not so sure I believe that little place is his only home.... anyway, WB is an unusual character, i wouldn't make generalizations from his claims.
Or you can trade during classes that have computers as part of the program. I went to class 2 days a week from 8-5 and on those days either traded in class or would skip class and go to computer lab to trade. These where in the stone ages before smartphones. Now you can do it from a phone if you sit in the back of the class. Now for the truth. I would not choose missing college to try to trade. There is a 95% chance you will fail. Also it is nearly impossible to be successful trading part time. This is a business and if you talk to any successful business owner they spend a lot of time in the beginning putting in work. If you treat this like a hobby, you will fail. If you talk to any long term successful trader they always have a plan a,b,c and more. Also you will be more than likely undercapitalized, spend this time getting an education and working to save up capital while your monthly nut is still small and you have very few monetary obligations.
You should plan for what job/career you'd like to pursue if you don't make it in trading (the vast majority don't), and then pursue whatever education or qualifications you need for that career - whether a 4-year college, some kind of vocational school or something else entirely. Or, at the very least, allow yourself sufficient reserves of cash to be able to switch gears and head to school.
Sadly that's not true at all these days. Although one can hardly go wrong studying the hard sciences , college is rapidly outstripping it's value to cost.
I agree. Not to mention there is a HUGE difference between knowledge and getting a paper for it. There are plenty of educational sites and classes available freely on the net, no need to spend money on it. OP could get math and stat classes from MIT online, assuming he is good at self education. For topics what I call dry materials like history or psychology, one doesn't even need a teacher, just get the damn book... I still think the best way is to do both. Anyhow for anyone who is not sure what they want to do next I advise community college. It is a cheap way to get a feeling of college life and even get some knowledge...