I'm quite flattered. Everyone kept telling me I was insane, except for a few trader friends. And for the poor folks out there, it looks like there are some places that will leverage a 1.5k account up to 15-20 fold, no licenses. Most kids in college should be able to save this up if they start their freshman/soph year. And then, they can live the GRIND! What I mean is they can find out just how much they enjoy trading their own capital, which entails: a. fetching pizzas/working a second job b. having to work when all your friends in summer are fucking off c. having to TRY explaining (and eventually giving up) what you are doing over summer to friends. If you get this much flak when you're still in undergrad, just imagine the kind of pressure/bullshit you'll likely get after graduation. The greatest thing about prop firms like Assent/Echo/ect, are that they benefit the inexperienced noob who isn't under any real pressure to succeed (no mortgages to pay/baby to feed/ blah blah) Considering the barrier to entry (as opposed to a place like Trillium), young undergrads with some money to risk have the most to benefit from this experience if they are interested in trading. Now will you blow out? You might. (it might be 1.5k, and if you can't handle that, your outcome looks pretty bleak) But you'd rather do that in undergrad. And you're foregoing possible internships. (I couldn't do a retail broker thing with soloman bros because of the conflict of interest. Boo hoo, oh well. Just imagine having to "forgo" your actual career opportunities after graduation and this doensn't seem so bad. If you aren't willing to take this risk in undergrad, you sure as hell aren't going to feel good about it after graduation. And I hate hearing this "well, you can save that money and put forth a more concentrated effort after graduation." Bullshit. The pressure you'd have after graduation to succeed will almost never, justify the extra time/effort put into your trading, especially if you anticpate following a non-automated, discretionary method. Thats a big load on your brain/emotions. (the only way I can see someone advocating the save capital/more effort after grad argument is if they are going to develop an automated system. But even then, fuck that. One of my ex-co workers just blew out his account after graduating. Another 2 buds quit being brokers. I wish someone had told them how hard both career paths would be. I take that back, someone did. But i wish someone would have told them to do their best to TRY to gain that experience in undergrad. Once they saw how hard it was, they'd have never of attempted either paths after graduation, because I don't think anyone of them was meant for trading/or being a broker. (I only say this because of how quickly they all either quit/blew out. They could have at least tried to stay above water for more than 6 months. They all had a choice, but I think they just didn't want to grind it out anymore a.k.a "blow up account time"/quit cold calling.
use the resourses online that your school offers. By logging onto your libraries website, you have access to wsj online , bloomberg online, barrons, whardon online, s and p capital, mergent online, investest plus online, and the resourses online for free that you can get is invaluable. This is stuff that costs 10's of thousands
even if you are a successful trader, you might not feel like your life is complete without a degree of some kind. - nathan
Wow as usual you all are giving the guy that asked the question a bunch of flack. I can honestly say that I know completely where he is coming from. I am a Junior at the University of Maryland. Ive known the markets were the place i wanted to be since my sophomore year of high school and 4 years later i have not detoured from this at all. Honestly I agree with what everyone else is saying to stay in school. Thats important because a degree from Penn state is valuable and like they have said you can trade any time you want. Personally i want to try trading again after i graduate opposed to waiting say 5 years till im out of college. My reasoning behind this is that I run the risk of meeting a woman, getting married and starting to have children and before i know it I will be 40 years old out of shape, overweight, a mortgage, screaming teenagers, a poor sex life, and a receding hairline. If this is where your passion is then i say DO IT. You only live once and if you put it off you may never get to and you will regret it later in life saying "if only i gave it a shot.... what if". Now a little bit about me, as i said earlier i am a junior at Maryland econ major, wanted finance but spent too much time trading my first 3 semesters to get decent grades. Basically i eat sleep and breath the market. I can innundate myself with the market for nearly 24 hours a day because a lot of my dreams are about the market now. My grades are not great (2.5 GPA), and i live in Maryland which isnt by any means a financial center making networking harder. I actually worked Legg Mason (now Smith Barney) for a year and a half before college, thats when I knew that i didnt want to sell rather i wanted to be doing the actual trading, the taking risks, not into that bullshit reading what an analyst said and holding a position for 4 years, you know the mentaility that brokerages unstill in you. So a little bit about my trading beliefs. Basically I have surveyed various different markets paper trading stocks, options, futures, forex. As for real money I have only traded options and strictly as a leveraged position. That didnt turn out so well but i believe I have made the necessary adjustments. I believe that options swing trading probably wasnt for me as I ended up making most of my trades in DIA QQQ or SPY. I really want to try futures day trading, in particular Indices and the energy markets. My style is technically based mostly on price action, support and resistance and bollinger bands. Favorite trading books: Market Wizards New Market Wizards Stock Market Wizards Trade your way to financial freedom Financial freedom through electronic daytrading (elements of system mostly) Reminesces of a stock operator I am going to try to get a summer internship at MFB but i think my chances of getting that are slim to none and slim left town. Im not sure what alternatives I have. Basically i need a steady paying job or my parents will cut me off completely. They have agreed to help me financially till i graduate as long as I am working the summers while not in school. I am willing to move to NYC Chicago or wherever for the summer for a steady paying job in the markets. I do not care if Im working for a senior trader either as long as our styles are comparable. I am just looking to get my foot in the door. Help? Sorry if i stole your thread too btw. I have read ET for 2 years now but never got around to posting because of the flaming that the n00bs here often take.
Dreams, dreams, dreams. Trading is about hard reality. And then there is the poor little fragile noob flamed at the moment of emerging from his chrysalis. Oh deary me.
see even i took it hehe, truth is I know i want to trade or atleast i must give it another shot. Why do people discourage other people from getting into this business when they themselves are hooked on it and enjoy it. I was looking for kind of productive responce not a flame, but thanks anyway.
Brent I think you and I are in exactly the same boat. I'm a junior at FSU studying Econ and trying to intern anywhere taking apps. GPA is not great either but who gives a shit, I spend more time reading books on trading and researching stocks than I do studying so I guess its only fair. Nice to see other young guys on here with similar goals.
I'm from PSU and the dude that trades on the desk next to me is too (we were there at the same time but didn't know each other). I wasn't in business but the smeal college is really good...apparenty they have a really nice trading room, so find it. A chick my ex knew in finance wanted to trade and she interned a few years selling bonds and getting some time working w/ bond traders at merril lynch. There's also a PSU trading club that trades S&P stocks w/ real money and won some competition last year. So find all that stuff and surround yourself with those people, thats the first step. Second step will probably be learning enough about markets to know you don't wanna trade stocks, you wanna trade derivatives.
For whoever talked smack about PSU for business they need to wake up. Sure it doesnt have the rep that wharton does but they do have THE BEST trading lab in the country. I found out about their trading lab after i was accepted to Maryland. Our trading lab is pretty nice too but no where near PSU. PSU has TRADESTATION even for their students, no TS here at UMD just some reuters stuff. Ive never even stepped foot into ours too scared lol. As far as the other students here particularlly the finance students they are all corrupted I like to think because they believe in that Burton Malkiel efficient market hypothesis and random walk garbage. The students here at umd that are really into finance they think its impossible to beat the market, (as pretty much taught by professors). The academic side does not interest me at all because there is absolutely no application to it. Show a finance professor a chart and say I think we broke some major resistance ahe he will look at you like your showing him some mortal sin. Showing a prof a chart is like showing the devil a cross. Drew send me a PM if your interested in finding a summer internship maybe we can hunt together. John who do you trade for? Did you start right out of college, I really dont like the idea of going prop right out of college using my own money. Parents also frown on the idea right out of college of going prop. Basically out of college im looking for a steady paycheck while i learn from other traders or even trading under a senior traders supervision. The steady paycheck is important for the first couple years out of college as I want to get my loans paid off as quickly at possible.