Are you kidding? Read the Paul Tudor Jones interview from market wizards again. He is the biggest and best there is- running five or six billion last time I checked- and yet he displays about as much ego as my mailman. He displayed the same humble nature in an interview two years ago- ten or fifteen years after he had established his reputation as one of the greatest of all time- and he STILL came across as super humble. When the interviewer asked him what he thought he would be remembered for, his response was "no one will remember me." And he said it as if he didn't care- and he doesn't. I won't ever forget that. PTJ was one of my first inspirations. Screw ego. Humility is what gets you across the finish line, in trading and in life.
One more caveat... The only time and place when a really solid academic/education would be useful in trading is in quant trading. Quant trading on Street or prop firms or hedge funds are real serious operations. They hire only top school Phds(ms or MBAS are excluded). That means usually the best phds in math, physics, compsci, finance get into these groups and they build rather esoteric models,etc. For example, at the bond arb group at Solly , they got ex-professors from MIT, Berkeley, and Harvard as modelers and traders. And they hire peopel with masters as mere analyst to code for them. they can't even do real mdoellign or trading with anything less than a superb phds from a top school. But if you are a technical or discretionary trader perhaps pyschology plays more than model building... but in the prop trading/daytrading space i think most ppl(99%) are either discrentionary or technical so, i think education might not be that big of a component... trader99
Yes, but not only IV league grads but others have problems with EGO (speaking from experience). Sometimes I am too smart for my own good. I sometimes have to figuratively hit myself with the stupid stick so I can make the profits. It's easy to out-think yourself and end up making mistakes. It takes a simple kind of discipline to follow that (boring but proven profitable) plan instead of making it up as you go along (and regretting it later).
Tri, Yeah I wasnt suggesting at all that IV traders are the only ones effected by this... I myself barey got out of high school and had to do A LOT of work getting it out of the way PEACE and good traing, Commisso
I know it's not about Trading per se, but if you want to read some interesting correlations (non!) between making money and education levels, check out the 'Millionaire Mind' by Thomas Stanley. Here's the link on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...9791279/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/002-0252125-8479247
Commisso, So nice to read your posts again! Yes EGO is the big enemy of all of us no matter what the background (I wasn't disagreeing with you). I have found great help from the advice you have given and hope you will continue posting. I'm making my way through George Leonard's Mastery right now and really felt the connection when I read the chapter on "surrender" (as the thing I need to work on most).
To put things in perspective, a drunk walking into Caesar's Palace can parlay $100 into $3 million, by doubling up randomly in a game of baccarat, with a probability of a little over .002% (ignoring table limits of course). I don't think darkhorse has to worry about the certainty and smugness with which you grossly understated his chances of success - he just has to look at the plight of many of the recent stocks on Goldman's Recommended List, equity boy.
Highest I ever got was the 11th grade before I dropped out to trade full-time. Now, trading and running a dinky website. Yes, I'm stupid but I'm a decent trader....I think so anyway. G
Here's what I think. Trading is NOT a traditional job where education, credentials, and normal kinds of work is needed. Most people in our society have been programmed to believe the reason they are monetarily successful because 1) they worked hard 2) studied hard 3) went to the right school etc. That's how your rise up in most typical professions - medicine, law, and corporate jobs. Trading in its purest form(not Wall St. market-making or ibanking) is more nebulous. Suppose, in 1987, you were one of the lucky few who loaded up on put options, you would have raked in millions for perhaps a few months work. Most of it just waiting for the market to crash. And a lot of normal working people might find that "not fair" or call that "lucky" or whatever. It might be combinations of both. But so, people like to ASCRIBE their TRADING SUCCESS to their intelligence as well. But it's not very correlated to intelligence at least not in the school-academic sense. You were smart enough to see a market top and short or bought put options. But of course you didn't know the crash would have came. It's a different kind of "smartness". you know what i mean?? But that's why traders are so eager to claim their smartness to trading success what else can they say? luck? that doesn't sound too good.. Have you guys read Nassim Taleb's book "Fooled by Randomness" it's a very good book. That should give you some perspective on the real nature of trading and markets... trader99