EMG, you are partly on to something, but to a significant degree you confuse cause and effect. High intelligence, work ethic, and competitiveness are all characteristics that great traders have in common. In particular, intelligence and creativity are mostly inborn characteristics that can't be altered in a significant way. Individuals with a high level of these qualities often have the academic qualifications you are touting - yet this is not always true. What makes a great trader are inborn characteristics, for the most part, just like any other performance oriented field where there is a high hurdle rate to success. Taking classes on "trading' or being taught how to trade in an academic setting is entirely unnecessary and misses the point. You also confuse the qualifications and qualities required to make money in an elite corporate setting, vs. the ones that are required to trade profitably in a prop situation. They are not the same thing, though they do have a certain important things (intelligence, competitiveness) in common. Your basic point, that people who are into get rich quick schemes and overnight riches courses are not really in the game, is accurate. Edit to add: I will modify your naive statement: "Higher Education is the key to become a successful traders!" To: "High intelligence, creativity, and a drive to succeed are the keys to becoming a successful trader - If you have enough of these qualities, you can get rich with a very high probability in trading or any other creative/technical business" More wordy, yes, but far more accurate.
I went to Yale. 4.0 gpa. learned everything. got 30 million to trade. put on the best trade ever via goldman in the fixed income market they then manipulated the market until I had margin call. then they let the market go to the moon..... they knew my stops everywhere. so, you can be smart and have a little money... but without deep pockets and part of the boys' club...you are doomed!! same thing with indexes. only hope....find stock not covered much....but 10,000 options. make only a million....they won't care about that. you can not beat vegas!!!
Here is an example on type of course schools are teaching http://academics.bentley.edu/depart...nces/undergraduate-mathematics-courses#MA_343 The REAL Higher Education. This is not no 3rd party educational vendors
University of Michigan http://www.bus.umich.edu/facultyresearch/researchcenters/centers/tozzi/ The school also have clubs http://www.umderivatives.com/ http://miiclub.org/
Samford University allows qualified students managed real funds http://business.samford.edu/bulldog-investment-fund.aspx HIGHER EDUCATION!
Walsh College opened a trading room (financial lab) earlier this year <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rsDKecWC82c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> The Walsh College Finance Lab featured on Money Monday with Murray Feldman on Fox 2 News. Live. Breathe. Business
University of Chicago has an excellent trading eduction http://www-finmath.uchicago.edu/ Mathematics and Computer Science are the key to become a successful trader and not MBA
Take a look at University of Chicago Financial Mathematics faculty background http://www-finmath.uchicago.edu/about/faculty.shtml Their background overwhelmed 99.99% of 3rd party educational/system trading vendors background. And yet small traders believe investing them will make them a successful traders. Higher Education is the key to become a successful trader. Higher Education!
Rutger has an excellent Mathematical Finance program and professors http://www.finmath.rutgers.edu/index.php?d=home&p=index http://www.finmath.rutgers.edu/index.php?d=people&p=faculty