Almost all, I'd say 98%, of the people who created the 2008 crisis had college degrees, many of whom are jobless now. For some fields, higher education is necessary, trading is not one of those fields. It might help depending on your trading style but it's not a necessity.
There's some truth to this, but it's a pretty misleading comparison. Wannabe lawyers/doctors fail in a way that's very obvious and predictable. Wannabe doctors who have made it into any US med school very seldom "fail"; and wannabe lawyers in top-10 law school programs tend to do pretty well, even if they don't make partner at their first firm. (Of course, there's also trail law and low end law schools, etc., but that's a different story.) Furthermore, one's chances of being admitted to either med school or a top law school are very easy to predict based on grades + MCAT's or LSAT's; and these could be pretty reliably predicted at the age of 18 or even earlier, when backed up by a hard work over subsequent years. In trading, on the other hand, you could have a Nobel lauriate who fails miserably (several have, famously and at great cost to those who backed them). Worse still is the case of traders who have no success at all, or occasional lucky strikes punctuating overall failure, still feeling that they're close to "making it" in trading. It's certainly possible to succeed in trading, but it's also good to go in with a certain amount of skepticism and willingness to get out if things don't go well.
This thread could be for any profession with a high barrier to entry. First year in engineering school removed the 60% of students that didn't have the innate talent or consuming obsession, and love of the subject, to keep the fire going. Second year was a weed out fest. Third year was like the dark ages because it royally sucked (just like getting your ass kicked trading and failing over and over). But those of us that remained had really committed to becoming engineers. Then the pressure faded and the final years just eased by. I believe this is true with anything rewarding that is difficult to get. I think if trading is approached like a rigorous 4 year degree (I mean really study winning traders, and yourself), it can be conquered. "People who succeed at trading tend to have been succeeding at whatever else they have been doing, for years." -Seykota
This thread is laden with real stupid types, sometimes well spoken ones, sometimes not so. Emg, get back on your trading turret, if you still have one - with respect.
do the opposite, you are the 5%! based on your reasoning, then stop posting means 5%? absolutely not. if you just do not follow the crowd, you are the 5%. what is the crowd? they like to buy or like to sell, but they do not have any idea what they are doing. they have great expectation: make money. trading is not about making money, it is an intelligent game. once I asked someone who like to gamlbe in poke, why most people lost in the gambling game. he answered to me:those guys have super poke playing skills, far above abeverage, it is systematic. another reason is they use "under the table" cheating skills. as for trading, it is the same reasons. someone has super trading skills, they are patient, they are profressional, they can access to funds as much as they want (do they have fear in this situation, no, that is why most people can produce consitent profitable results in paper account, but they can not do it in production account).... they seek tips, put lots of indicators on the screen, hope to gain an edge. anything public is not an edge.
If you believe that you are a member of the 95%, then yes, you are a member of the 95%. OP, your attutude makes you a loser.
While I have nothing against education whatsoever and have plenty myself, the profitable trading strategy I use didn't require anything beyond some relatively simple math and certainly nothing that would require formal education in finance, engineering or any of the academic disciplines that are predominant on trader's resumes. I can definitively say that even if I had not gone through getting a higher education, I could have ended up with the same trading strategy. The fact is that the market is really its own self-defined universe, at least when it comes to short-term trading. Thinking that any discipline other than watching the markets and understanding the underlying logic of it on its own terms will help you become a successful trader is simply wrong. At best, the fact that sometimes getting an education can teach you how to think critically will sometimes help a trader by giving him the tools to think through his initial failures to come up with something successful. But, again, some people will already have this capability without going through formal education.