Jonathan Hoenig is in no danger of being considered in the overeducated group. What's the problem with smart people and trading? Trading is probabilistic decision making in a dynamic, random environment. Read the Mark Douglas article in the June 2003 issue of Active Trader mag for a really good description of what that is. School teaches you to make rational, or rule-like decisions in a causal, regular and highly structured environment (to make a computer do C, you need to do A and B). Trading is a decision domain that has nothing much to do with anything else most people learn. Smart people make the mistake of trying to apply rule-like decision methods to a domain where that doesn't work. They are stuck in a local minima. They think they are improving with effort and time, but they will never find their way out of the matrix until they change their thinking.
mail2smitty: youre absolutely correct... look at einstein, babe ruth, bill gates, any person who is a huge success... and the one thing they all have in common is that they failed more then they succeeded however theyre failures were small and theyre success is great... you never hear about how many shots michael jordan missed in his backyard, or on the court, how many theorums einstein had which failed or proved to be wrong, or how times bill gates wrote a piece of shit code for software or etc... there are numerous examples...
Having said that, finish school and validate the degree with some experience. Don't think of trading. Not at the job, not at school. Those who say you can go to school and trade (or trade during lunch when the boss is not around) are not traders. Learning to trade IS a full time job. Nothing else will do. Richard Wycoff and Jesse Livermore BOTH said the exact same thing. At the grain exchange they told me it takes a year. They were right. Trading will consume your mind and harm your education. First things first. Put trading out of your mind until you have some solid business and professional experience and can have something interesting to say. The bubble was so harmful. People quite school thinking they would write HTML for 20 years or daytrade. Now they need to go back to school and finish. Social order was upturned. The carrot topped Ameritrade copyboy/daytrader felt free to lecture his boss and make him to be an idiot ("Lets extinguish this candle"). As long as the market rose, he was a genius. Now what. People need to get back to work.
I droped out of collage in my Senor Year, and I doesn't think it hurt me any. I will post more lator, but I am busy rite now watching Nascar reruns. Go Bill Eliot! -Jason
Dude, no one is riding you. We are jsut saying it's best to be conservative now. Regroup. Refocus. And things will improve. No point sticking your head out there and get killed in the blender. Don't worry. One day you'll find it whatever it is that's meant for you.
Gordon Gekko, not to say that your career in trading should end or anything, but sometimes in life you gotta let go. I mean, if you think you got the skills to succeed after getting more cash, then go for it. If you make it then great! But if u go down the tubes again, rethink if your made for this game. Believe it or not, sometimes people work their ass off for something, and they still go no where. I suggest you sit back and rethink why you think you can make it with say another 10k. What could you do differently? What did you do wrong? And again, is it all worth it? Possibly blowing another 2-3 years of your life for perhaps nothing. Its all a matter of risk and reward. Crap, obviously nothing i say will change your mind, but be aware that, there is a clear fine line between addiction and persistance. xbrxx