I don't see anything wrong with books. You can read books writen by Warren Buffett, George Soros, -the real- Paul Tudor Jones etc., while you can't receive classes from them.
I think you just have to pick your spots -- there are ways to make money trading, there are ways to make money fundamentally -- there is more than one way to skin a cat, period. Is a person an idiot because they pursued a CFA/MBA and took a high paying job? No. Is a person an idiot because they came up with a trading system that prints cash? No. Is a person an idiot because they have no formal system, but have made a living scalping day-in-day-out on the floor? What about a structured products trader that puts together complex near-arbitrages? What about a long-term buy and hold investor? If they all make money, what is the point in basing them? Simply putting someone down because of their chosen path is off the mark -- life, like the markets, is more complex than that.
Really? So none of these courses offered by Columbia GSB would be of any help managing money whatsoever? Wow, I guess Julian Robertson, Mario Gabelli, Warren Buffett, Seth Klarman, Leon Cooperman, Jim Rogers and Joel Greenblatt are all wasting their time showing up as guest lecturers. If only they could get some people who DID know something about managing money! Hmmm.... B8201 Economics of strategic behavior B8301 Advanced corporate finance B8308 Debt markets B8311 Options markets B8312 Advanced derivatives B8313 Security analysis B8314 Real estate finance B8351 Financial markets and the economy B8358 International banking: value and risk B8399-001 Seminar in value investing B8399-006 Entrepreneurial finance B9301-001 - Finance and sustainability B9301-002 - Role of private equity in corporate finance B9301-003 - Applied equity analysis B9301-004 - Arbitrage in debt and equity markets B9301-005 - Advanced applications of credit derivatives B9301-010 - The business of sports B9301-015 - Seminar in advanced security analysis B9301-019 - Alternative investments: Investing in hedge funds and nontraditional assets B9301-021 - Innovation in financial services B9301-022 - Applied security analysis B9301-031 - Equity derivatives B9301-039 - Mergers and acquisitions in media B9301-043 - Mergers and acquisitions B9301-051 - Seminar in advanced investment research: the analystâs edge B9301-053 - Mergers and acquisitions B9301-057 - Venture capital: risk and opportunity B9301-058 - Theory and policy of modern finance B9301-059 - Extracting value from intellectual assets B9301-063 - Investment banking tax factors B9301-064 - Championship strategy: the financial services example for long-term outperformance B9301-066 - Value and special situation investing B9301-067 - Seminar in private equity B9301-069 - Issues in applied portfolio management B9301-075 - Venture capital seminar B9301-077 - Seminar in applied value investing B9301-078 - Corporate restructuring for shareholder value B9301-087 - Seminar in applied value investing B9301-088 - Project finance in emerging markets B9301-089 - Seminar in corporate finance B9301-097 - Seminar in applied value investing B9301-099 - Money management
there's two distinctions here: -> having an MBA/CFA doesn't mean you can trade. (or any of the series X tests, etc.) -> trading doesn't mean you can get an MBA. one of the best teachers i ever had was the COO of a major fortune 500 company. my section at the masters level (no MBA, but i had core courses in an MBA) was outstanding, and i learned so much from that class, how to present in front of boards, etc. the other section - taught by a teacher with no similar experience - was, according to people in that class, one of the WORST classes they had ever taken, regurgitating from the textbook.
If you want to learn how to trade you need to be very diciplined and not give in to greed or fear. Few people can do this.