You can't generate positive alpha without a PhD.

I'm a little late to the party, but great post whitster...

 

<i>"I'm a little late to the party, but great post whitster..."</i>

Whitster is a very sharp guy... excellent communicator, too. Always enjoy reading every word of his stuff.

There are quite a few intelligent, savvy "regulars" in the rather small pool of repeat viewers here. The OP will not be one of them until he/she loses the haughty attitude and learns respect for those who figured out what it takes to succeed in this profession.

A college degree of any type is not the answer. Neither is being "indexed", whatever the hell that means. I presume invested in the relative safety of index funds. With current attitude, good place to keep your money for a few years, if not longer.

 

thanks for the props, guys.

by the way- of course game theory is applied mathematics.

so is playing poker. ask chris ferguson

so is trading (at least for me it is)

one of the guys i learned from trades almost SOLELY from watching the tape and listening to pit noise. clearly, he can intuitively crunch #'s and see patterns like few people can.

also, the issue of trading probability in markets is not just about (or even necessary to) predict PRICE direction.

any student of the markets shoudl realize that volatility is more cyclical than price. and more predictable.

hint hint hint

the best thing to happen to my trading was studying market profile

regardless, i am glad to belong to the class of DOERS vs. the class of pontificators (Wall st. Golfer). the latter are like the old saw about cynics - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

 

regarding game theory when studying the markets don´t look for cournot nash equilibriums... but rather for bertrand equilibrium, you´ll find that it describes market behaviour better in the long run.

 

But has anyone asked if you can generate a PhD without positive alpha?

 

apparently if you have rich parents.

 

Auction Market Theory displayed as a formula.

No matter how divisive or off-track a thread becomes, there is always valuable information to be obtained from it (enclosed is a PDFwhich goes over the differnt models for pricing assets and their derivatives).

It may be infered that the markets operate the way they do because they are allowed to do so by a free-market, capitalist system. If the OP choses to be in the business of making a statement and then proving it, these are the formulas he should be looking at.

JJ

 

Where the f__k is the jurk now?

 

He got antsy, couldn't wait to start trading before getting his Ph.D, and blew out his $500 account on a bad currency trade.

 

oh? so it was all bullshit when he said he indexed the S&P etc?