You Can't Trade Without A College Degree!!

Hey youngtrader what's up? Yeah man welcome back to the funhouse here. it's morons trolls like vastox that keep stirring the pot. See, vastox doesn't think I know who he is...but I do...

If I was on here posting that college is necessary, he'd be saying that it's not....

He's just weak minded like that...doesn't choose what side of the trade to take, he just trades just to be trading, if you know what I mean.

(Not implying that vastox actually trades, he just runs a chat room, but the analogy was for us that do trade (ie youngtrader, Icarus, etc)

Brainless morons like him that get into the fray are the best case for our side of the arguments..I just sit back and point it out...starting to get boring, frankly.

 

just gives you more stuff to unlearn



Yeah, I recently turned down a promotion to "the next level" at my job because I didn't want to cloud my brain with anything new....I am on my way out the door there to trade full time and cannot afford to allocate my mental resources to learning anything that I will just have to unlearn later...I have gotten very good at my job in mortgages and can still focus on trading while setting my brain on auto-pilot to do my 9-5 job. lol

It's taken me a while to get where I am because I started my trading account by setting aside money from my paycheck...no fancy inheritances, none of that...so the magic of compounding does take some time to overshadow a well-paying lending job. (just in case any smart asses were going to comment that "I'm not a millionaire yet")

 

I have been a member of ET for a long time but rarely post because 97% of what is said is not worth reading and is a general waste of time. Especially for the newbies, whether discussing trading or life advice they don’t have the knowledge to separate the wheat from the chaff, which is especially dangerous for them. There is some great info if you are willing to do some serious “weeding of the garden” so to speak. The same can be said for this thread as well. This topic is important enough I felt I had to weigh in.

I find Mike805’s post one of the best in this thread and it should be reread by anyone younger than 30 who think college is a waste of time. Black Diamond’s comments and the option analogy is also excellent. As you can probably guess, I fall into the camp that thinks college is important for the vast majority who want to prepare for their own future. I tend to be a logical thinker and believe the pros and cons of any decision this important should be weighed carefully. Those who disagree with those posts are entitled to their opinions as well.

I am not saying it is impossible to succeed without a degree but it certainly gives you more options down the road whether you are successful or not. Those that do are few and far between. I have a few friends who did not graduate college who as a group are quite successful. But they all wish they had stayed in school despite earning well into six figures each. Why? Because even though they do very well financially, they are trapped in their current positions and even though they want different careers cannot leave because they are used to the good life and would lose a vast majority of their earnings to start over. Most people are not willing to start over from the bottom once they do well financially. For perspective we are all in our mid 30s.

Now realistically, what are the odds of someone with no education figuring out the trading game and wanting to stay doing only that THE REST OF THERE LIVES? Does anyone in this thread know even one person that has stayed trading their own account their entire working life? Almost everyone who is successful eventually parlays that into money management of some kind or at a minimum diversifies their assets to keep their money working for them. A degree will definitely help open some doors no matter what you want to do. And we all know the odds of any of the above options working out. They are 95-99% against us succeeding to the point of making our living from trading let alone trading our own account the rest of our lives.

My point being that sooner or later 99.99% of all of us are going to be working at some point in our lives, whether it be as an employer of others or as an employee. By all means if you want to close all the doors that would have been open to you by not finishing college that is your choice. But I hope you are not the same ones complaining about “how the man” is keeping you down and if only I had done this or that I would be successful now 20 years down the road.

Despite the warnings above I am an optimist and believe there is enough success to go around for everyone whether you go to college or not. But as a betting man, where are you going to put your money? On the college grad or the guy who hated school? Are you willing to gamble your future and your family’s future welfare on that bet? I am not.

REAVER, you stated you are just getting ready to start trading full time and leave your mortgage career. I hope you make it. I hope you trade for the rest of your life and live on your terms. But we know the odds are against that. I will be pulling for you. Just be careful about giving advice to “screw school” to those who may not be as ambitious as you.

YOUNGTRADER, please take some advice from someone who is only looking out for your best interest, please go back and get your GED and if you can stick it out, go back to school while you are young and can. Because in spite of what is demonstrated here on ET, being able to SPELL is important to your future. Your first post in this thread is embarrassing. I am not trying to be a hater or flame you. You are 22 I believe you said. IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE and if you wrote like that in an interview I hope you can guess the outcome. This is for your benefit not mine. I hope you are mature enough to accept this. It is very easy for the educated to see who isn’t educated. And no I don’t think this makes me better than you or anyone else. My point being many notice and when it comes down to two applicants, who would you hire?

Of course as with every other thread or post on ET, take this with a grain of salt. But I wish all the best to everyone and GOOD TRADING.

I hope everyone thinks very carefully about this decision and its consequences no matter which side of the fence you happen to sit.

AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR MILITARY SERVICE to those who have served. My apologies for the long post.

BM

 

There is no black and white answer, yet college is worthless? I think you need an 'IMO' after your sentence.

 

Your post was one of the most relaxed and well meant posts.

However, I must digress, if only for a moment.

Your friends.... Feeling trapped...

I feel sorry for them, yet I don't. College is just but one way to extend yourself options.

In addition to what you've stated, the limitations one feels are 100% based on their desire and/or capacity to move into alternate areas of "enlightenment."

I have participated in so many fields of study personally, it took me 6 years to focus on the one thing I loved most. AT the time of my college travels, there weren't any colleges offering what I do as a field of study. Sure there was the specialized "school" but my career was not a formalized accredited field of study when I was on the "collegiate" hunt.

Now They crank these kids out at "accredited" schools with a full range of study. My biggest complaint.... They come out arrogant and clueless. You have to spend well over a year retraining them, and all they are really good at is operating a computer. They lack the "basic passion" needed to be truly successful in this business and enjoy a long fruitful career doing what I do.

You mentioned your friends careers and earnings potential being lost should they transition to alternate careers and fields of interest. Watching OLD money I have always admired the difference between earnings and true wealth. Perhaps with the financial savvy they have amassed, they should have also planned for career transition. Again, something college doesnt teach (or do they these days)

I have started and run a number of business ventures over the years. Some really successful, others marginally so. One thing I learned prior to leaving high school was savings and planning for your future.

The purpose of said savings being to cushion you for the inevitable career choice change.

Although my mother was the college groupie and worked the same basic career for 30 years till retirement at age 52, she taught me those basic financial skills as a child.

You have just reported a weakness in their mindsets that college cannot cure.

I am reminded again... Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

 

Reality Check.

A degree will last you forever, Money wont.

Now I trade FX, and I have been profitable. But I also have my full time job. I could trade if I want, or not trade.

I make good money cause I have a college degree, and I do work for a financial institution. Whether I win or lose trading, I would be able to afford the risk.

So for anyone who tells you screw college, then they are either probably a bunch of dumb morons, or just in their early 20's and dont know better.

Go back to school.

 

Sorry but that doesn't make much sense.

Both are merely paper, although money is more accessible to most who want it and are willing to work for it (by this I mean intelligent human beings who we are describing in these posts not the average Joe). Money is generally the goal of a degree, at least in the sense we are describing it here. If you can obtain money without the degree, then what is the use of a degree?

Maybe you meant something else.

 

I'd like to get some data on how the average trader's returns are distributed because all of the college-is-for-sheep crowd seem to imply that trading is like drawing a salary from the markets when in reality I'm sure it is often a feast-or-famine deal.

I'll try and do some reasoning about this but don't take these numbers too seriously:

Let's say you will either make use of a degree during your lifetime or you won't. For the sake of simplicity let's assume you would make use of it for 25 years _if you need it_ (from mid-twenties to 50, since we are all going to retire early, right?).

Assume, even if you plan to be a trader until you retire, your earnings at a normal job would be about $35k without a degree and $50k with a degree. These are pulled out of a hat but you get the idea.

What is the net present value of $15k/year for 25 years at a discount rate of 8% -> ~$160k

Let's say the probability that you will suffer a sufficient number of blow-ups to make you decide on a different career or otherwise seek employment is 20% (80% chance that you will continue as a successful trader for the rest of your life or until retiring). That still makes the degree worth $32k.

 

I think the point is that a college degree is not necessary for trading success.

No question it opens avenues in life that those without a degree are not able to travel...

But the point is, a college degree has no bearing on how well you will do in the markets.

P.S. An example of this would be that the majority of academics even up to the Nobel Prize level vehemently state the market is a totally random walk. Do you think their degrees are helping them much with their trading?

 

Actually im only 17 and still in high school. Where did you get 22 from lol?