Personally, I think college is a waste of time for people with real skills/talents and abilities. College is for the "70%" that cant find anything else to do thats productive. Of course thats just me. I had my 1st business at age 11. 2nd at Age 15. Made a mistake and got a job at 16, got smart and got a Job with freedom at 18, worked a corporate job from 20-26, had a sideline business that actually paid the bills from 21-26, then quit the corp job and went solo at age 26. started trading at age 29 to "supplement" my Business income. Blew up. LOL got scared, came back. Had a few minor blowouts then started making money consistently. If this guy wants to work a Job yet he is a good trader, I think he blew up. No way you would want to work a job and yet you are a good trader. Even when I blew up the major and the minor times I never had the desire to GO WORK A JOB.... Spent 2 years going to college, paying my through college touring the country engineering concerts. Finally I woke up and realized, "What a waste of my time to get a degree and I am making 3 times what THEY SAY my occupation will pay." I quit and enjoyed my life..... Anything can be done without a college degree. Just do it... Who needs a JOB anyway. I prefer a career.
This may get me yelled at, but in my business, being that I am BLACK, I hired a token "white" to get certain clientele. If you need credibility. Hire it. Unfortunately we are still in a racially idiotic america where a white face = trustworthy/educated and a black face = potential thief. I didnt find it distasteful at all. I merely adapted to the psychology of the clientele I was seeking. It worked out. The hire was paid via commission and loved it. He knew why I hired him. I made no qualms about it and was STRAIGHTFORWARD. We have a great working relationship. Certain markets he can reach that I cant. Who cares how we get it done, so long as we get it done. Business doesn't care about your racial or educational politics. It only cares about you making money.
Doent wurri, I never eaven went too skool, ever! Now im workin fur Goaldman Saks. I uwsed too werk for Bare Sterns, butt i lepht becos thay wur reellie rubbich. Hoo neads a collige degrie? Gud luc.
I'll add that since people here are traders, it's a statistics game. Yes, anyone CAN make it without a degree. But what percentage actually DO hit it huge on their own without a degree. It's a seductive draw because hope is an innate human nature. It's the same as trading. Upwards of 95% of futures daytraders fail, yet people point to the 5% and try. Nothing wrong with it, and certainly worth pursuing. But it would suck to be in that 95% without a backup plan.
LOL, it really depends on what your goals in life are. Like Dack is inferring here, if you want to have a trading career on an institutional level, advanced degrees are a must. If you want to develop your skills as a retail trader and manage money only for yourself and friends and family, no degree required. But college is about a lot more than just having a career. It exposes you to levels knowledge which it may otherwise take a lifetime to acquire (if you are even lucky enough to do so) and, as has been alluded to here, allows you access to certain levels of society and culture that might otherwise not be available. Having said all that ... there most definitely are some things that can only be learned in the realm of world, like reaver is showing us, and that my friends, is where the rubber meets the road. College can prepare you for the higher realms and better things of life, but you'd better have your feet firmly planted on the ground, regardless. I
College degrees are not about knowledge. If you want truth you go find it for yourself. Those degrees are about a homogenized belief system for people so they will fit the corporate/New World Order structure... I interviewed for an engineering job once that I had been doing only a year before. The description called for a degree, the guy that I had been working for, and giving me raises while I did the work, and was happy with the work, sat there and told me I was not qualified, and even admitted that I could do the work still... these degree oriented people are never going to recognize your level of skill if it does not have a degree attached to it... that is why I love trading, if you can do it you get the reward. If you examine your schools that give degrees, department by department, carefully, you will discover that they are either wrong or lack proof regarding nearly everything. You can prove that where they are right in one department, they will not apply that to another department... and you can only prove that for yourself because they are the experts and don't have to listen to you if they don't want to... they are comfy with their world view and that is all the matters.
Isn't the beauty of trading for yourself...the freedom it allows you to do whatever the hell you want, whenever the hell you want, to answer to no one else, ever? If you have trading talent, why even consider working for someone else? Not to knock academic achievement and education but if you don't need it for something and don't want it just to have it, why bother? Well, just my take, to each their own.