Quote from kiwi_trader:
But if the question is: "I want to be a trader, should I study psych?" then I think the answer is different. I don't think psychology is useless but is it the right thing for a trader to study?
When it comes to analysising the markets the psych side of it isnt really very hard (I've read all the behavioural psych books and some of the more recent papers). It isn't. You don't need a psych degree to get a grip on how the markets behave or to understand the psych aspects of panic etc.
What about the real issue as identified in my thread on why people fail: discipline and personal psychology issues? Doctors are not encouraged to diagnose themselves. Lawyers are not encouraged to represent themselves. And I dare to suggest that you would get better psych help from a suitably qualified other person than from yourself with similar quals.
Given that most psych issues a trader deals with are within themselves then the psych degree is interesting but not truly of much value for a trader - not harmful but not as valuable as other ways of spending the time.
So, get more quals that will help with an alternative career should you be a shit trader ... or just start trading once u have your quals. You dont need a psych degree to be a better trader.
Good luck![]()
kiwi_trader,
You deserve respect as your posts are often insightful and even amusing, but as you freely stated a couple days ago, you entered this discussion without reading the whole thread. So, I suggest you to do it so you can see that before my discussion with JA_LDP, I had already stated that studying psychology is not particularly useful to become a better trader.
GS