Did you graduate from college?

[deucy28]

How 'bout polling the other end of the school spectrum ?

I believe comic books may be a leading indicator for probability of success in education and into advancement in higher education, and probable correlation with degree of success in vocation, career.

If an 8 or 9 year old is "reading" his comic books and not just looking at the pictures before turning the pages, he has I believe a good platform to advance. Not just advancing the "reading" skill, but instilling patience before turning pages; stirring up the brain with thoughtfulness about the experience he is reading about in the comic book.

A parent when I was in the 2nd grade enrolled me in a book club. I started reading the books that came in when I was in the 3rd grade and loved them. I have a graduate degree. I know there are a lot of dots to connect between 3rd grade and a higher degree ! I'm just saying...

I like to say my pair trading / investment style is unique from other pair traders. I don't use software other than the simplest charts. That it is comic book simple. I have enjoyed very consistent success, acceptable to me even when it comes in modest increments. So maybe I have a better ability to "see" something in the charts; to conceptualize other than using a quantitative crutch. Now I would like to know if I am more successful than another pair trader when considering I read my comic books when he did not ! I may have to start my own poll !

 

[drcha]

I've been thinking about the parallels between illness and trading. To paint with a broad brush, I consider patients with chronic illnesses as basically falling into 2 groups: those who have "accepted" their illness (for lack of a better word), and those who have not.

Some examples of chronic illnesses include elevated cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, major depression, and diabetes. There are many others. The patient who has swallowed the fact of his or her illness is better prepared to deal with it, and in some cases to even get completely control it if the condition is not too advanced. Such a patient will take the daily steps necessary to maximize health in the face of the threat posed by their own genetics or behavior. Patients who pretend they do not have the problem (those in "denial") tend to worsen.

The trader who finds or invents a successful trading system can trade it well only by shedding the temptation to change it or to pretend that he knows more than the system. The successful trader "accepts" his system, as opposed to trying to change it based on emotions or rationalizing.

 

[jimmyjazz]

In my career as an engineer focused on advanced R&D, I have found that very few people without a BS can compete in that arena. A graduate degree correlates highly (but is certainly not sufficient) to be an innovative research engineer.

I couldn't even speculate on how education correlates with success as a trader, but I do chuckle when I see people who aren't in the trenches positing on the skills that are required to be successful in the trenches, regardless of field. (This is no comment on the original poster.)

 

[badvestor]

Days of hitting buttons like a monkey and making tons of cash are long gone. These days to find your niche you will need advanced programming skills in multiple languages, data management knowledge and moderate knowledge in statistics. I wish I had paid more attention to acquiring these skills while in college instead of goofing off and f'n around. Now I'm older looking back I gotta say I was one dumb kid who wasted a lot of time in college pursuing useless activities. I don't think there are many high school drop out types making it in todays trading world.

 

[ChinggChilla]

bachelors degree here

 

[Maverick74]

Quote from badvestor:

Days of hitting buttons like a monkey and making tons of cash are long gone. These days to find your niche you will need advanced programming skills in multiple languages, data management knowledge and moderate knowledge in statistics. I wish I had paid more attention to acquiring these skills while in college instead of goofing off and f'n around. Now I'm older looking back I gotta say I was one dumb kid who wasted a lot of time in college pursuing useless activities. I don't think there are many high school drop out types making it in todays trading world.

I agree with you. I am amazed from reading ET at the utter lack of basic mathematical concepts and statistics from a majority of the posters here. Many of these same people complain about why they can't get hired at legit prop firms. Trading is all about analyzing data, lots of data. And you need some minimal proficiency in data statistics and basic math which you get from college. I'm sure there are a few guys here who have the discipline as adults to break open a math book on their down time and learn but that is a tall order. You really need the rigor of college to do that.

 

[jack hershey]

Exciting thread.

I voted five times so far by imagining myself at different ages.

The commentary is very interesting. It shows how various people went out on limbs as they tried to climb the tree of success.

I was very fortunate to work my way through school. Thus I learned the value of money.

Luckily, I kept changing my major to find the key to trading. Electrical Engineering turns out to be the very pragmatic foundation for taking the market's offer.

In summers while in school I wrote test procedure and I did it out of the box. I learned that making money could be best done by being effective and efficient.

My first job after colllege was related to testing mainframes and atached units. I got to add ciruits to big computers to make thenm more effective and efficient. Boolean Algebra math was the nuts.

I was a designated hitter to retrain EE's out of vacuum tube thinking to transistor thinking. What a revolution to switch from one analog to another in basically a two veriable system.

My trading began by accident and curiousity. In those days trading was not done. No one traded. It was considered sinful by the public.

LOL.

All we did was set up a test procedure we found by accident. We graphed and I took a short cut of writing volume in significant figures instead of graphing the line. We could see an order of magnitude change in volume so easily since I used place holder notation. This is Arithmetic level of thinking.

8th graders, would be traders with three years experience in my world. 5th graders can do just fine to get started.

Trading involves three things: space, shapes, and the change of shapes. There is no math involved except writing out the Boolean definitions of all the element's shapes. When the shape changes the Boolean algebra describes the difference. A total of 56 definitions are required and each is unique.

Space is a rectangle. Now adays a screen is used.

The two variables use shapes. The independent variable dictates the action of the dependent variable. this math is not too demanding. It is learned in the advanced study of Arithmetic before learning to use ink is taught (now using ball point pens makes this easier. during the study of Arithmetic erasing is introduced along with the concept of Boolean pairs. Pencils have two ends: one writes; the other erases.

Last week (week 6) our learning team merged monitoring and analysis with decision making and timely action. MA with DA. The goal was to learn about doubling capital over time. We figured out three days was required. See attached.

notice there is no math requirement to speak of. Notice there is no educational requirement to speak of.

What is involved? The requirement is to do a routine using a language that reads, bar by bar, the composition the market writes.

A language is composed of letters, words and sentences. 21 letters; 35 words; and four sentences.

Formally, I have 7 letters after my name; informally I have Theoretical Physics on a sheep skin equivalent. The fifth poll topic, as usual is OJT. OJT is where the rubber meets the road.

The ET demographic is quite interesting. None of it applies to successfully taking the full offer of the market. Learn to trade as a child would deal with space, shapes and the change of shapes. Building blocks anyone? Learning Arithmetic anyone?

 

[TickSlicer]

Education is probably not the strongest factor in deciding who will be a successful trader or not.
Perception is probably the greatest skill or ability that distinguishes the successful trader from the unsuccessful trader.

 

[the_domino]

Quote from TickSlicer:

Education is probably not the strongest factor in deciding who will be a successful trader or not.
Perception is probably the greatest skill or ability that distinguishes the successful trader from the unsuccessful trader.

Perception? I think not. The reason people don't see is because they don't understand or don't know what to look for. Information and understanding of that information is key. Read somewhere that understanding of the market comes to you little by little. The information was right there but you just couldn't see it. Lesson? Apply what you read to what you see.

IMO, a successful trader MUST have a critical mind. A mind that questions and doubts everything.

 

[jack hershey]

Quote from the_domino:

Perception? I think not. The reason people don't see is because they don't understand or don't know what to look for. Information and understanding of that information is key. Read somewhere that understanding of the market comes to you little by little. The information was right there but you just couldn't see it. Lesson? Apply what you read to what you see.

IMO, a successful trader MUST have a critical mind. A mind that questions and doubts everything.

To correct the above.

Perception = sensing (10%) + inference (90%).

Inference is built. repetition builds inference.

Once the spectrum of trading knowledge is fully organized, it can be matched to anything the market composes.

Purposeful learning can build the mind's organized long term memory (inference) in about 20 to 40 days.

fifth through 8th graders can apply themselves to position trade stocks in this period of time. High school students take less time and can combine fundamental and technical analysis.

Be using the WSJ and a chart, a student can pencil in the daily price and volume and use channels in about 6 weeks of business days.

Today, the PC screws up learning for most people.

But the PC can be used to great effect if a person does work.

the most impotant part of learning the language of the market to be able to read it is sleeping. During sleep the unconscious perception is combined with the conscious perception.

Watching markets is bullshit. Monitoring and analyzing bar by bar is where the rubber meets the road.