Well, Jim Clarke got a Phd and was professor at Stanford in computer science. A few people mentioned it. The rest are true dropouts. But noticed how long ago that was. Almost a century ago. I wonder if the same level of success can be achieved today without some kind of formal education.
Barriers to entry to many professions are continually rising. If you read the Market Wizard series of books, many of them recounted as recent as the 1970s, a lot of Wall Street traders were bascially sharp boys from Brooklyn who never went to college or even high school. And they worked at Big Wall St firms too. The thing is that the business was "simpler" than. Then in the 80s, they started requiring college degrees. Then MBAs. Then good top school MBAs. And now the rage is Phd in quantitative field just to do prop trading or research. So, the bar is constantly raised. It's also because the field of finance has gotten more complex as well. Now, if you want to trade derivatives especially exotics, they like you to have at least a master in engineering, math, compsci, physics or something. Because it requires at least some level of quantitative education to even begin to understand the basics of these instruments. And some of these groups, even LOOK DOWN at a MBA from Harvard or stuff like that, because a Phd is more useful at this particulat type of trading.
Having said all that, I think TRADING HAS very LOW CORRELATIONS with intelligence, formal education, or anyting else in life. Having studied a lot of math, engineering, compsci, finance at a top school, I can say it only applies marginally to trading. And in the most RECENT article of ActiveTrader, Victor Niederrhoffer said,"Unfortunately, I found no correlations between trading success and intelligence" HAHA! This is coming from Mr. Harvard undergrad, Phd Univ of Chicago guy. haha.
So, that tells that the game of trading is played between your ears. Control your mind and you'll master trading. It's easier said than done.
But for everything else, education is a requirement. Like doctors. I wouldn't go to a doctor if he didn't go to medical school and learned anatomy inside out and his subspecialty. Same with lawyers. etc.
There's nothing wrong or bad with not having a formal education. But having some wouldn't hurt. That's my opinion on it. I just see it as learning for learning sakes. And learning comes in all forms. Just not books and schools.
, some of these ET'ers really know how to make it sound good anyway.
I should have been more specific. I do day trade, but only the SPY with a 62.7% accuracy. I do OK with it but my bread and butter comes from the swing trades. Holding about 3-5, 500-1k shares positions, minimum 2-1 ratio with an accuracy comparable to my SPY strategy is more than enough to make a living. All my trades come from software that I have programmed to scan my master list of only 467 stocks and indices for certain custom criteria. So the majority of my day is spent wasting time cruising the web. Sorry but glamorous it isn't.