Re: It\'s time for poker players to start putting their money to work.
Hmmmmmmmmmm. That is a lot of questions, some with not very short answers. Trying to be brief:
How did I do it?
Worked my ass off from very early, great grades (all the way through), went to (IMO) the top 2 schools in the country, one for undergrad, one for MBA. Had good jobs every step of the way (started a successful business between summers at school, worked for a consulting firm my last summer).
Post MBA I identified a young and growing field (hedge funds) and focused on it when others were not (they are now, however). I also had a ton of drive and worked my butt off at those jobs and, most importantly, performed in terms of investment acumen.
In terms of getting started, you have to be genuinely interested. I bought my first stock when I was 10 years old ($40 total purchase). I was the only kid at summer overnight camp who got the investor's business daily mailed to him (sad, I know). The way you guys feel about poker and are this board debating things...it sure helps to be that passionate about stocks. This will show when you interview for jobs.
It is hard to answer your getting started question without knowing anything about you. The answer for someone who is a senior at Harvard with a 4.0 GPA is very different than the answer for a 33 year old unemployed poker player. If you tell me more about yourself, I could give you a better answer.
For starters...read everything in sight. Start with the Wall Street Journal daily, and include books. To make a career in investing you have to understand accounting for sure. It very much helps to understand finance, although its not 100% necessary (but its probably hard to get a job without it).
Also, the question of how to learn to invest on your own is very different than the question of how to get a job investing. I loved it. Investing in stocks has a lot in common with playing poker. You also get to be very knowledgeable about the world around you and have the responsibilty to ask, at every turn...how does this busienss make money? How do they defend their market position? What is happening to their pricing power and inputs? An MBA helps frame these questions...although I have not figured out if getting an MBA from a second rate school is worth the time and cost.
I will recommend books to you if you reply and tell me what it is you are trying to accomplish.
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