Career Decision: Software vs. Trading

[lapoker17]

uh, did the mods quit?

get rid of this crap.

[maxtower]

I assumed that when someone talked about trading they didn't mean buy and hold investing.
Now I am all confused.

[KingNeo]

[ QUOTE ]
I assumed that when someone talked about trading they didn't mean buy and hold investing.
Now I am all confused.

[/ QUOTE ]

There is alot of misinformation in this thread.

[ckboddic]

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[ QUOTE ]
95% of traders lose money.

[/ QUOTE ]
Uh no.

Throw it in an index fund until you go bye-bye.

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let me rephrase. if all traders were genuine speculators 95% would be on the losing side of things the way they operate right nowas traders and not speculators. the commissions would kill them. disagree?

[Orlando Salazar]

i should've said do all WELL

[etizzle]

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max,

"how do you make money trading?"

Buy low, sell high.

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ah, I see you have learned 2/3 of eiman's rules of life.

[lwlee]

If you're going to do a MFE, you should definitely think about becoming a quant. Wall Street recently has been clamoring for more quants. It appears that you're leaning towards trading but don't want the years of education go to waste. As a quant, you get to develop trading systems. You won't be able to trade but you'll get to learn how trading is done through things like algorithmic trading systems.

BTW, Berkeley has an excellent MFE program. Check out this guy's blog Quest for MFE

[KRANTZ]

[ QUOTE ]
uh, did the mods quit?

get rid of this crap.

[/ QUOTE ]

[llleisure]

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I've actually heard that MSFT pays better than google right now (have you heard otherwise?). Although I have to admit, google's campus looks like a vacation resort and makes microsoft's look like a retirement home. Also, I'm in a pretty interesting department (TV Web Services), and not in the boring Office/Vista/whatever.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh snap, you didn't say that is where you were! Tell Allen Y. Lance says hi, he'll remember me for sure lol. If you haven't talked to him, go introduce yourself - Allen is actually one of the best guys at MSFT you could possibly work for, so if you're looking at being in his group, that does make MSFT more attractive.

Not certain on the Google pay but right this second, I'd rather have a handful of Google options than a handful of MSFT options. A MSFT job may actually be lower stress and less competitive than Google now - MSFT is actually loosing some decent talent to Google. From articles I've read about Google, it's a pressure cooker environment - but it sounds like you might thrive on that anyway. That is the way MSFT was some time ago and parts of MSFT are still that way, at Google I think the whole place is that way. IPTV may still be that way and like I said, Allen is a GREAT guy to work for.

Neither company will be going out of business any time soon and both are great places to work, having to make choices like MSFT, Google or trading is a great problem to have. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[ep510]

Thanks for everyone that gave genuine advice to me. It really helped me out. I ended up taking the MSFT offer and plan on learning more about the markets/trading on my own in the meantime. I sort of lost focus on what my interests were, and I think I really do enjoy creating stuff.

Regarding the note about 95% of traders failing, I recall seeing that figure being mentioned in this forum about poker as well. Apparently, I was lucky enough to be in the 5% that was successful at poker, and I don't see why (with due dilligence) I won't be able to do so with trading as well.

Last note, I do have a girlfriend, and that relationship takes a lot of time as well. I'm still figuring out how to balance everything in my life. I guess I have a lot of great options open to me and sometimes it's hard to take a step back and really appreciate what you have.

Thanks again everyone.

Eric