Career Path, Private Investing/Trading

[quickfetus]

Hey guys,

Ok, so I'm completely green here. I'm a 19 year old economics major, studying at a private school in the United States. My school offers a 5th year masters degree at no extra cost, assuming that you have the requisite GPA etc. I am planning to take advantage of this, possibly to obtain an MFS: Master of Financial Science. I have a couple questions:

1. How beneficial should I expect a degree like this to be (not from a "top school", btw) when I search for analyst type jobs? Speaking of which, which jobs should I expect to be "qualified" for with a degree like this?

2. If I don't want to work "for anyone", how feasible or unfeasible is it to try to go into independent trading/investing as a career path? I have fairly good analytic skills (almost master strength chess player, poker background), which I think extend to pattern recognition and some other things as well. Furthermore, how helpful should I expect this degree to be if I pursue such a path? I realise this is a bunch of questions at once. Thanks for any help I receive.

Quickfetus

[SplawnDarts]

1) I doubt it will be super useful but I'm not sure. Generally speaking the industry prefers results to degrees.

2a) Without a bankroll, you're hosed. How big is your bankroll?

2b) You can answer this question your self - while doing the degree, figure out how big your bankroll will be and paper trade that amount. At the end of the year, if you're broke or just scraped by, obviously the answer is no. If you got a nice return well above your expenses for the year, taxes etc. the answer is maybe.

Hope that helps.

[contortionist]

for no extra cost it is a no brainer.

[DespotInExile]

While you are in school, study for and pass CFA1

[Hank Scorpio]

Don't study for the CFA while in school. Focus on your grades and other activities / internships that will make your resume look nice. It takes a few years of work experience to even be eligible for the CFA, so what will waiting 6 months after you graduate hurt? Even if you want to take your CFA Level 1 in school, you can't until your senior year.

In addition, a masters degree in finance isn't really that usefull if you're heading into IB (I think that's what you're interested in, you didn't really make it clear). But if it's free it couldn't hurt. Also, if you're planning on getting an MBA, many people feel it's useless to use it as a way of getting into IB unless it's from a top 10 school.

BTW, I'm also solid and poker and a very good chess player, but I'm not sure how that would translate into being a good trader.

[APXG]

As other posters said, for private trading you need a sufficient bankroll from poker. The thing is, if you haven't made at least 150-200k from poker, I'd focus on that before going into trading anyway purely for development of the skills that overlap. Afterwards, while I think there is virtually a lock that any smart person with the right amount of dedication / effort can crush poker, this is not true in trading, and there are factors unforeseen from poker that disqualify you from long-term trading success.

My own plans are pretty similar to yours - trying to squeeze into overhyped IB jobs has zero appeal to me. I've made enough money from poker already where I can explore more sophisticated ventures, but as of now I'm not adequately prepared for them, so I'll just stay with poker and slowly gain expertise / network / finish up college(I just go back for a semester whenever I get bored with traveling around random places). Maybe in a few years I'll get a trading job if I meet the right people and they see potential in me, or maybe I'll just keep playing poker, start random businesses and keep running around the world. I spend 4-5 hours a day reading financial books / publications b.c. its insanely interesting and enjoyable - and maybe someday it will give me options as a trader / investor / entrepreneur, and for the time being allows me to skip classes and still get A's on all finance / econ tests. I truly don't understand people who've made 150k+ from poker who go wild about IB interships and 16 hour/day jobs, espcially considering most of them are NOT truly "in love" with finance like me.

[quickfetus]

Thanks very much for all the help so far; much appreciated. Since I have no bankroll, it seems the way to go will be to work hard for a few years, presumably for some firm, until I am adequately rolled to go into trading myself. In the meantime, I guess I need to concentrate on grades/resume etc.

Please, keep chiming in with anything useful, you've all been very helpful already.

Quickfetus

[pig4bill]

[ QUOTE ]
2. If I don't want to work "for anyone", how feasible or unfeasible is it to try to go into independent trading/investing as a career path? I have fairly good analytic skills (almost master strength chess player, poker background), which I think extend to pattern recognition and some other things as well. Furthermore, how helpful should I expect this degree to be if I pursue such a path? I realise this is a bunch of questions at once. Thanks for any help I receive.

Quickfetus

[/ QUOTE ]

How good are you at trading? What's your track record? Multiply your average annual gain in percent times your capitalization. If the result is enough to live on, the answer is fairly simple.

If you don't have a substantial track record and capitalization, your question is like "Can I play poker for a living? I've read some books and I'm real smart.".

[contortionist]

the kid has no bankroll so your questions are irrelevant now but important for future decisions.