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What course should I take to become a good trader?

Karl Mike

Joined
6/16/12
Messages
2
Points
13
I have graduated last year from secondary school I wish to know the course or subjects I should do to become a good Trader.I think about that every days and night and still hasn't got an answer.I don't know if starting with an engineering course will be advantageouse or not.I really need help and a definite answer to this question to be sure to have a correct pathway in my studies.
Thanks in advance for any replies!!
 
Karl Mike said:
I have graduated last year from secondary school I wish to know the course or subjects I should do to become a good Trader.I think about that every days and night and still hasn't got an answer.I don't know if starting with an engineering course will be advantageouse or not.I really need help and a definite answer to this question to be sure to have a correct pathway in my studies.
Thanks in advance for any replies!!
Click to expand...

to be honest, you should become really good at programming and i mean really good. there are some firms who require their trader to know gpu programming and some really really good shops even fpga.

if you are looking to enter entry level, most firms don't actually want you know anything before hand. generally a person who has very strong quantitative skills and programming skills (i may be bias because i'm more into quant trading). but this is the impression i got when for every trading position i interviewed for (even non-quant firms, they wanted a good math guy). something like market micro-structure is great to know and volatility surface
 
Which course should I start with to be good in programming? Are there alternative courses? From your response you also mean I must do alot of mathematics?
Excuz me but I'm a bit confused.
 
Honestly it does not matter what you do.

The job is quite simple, buy low sell high, sell high buy low.

Some of the best traders I know(in the words of Gordon Gecko), don't know the difference between preferred stock and livestock(they got shitty fundamentals), and they make shitloads of money.

Trading is all about timing and experience, at least for intraday traders that is.

You might go for a finance major to build your fundamentals or Science major for the quantitative skills, but trust me what you learn in class won't help you much in the trading pit. The market can be irrational and drive you insane, I've seen rallies on bearish news and sell-offs on bullish ones, unintelligible convergence and divergence, total correlation to inverse correlation.

If you want to become a good trader, start by opening Candlestick Charts everyday and make paper trades. Try Brent Crude, the market is never dull. You will learn a lot more about the market than you will ever do with a PHD in Financial Engineering(no offense intended to the PHD Quants). There are also lots of fantasy trading game online, sign up.

Do that everyday until you graduate and you will land a trading job, guaranteed(and wave your social life goodbye).
 
Hi, Ken,

What do you think makes a good trader. When banks hire entry-level assistant traders, do you know what qualities people are looking?
 
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