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Chris --
If trading equities from the long side has been the foundation of your
trading experience over the past few years (which, obviously, it has
been for a lot of recently successful traders and investors), remember
that these past few years have been unprecendented in terms of being
friendly towards the stock buyer. Make sure that you can deal with dead
(sideways) or downward trending markets before you make the leap to full
time trading. I believe it was John Kenneth Galbraith who said,
"Financial genius is a rising market."
As you mentioned in your post, the reason you want to skip school is
because "I have ... noticed that the best opportunities often surface
when I am in class when I am unable to act upon it." If that is the
case, it appears that your most important trading strategies are
dependent on strong short-term prices moves which are strictly features
of a very volatile market. Ask yourself, will these opportunities
persist of overall market volatility decreases?
Also, even if you think you can deal with inhospitable markets and
consistently make enough money off of 120K to earn a decent living
comparable to what you would earn if you graduated with a degree in
Economics (which, depending on the school you're attending, your
academic performance and work experience, is at least 35-45K a year for
recent grads) a 25-30%+ return a year is required just to MATCH what
you'd earn if you stayed in school - which is better than probably 95%
of all professional money managers. And, if you are capable of achieving
those returns, why not start to manage other peoples money? You'd make a
hell of a lot more doing that than trading your own cash, IF you're able
to earn 25-30% returns consistently.
I say get your college education. As someone else said, the markets
will always be around for you to trade, and by staying in school, you
will gain exposure to new ideas (believe it or not), different points of
view and new opportunities.
Lest this all sounds too negative, I'm providing it merely as food for
thought. If you feel you're up to trading full time, definately go for
it. I concur with another's opinion that you may want to take a
semester off and see how you fare before completely cutting your links
with your school. Nonetheless, you will learn A LOT by trading full
time. You may also want to consider developing trading strategies which
don't require you to watch the ticker full time.
Oh, by the way, what brokerage house hires 18 year olds just out of high
school to be stockbrokers?
Michael Strupp
Candidate, M.Sc. Financial Markets & Trading
Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, IL
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