Hi everyone) How many of you here have college degrees in the area of finance,business or accounting etc ? And if yes then how it has helped up in trading forex,stocks etc?Do you really think having a college degree in the field of finance,accounting and business can influence our online trading business ?
I have a degree in Economics with a finance specialty.
It helps when understanding leverage, liquidity and the other elements of how the world of finance works. It also helps with interpreting market impact as a result of certain information e.g. inflation leads to interest rate rises, reduction in money supply reduces demand for goods and services…
Outside of this it doesn’t really matter unless you won’t to get a job in like a banks arbitrage department or risk assessment or work on the IPO side. Trading as practiced in hedgefunds only requires you have at least O’ or A level maths standard and good money management skills.
Well my education is A levels and i went to study business in a russian university but later dropped out. I have studied maths,business and economics in A levels.From the info you have provided,it looks like i am good to go for trading.
I’m a fourth generation dairyman. No degrees under my belt. Doesn’t stop me stealing a few pips out of the market. Nothing wrong with “street smarts”. My mate works for a business with an annual turnover of 3 billion plus a year. The owner started out sweeping the floors. I think street smarts is the best form of smarts
Agreed. Paranoia almost wins in this market. I’m a college dropout. My best friend is an economics major and he couldn’t hold his head above water in forex. Not that he needs to…
I have an Economics degree as well, at the moment doing my Master degree in Capital Markets in my country, after that planning to take another Master in Finance. It did/is helped me a lot when I started FX trading. Specially with the fundamental analysis. I wouldn’t say though that you need to be a A+ student to succeed on FX market, though it wouldn’t harm to have some basics in economics. For me it’s more about keeping investing in education. Knowledge is Freedom and Freedom is everything.
Kind Regards,
Great 
But again at the end of the day you need one working strategy.There is no degree made for teaching you a self discipline,patience required for trading . Experience is the best teacher.
[B]Hello to the O.P.
I agree with Emerald, our resident Professor of Volume Price Analysis (an honorary title I have
bestowed upon him virtually): you do not have to have a degree in finance to trade money,
just as much as you do not have to have a degree in music to have a career in music, or a degree
in sports science to be a professional sportsman/woman, and so the list goes on…
However, INVESTING TIME IN TRAINING FROM A VARIETY OF SOURCES
in a chosen field, e.g. books, websites, forums, television broadcasts, daily feeds, can be just as
beneficial, as long as it is structured, just as you would expect while studying on an existing course.
[/B]
[B]The problem with a finance, or sports, or music, or
indeed ANY COURSE is that it can never GUARANTEE FINANCIAL GAINS like a cause-and-effect
logical progression from the moment that you complete your studies: especially now, when most people
seem to have some sort of degree, at least here in the UK (close to 50%, but you can check the exact
figure), what really gets you a job in your chosen field is all the extracurricular experience that you
volunteer to invest in BEYOND THE TIME SPENT AT UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE, namely what you do
in your spare time, be it evenings, weekends, days of no lectures/tutorials, and so on…
Most employers, faced with one hundred candidates for the same job, and all of whom coming armed
with a job-relevant degree, will bin the CVs/applications of those who just graduated without any
extra experience and actually select those who have used their spare time wisely while at
university/college: for example, if you read for a finance degree, you could trade your own money
during your days off university/college and impress future employers by showing that you actually
invest your time AND money to be a cut above the rest, to understand more about the markets
IN PRACTICE, and so on… [/B]
I would like to finish by saying, at the end of all that, how it would have been much easier to understand
fundamental in Forex/trading had I had some kind of previous training/teaching in macroeconomics, for
example: as my field is music, you can imagine how utterly different my background is from that of,
say, business studies graduates upon entering the field of trading.
Cheers.
Pipme is quite right. My degree didn’t matter as much but I had a shorter learning curve. We do live in the information age after all so you can pretty much access learning for free. So it isn’t really a factor. Institutions still want degrees, these days even bakers want to hire graduates. An over supply I guess… I am obsessive about my economics and there is very little I don’t know (not to boast) something I find lacking in many of my counterparts. That said the closest I have come to finance as a job is consulting with a private equity firm and trading at a retail level. So in truth degrees count for very little these days, once you start considering other social factors.
I say to my wife that the financial markets are the epitome of freedom. It is totally meritocratic and has no opinion on race, religion, ethnicity, etc. Anybody can do it with very little regulation. If you live in the UK you would know that there is no industry that is void of the above except the financial sector. It is this reason that many struggle to function because it relies solely on your own intellect and not some social norm or political prowess. Those who have had the misfortune of using their brain in modern society will always be better at trading than those who have opted for the life of the average man/political animal/sunflower/etc
Thanks for the motivating words my friend )).People like jesse livermore were self taught .
I have a degree in Economics also and studying for a degree in Management too…
Did it helped me…well only from the technical side of what is liquidity, what are orders and that stuff…unfortunately you don’t get to learn real trading methods, and I am really disappointed by that (will have a word with my professor of Financial markets (you wouldn’t believe what is written in that book) - you could easily use it as a toilet paper because it’s that worthless)
So at the end you are on your own in learning the technical and fundamental side of trading…at least I am
Wonder do they teach you real trading at Oxford, Harvard and other prestige schools…
Degrees, education, etc. These teach you good money management, how to open correct positions, if you are an equity trader then you would need to understand financial accounts, PE Ratios, dividends, etc. If you are looking to mature in the markets and manage money, you would need to know how to create complex financial investment packages that screw your investors. If you are looking to sell financial products like fund supermarkets, bonds, etc, you would need government approval so qualification becomes a must.
Street smarts, savvy, photographic memory, confidence, etc. These all speculators must have regardless of education. If you have no desire to mature in the markets to other areas and want to be a personal investor, then these will do fine. The rest is down to personal ability to see danger and opportunity.
There are no such things as “real traders” just speculators be it for a Hedge fund or yourself.
You are right mate :).You don,t need a degree for qualifying as a self employed investor or entrepreneur.But in again in your self employed career you have to learn plenty of things,get experience from trial and error etc and that,s real education. You will be educated but without a piece of paper (degree)
People like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are great examples.They don,t have college degrees but have years of practical experience and they are actually far more educated than those who have degrees but lack experience.
Seriously as best as i know there is not a single university in this world which offers you a degree in real trading or teaches you the solid trade setups,patience,self discipline,emotional control etc .What you learn in economics or finance degrees etc simply cannot be used in trading.Lets,s say economics teaches the supply and demand thing.But in real markets there are several other things affecting currency movements.
Bachelors in Accounting + MBA. And the only benefit I got from them is employability which I do not desire, so wasted money, but lesson learned.
I don’t know about others but I’m an autodidact and I think that most people who get into retail trading are also autodidacts, also the internet made it easy for us to get the highest quality education for free; top tier universities are providing their whole courses’ materials+actual lectures on their websites for free. So if someone wants to learn there is no need for a university, but if your goal is to get a degree or to show off, then do it. In my opinion it yields the worst ROI.
The future of Universities should be to teach people how to learn (Meta-learning).
The internet is the best and cheapest university you can go to.
That is true, and that sums it up what I’ve learned from Economics 
And as someone already said…the Internet is truly the place for someone to acquire some real knowledge about trading Well that or to get a job as a trader somewhere
Also i think rather than relying on a university degree you can consider paying for trading courses online being offered by some successful traders or hire a mentor.