Saturday, April 10, 2010

The Weekend Trader - The Search for Quality Education

My thoughts on our family's visit to Tufts University today, as well as inferences to the continuing search to provide similar quality education for those pursuing trading careers.

So as one personal search comes to an end, the ongoing search and refinement of bona-fide trading education in this industry continues.

6 comments:

Dave said...

Congratulations to your daughter. Shes about to begin a wonderful new chapter in her life.

Now off topic, and sorry to sound like a debbie downer but $250k for an undergraduate degree is mind boggling. I graduated 03 and my entire 4 year education cost me $25k. At the time the university I attended was ranked 23 in the world.

I guess that is the cost of a proper education in America which is probably why most cannot afford it.

Brian said...

Couple months ago you were planning to run for office. Now you are planning to open a "trader's university".

Sounds to me like you are bored with trading, to be honest, and haven't yet admitted it to yourself fully.

Just a thought. Congrats to your daughter!

Don Miller said...

Brian -

While I never was "planning" on running for office, I've certainly "considered" it at various times in my life, and it comes up from time to time.

The end result is usually that I feel I can be of more help in the private sector.

In terms of being bored with trading at times, you are correct as it happens often to most who pursue performance-based endeavors during stretches of their careers.

Thus, it's a constant struggle to keep the mind fresh, innovative, focused, and motivated, which is why I constantly play "challenge" games with myself, and have recently added pursuit of block size trading and other creative goals.

Having said that, continuing to improve on trader education has been a recurring mission for me throughout the last decade, and reflects my continuing belief that the industry just hasn't yet gotten it "quite right" given the continuing horror stories where traders haven't been taught self-sufficiency or progressed through quality comphrehensive training programs that can last a lifetime -- as is the case with true universities.

Another way to look at it is Thomas Edison was likely "bored" with not being able to read in the dark :-).

Don

Rich Harris said...

Don -

In regards to Brian's thought and your follow-up...it seems that in life, as in the charts, the largest breakout moves (i.e. drastic changes) come from extended periods of indecision.

In my life I am sometimes bored with the practice of law...so I am constantly pressing myself to handle harder and larger cases. That is what keeps me engaged.

I choose to also trade because it provides a separate mental and emotional challenge that is not correlated with my law practice.

So, I see it as a positive thing that you both trade and teach trading. Dr. Brett seems to be a great example. There should be no inner tug-of-war between each of your Dons. I am sure you can balance both.

Congratulations to Chelsea and your six figure day. I have two young daughters...we are working on our six figure day.

YM-Trader said...

Don, in a zero sum game just how trading savvy do you want your competitors to be? You sound like someone who never has to trade for a living again. I'm happy if some of my fellow traders got their education for $49 at Clickbank. I'm fine if some others don't or can't give it everything they've got. Just a thought.

Don Miller said...

Good question YM, although I have no problem at all "competing" against similarly-minded solid traders in the most liquid trading vehicle on the planet (ES).

From my perspective, there's more than enough pieces of the pie for everyone.