College kid - hopefully future trader - advice please!

[nile]

Hi everyone,

I am a 19 yr old kid going into my sophomore year at a top public engineering school in ny. My entire life I've always been heading to go into the engineering field and I am now studying to become an Industrial and Systems Science Engineer. I have been studying FOREX/ technical trading for 3 years and have been trading Forex for about 1.5 years. It wasnt until this past spring that I was actually considering trading for a living or become a trader after college.

I guess i'm just wondering what I should do to better my chances at making this a living for myself ?

My first year at college has been horrible academically (I went from a 3.8 in high school to a 2.4 GPA in college)
I pay for my own tuition so I do not have any time for extra curricular activities or sports (I am always working or trading)
I will be creating a trading/investments club at my school with a good friend of mine.
Since I started trading live I have made about 350% on one account trading a very technical long term strategy (from 700$ to about 3300$)
I blew my second account.
And I am now on my third account using a scalping strategy making about 10-25 pips a day. ( 2%-5% profit daily) just started 2 weeks ago but loks promising


My first step is to land an internship at a trading firm in chicago or nyc, (or other exchange city)
Should I aim more towards an amazing GPA and other extracurricular activities or should I work more towards my dedication to the trading career? (build an excellent track record and work on the development of this trading/investments club)

Will having an engineering degree effect my chances or should I consider switching majors?



any advice or ideas is appreciated!

 

[everyonerich]

dont need to land yourself at any internship if you can, but start a trading club at your local area. then hopefully get to know several serious members & trader in the club.

 

[GCC]

Will having an engineering degree effect my chances or should I consider switching majors?

any advice or ideas is appreciated!

I think it will take AT LEAST 3 years of experience before going full time to trade, because you have to go through different sort of market conditions. And, more importantly by "at least" I mean most of the people may take more.

I think it is much better to trade with a large timeframe while having a job that pays good. Until you are able to make consistently forget about turning pro.

Also, I doubt if the idea of setting up a club in the uni will be useful, because the people you are likely to meet are usually newbies. I don't think a pro or really good trader will bother to spend time with more or less complete beginners. Say, if you are a chess grandmaster, you probably won't spend too much time with the uni's chess club (which is made up of poor players) except maybe giving a lecture to them every now and then. You will be annoyed by beginner-style questions like "what move should I play here" or "which opening is best".

Though I agree that the best way to improve is to get together with some really good traders in your area. You will need some luck to achieve this. Setting up a club may help, but this is not guaranteed. So I think the best thing to do at the moment is to increase your knowledge and experience of trading, so that you will be prepared when you one day meet a mentor that can bring you to the next level.

The conclusion is, get a juicy job in engineering, and study trading in your spare time.

 

[everyonerich]

or just advertise on your local newspaper "seeking professional trader.. to become chairman/mentor of our trading club...bla bla bla...."

 

[GCC]

or just advertise on your local newspaper "seeking professional trader.. to become chairman/mentor of our trading club...bla bla bla...."

Actually this might be possible, because uni clubs usually have funding from the Student Union, and you can use this to pay them to visit your club. (And possibly also your own subscriptions of Elliot Wave International, Esignals, Barron, CNBC Plus, Zulu Trade...) :cheesy:

 

[cr6196]

most uni clubs (of repute) get money from investment banks, i wouldn't expect any considerable sum from a student union. I would also add that not many uni investment club to trade in forex...make of that what you will.

 

[nile]

Thanks guys for your advice! I plan on creating the club as an interest club, just so i can get people to dip their feet and see if this is something of interest to them. Of course we would manage to make it so that beginners don't boggle use down, possible two separate meetings. I only trade 9am-12 Eastern time so it wouldn't be intervening with my trading time.