It is not about earning a good living. It is about the positive correlation to results and education. If you go to a great school and prostitute yourself to the corporate world you will make a good upper middle class living. For those people who don't like to think on their own and need to be told what to do and how to do it then the corporate world is for you. You can earn a very nice safe salary with benefits. But you will be a slave to your master. Nothing wrong with that. However some people decide to grab their nut sack and put their money where their mouth is. They may not know much about trading. They may not be managing a 100 million dollar portfolio but that does not make them a worse trader. Every magazine article, every newspaper article, every tidbit, and all the evidence points to no correlation between your ability to trade and education. The fact of the matter is that around 90% of the traders trading on their own will not be able to live off their trading. But guess what, the numbers are the same for institutional traders. Most of them don't make money either. Good traders are successful because of personal qualities or characteristics they have, not knowledge. There is no special indicator, no quantitative science, no magic formula, and no secret method. It's the same qualities that allow one quarterback to be able to hit a guy in the end zone with .03 left on the clock with three guys in his face while the other guy takes a sack or throws an interception. It's one ability to step up under pressure and make the big plays. Do you think NFL coaches care what college a quarterback went to or his ability to make plays under pressure? Think about it. It's exactly the same with trading.