Many say that they are self taught traders. Is it possible?

<p id="isPasted">Self-taught works if you are truly dedicated to constant learning no matter what age you are and how much you already know. Markets change constantly and have to be ready for bad times as well. I often see people do not want to learn the basics such as quantitative analysis, statistics, economics etc and want to jump right into picking stocks. I think that’s a mistake at least in the long run. Most stock trading books out there will teach you how to do financial and technical analysis to pick good looking stocks but even the best companies can suffer if economy is going down the drain. And this is something these books probably wont teach you. If you aren’t willing to get formal education then its best to at least learn basic subjects first to understand current trends and forecast the future. Start with finance related economics and quantitative/statistical methods and then move on to stock trading books. May need good understanding of basic college level mathematics. I think this will be a good start if you want to be a self taught stock trader.</p><p><br></p>