Does education matter in investing?

For many professions, a minimum entry criterion is established in terms for education and training. There is no entry barrier for an investor in stock market. Many investors wonder what education is necessary to become successful in investing. Do you need to be management graduate or study accountancy? Can people trained as doctors or architects become successful investors? Here are views of people who have excelled in investing.

“We start with some good news about your education: simply put, if your goal is to beat the market, an MBA or a PhD from a top business school will be of virtually no help.” Joel Greenblatt

“The good news is that you don’t need to be a genius to do well in the stock market” Francois Rochon

“Everyone has the brainpower to follow the stock market. If you made it through fifth-grade math, you can do it.”  Peter Lynch

 “Colleges as a rule teach economics badly. With over-specialisation has also come a tendency to mistake information for education, to turn out “quiz experts” who are crammed full of useful detail but who have not been trained how to think.” Bernard Baruch

“Most of the top-ranked business schools around the world do not understand the fundamentals of margin of safety” Mohnish Pabrai

“Independent thinking, emotional stability, and a keen understanding of both human and institutional behaviour is vital to long term investment success. I’ve seen a lot of very smart people who have lacked these virtues” Warren Buffett

“To invest successfully, you need not understand beta, efficient markets, modern portfolio theory, option pricing, or emerging markets. You may, in fact, be better off knowing nothing of these. That, of course is not the prevailing view at most business schools, whose finance curriculum tends to be dominated by such subjects. In our view, though, investment students need only know two well-taught courses – How to Value a Business, and How to Think About Markets” Warren Buffett

Clearly, we can train ourselves to become good investors irrespective of educational background. 

Invest in yourself

Are you interested in learning more about investing & trading? Join our community of 20,000+ learners who have benefited from our online courses. We would also recommend signing up for news and updates using the form below so you can be notified of any events or workshops we host in the near future.



    Leave a Comment

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.