2) The richest hedge fund managers I know can't do high school math. Sam's post is idiocy.
3) Hedge funds usually invest in things other than stocks except in ways that are different than you invest in stocks.
4) " At least you will be earning clean honest money with your dirty hands" is obnoxious. I always made clean money for people in ways that they couldn't by themselves. My trading was a benefit to the world as well as my clients.
The way that you become a Hedge Fund manager is to know rich people and have experience working as an investment banker. To become an investment banker you need to either have friends in the industry or be top of your class at some top university in a math related field. Obviously you need a 4.0 in high school to get into any of these top schools, and be smart enough to get to the top of your class at these schools. The chances of it happening to you are very small even if you are great at trading stocks.
To become a petroleum engineer is less difficult. All that you need to do is get a degree from a good engineering school. The problem is the drop out rate for engineering is very high so be prepared to work harder than you ever have before.
If you were born to be a trader, it could work out for you. If you're just doing it for the money or some misguided status symbol, it's too much work, long hours, too inconsistent, and you're wrong about half of the time. The mind games it plays on you can be stressful and the ups and downs are hard on a marriage. Your entire focus becomes "money." Not a worthy goal.
Petroleum Engineering would be a more conventional job, with conventional hours except for the road trips to the field, which you would love, all expenses paid with a company truck. Most engineers don't work on the rig itself (unless offshore), but visit the rigs to oversee downhole well logging and workovers and completions. I would say most engineers spend less than 25% of their time in the field. Some major oil companies require the engineers to work in a field office (out in the middle of nowhere) but you are stationed there with your family and a house, rather than traveling there.
There are jobs where you could travel 100% of the time, like offshore or Saudi Arabia, for example.
I always liked working for the independent oil companies, but you will learn more working for a major oil company with constant training and many other engineers to mentor you. You probably won't travel as much with a major.
I specialized in shallow onshore oil production. I tried to get our company interested in natural gas, but there was a glut at the time, gas prices were one fourth of what they are now, and they didn't want to expand. So when the oil price fell to $10/bbl in the 1980's, myself and half my friends lost our jobs, our future, everything. It happened again in the Nineties, because some raghead opened a flow valve flooded the market with oil; back to $10/bbl. Oil companies were cash/flow strapped, and those with high debt went out of business, including mine.
My advice: If you do choose Petroleum Engineering, don't specialize too much in any one specific area. Try to learn it all -- onshore, offshore, oil, gas, and horizontal drilling. Of course, the big thing now is shale oil and gas production, which is all horizontal drilled. The majors are playing catch-up in this area, after having made a major shift to offshore oil production in the Nineties.
Go to any major college and take their free aptitude test. This will open your mind to other opportunities you might have missed, will give you access to a professional counselor, and break the deadlock of what to choose.
Be a petroleum engineer. At least you will be earning clean honest money with your dirty hands; not dirty money with (physically but not morally) clean hands.
Im 16 and I've been wanting to be a Hedge Fund Manager for the longest time. I own stocks, options, bonds, etc. I know there's plenty of money to be made in the stock market, and I know that by getting that money I can do and go almost whatever/where ever I want. BUT, i dont want to be sitting at a desk every day, which is why a petroleum engineer working on rigs in different countries sounds appealing to me. Which would you suggest to do?
