As a programmer, I always have been fascinated by the financial markets. I research and trade stocks now and then, but I think it would be really cool to do it as a job. How does a programmer become a trader/quant/financial analyst?<p>Some background: I have a Bachelors Degree in International Business Administration, have 5 years of experience programming PHP ( blergh, but I had to start somewhere ), 4ish year Python and Django, 2 ish years Ruby and Ruby on Rails. At the moment I have launched a startup ( worked 1,5 years on that ), but it has not really taken of. At the moment I mainly do web development for a living. My Bachelor thesis was on the subject of the financial markets. Any advice on where to start or what would be smart to do ( education on a university, self-education, apply for a job right now etc. )<p>Thanks for your input!!