[Catt]

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But i dont mind using my student loan as a bankroll, im expected to spend that anyway.

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This is a piss-poor reason for drawing on a loan if you really don't need to borrow.

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yes that may be a piss poor reason, but theoretically, the loan could clealy be considered part of the bankroll. especially if its fairly small sized and a normal student loan interest rate (which isn't very large). then if OP is a winning player and will put in the necessary hours, and doesn't mind risk as an investor, then he should borrow at the low rate and play poker with will yield the winniner player with a larger expected return than not borrowing anything.

there's other assumptions in there but bottom line is if he's a winning player then taking out the loan is perfectly justified given above assumtions.

Barron

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This is nice theory, and works out well conceptually. But it's a very bad approach for the vast majority of individuals and a tremendously bad approach for an investment as volatile and risky as poker for most individuals. Granted, he'll not likely have a better time in life to borrow, and not likely have a better offer than the rate he's being offered now as a student (and I'm not in the UK, so I am extrapolating a bit here) -- but the risk of ruin is high enough and the cost of ruin is tremendous (he's got all his earning power ahead of him, but his credit rating is now taking baby steps), and this aspect should only be a smallish part of his consideration given his OP.

I know you're interested in (and planning on working with) structured financial products and have a very solid understanding of the financial aspects of the proposal; and crunching the raw numbers makes the prospect of borrowing at stable and below-market rates in order to raise capital to invest in slightly riskier but more profitable ventures seems like a no-brainer on paper with your assumptions; but there are a lot of extenuating factors that make this approach a bad approach in real life for an individual even though it looks good on paper. Even with the assumptions you laid out, given all the information OP provided in his post, I think drawing on his available student loans would be a very short-sighted and poorly-considered financial move. I also believe that anyone who turns to an online forum (focusing on poker of all things) for guidance on personal financial matters should never, ever, ever consider employing a leveraged strategy to maximize short-term returns.