i majored in business/financial management and minored in philosophy, and it was prolly better than having a non financial background in the eyes of the recruiters. more importantly would be what school you went to, and i agree with a poster above. advanced math or something of that nature would be better.
Insitutional traders still believe that academics define a good trader. Regardless of how wrong this is, what they do want (this was mentioned before) is quants and heavy mathematics/statistics. Finance and econ majors are good but you have to show heavy emphasis on numbers. Being able to build trading models is a big plus. I think they prefer mostly math/statistics majors, then finance/econ and so on.
Logic and Philosophy of Science were the 2 papers that I found most useful. Economics was useless, except the bit on supply and demand. Generally I agree with the quote from Jim Rogers in Market Wizards - "Short some beans and you'll learn more than you would in business school" To impress a fund I would take something like Physics or Mathematics.
This is unfortunately dead on. I say "unfortunately" for us guys that can't do the high level math real well, like me. I majored in Econ and psychology, but like someone else said, you can kick back with those books at home on your own time. Philosophy, econometrics, mathematics, statistics etc, etc, all going to get you in the door better than the plenty of stuff that might be more relevant (economics and psychology for example) to your trading in the long run. If I were starting out and had the acumen for it I would go for programming, computer science stuff. Technology is becoming an ever larger part of the trading landscape and plenty of firms are getting into coding up there own methods and systems lately. There a lot of opportunity there IMO going forward.
Since you know what you want to do when you finish school, why don't you set up brief informational interviews with people in the industry and ask them directly? Although these folks may be potential employers or interviewers some day in the future, you could set their mind at ease by telling them up front that you only want to briefly discuss a trading career for information purposes at this time. You could conduct such interviews by phone or, better yet, in person. Since you would be dealing directly with the source (i.e., the type of company you wish to actually work for some day), you would get some useful information. What ever you decide to do, good luck. Regards, Thunderdog
i am currently in college, and am majoring in business management / finance. like everyone else will tell you, you really only learn this stuff by doing it, but i have acquired a "business mindset" by majoring in business. for the bulge bracket type jobs, you will have to attend a top school, and have high grades, or of course have a connection. anyway, good luck.
Personally, I would suggest trading for yourself - more freedom and more $$. If that is your choice, the school of hard knocks is the best place to train. However, if you are committed to trading fro some one else, then a school like Wharton is one of the best. Your major - statistical economics, or math, and or computer programing. My nephew went to work for Goldman Sachs and retired with millions in about 8 years out of Wharton. Best of luck, Oten
Major depends on what you want to do. Trade or work for a company that trades. If you want to be successful as a trader probably the only relivant degree is Psychology and an advanced degree at that to get a real opportunity to do 'practical' classes(Of course I may be biased with an MS in clinical psych). Econ, business, math (except possibly geometry) will not help you much at trading and in fact may only serve to confuse you. That said, the drop-out, burn-out, failure rate is high among traders, esp. undercapitalized ones. Be sure it is what yo want to do before you get into it.
If you plan to be an individual trader, computer science is a must. Being able to code well gives you huge advantages. Minor in math would be good too. Focus on the stats. I see to many good traders being limited by their lack of technical abilities. As my trading ability grows, my technical skills just magnify the results, instead of a lack of tech skills getting in the way. It also accelerates your learning curve, since you can "discover" the market at a higher rate by being able to build tools which answer questions orders of magnitude faster than manual review. peace axeman