If you are planing to become an economist you may well take consolation from this: "In all recorded history there has not been one economist who has had to worry about where the next meal would come from.--Peter Drucker"
Go for statistics with a heavy dose of probability and computer programming. The relatively new computational finance degrees look interesting (if I were younger). Pay is good too if you ever need to fall back on that. FC
I did my degree in Economics. It wasn't until a few years later that I realised that I had to unlearn a lot of what my degree had taught me. The fundamentals that I learned were useful - but most of the abstract concepts were not. History is a much better guide to the future than economic theory.
I don't think an Economics degree helps much in becoming a successful trader. After all, trading is just a big poker game. The most important skill you need to master is money and risk management. It's not so much about trying to figure out where the market is going to go next. You can't control the markets; the only thing you can control is your money. I have found statistics and an understanding of psychology more important.
My undergrad economics department head used to trade bonds for Goldman Sachs. She doesn't think very highly of technical analysis, and one of these days she wants to have a debate with me about it. I can't wait That said, I'm making money off of TA... so never listen to what people or economics courses teach you. If after I got a Econ BS and knew what the BS model on options was (and thought it to be true....lol) and ran off to try to trade, I would be giving my money away. Undergrad Economics is all theory - no practicality. I say, go get the degree but challenge EVERYTHING you learn.
a few mentioned getting a degree in psycholgy.. which reflects some of the people that u find on this forum, and im sure they've had no education themselves and have an opinion of psychology being really valuable. till this day I've yet to see a trader at a bank with a psychology degree. anyways moving on.. a BSc Economics is not ment to teach u trading (most courses dont).. but what it gives u is ideas of how to model things.. e.g. relationships, correlations and ideas of causality. much of what u cover in econ100 does not hold in reality but some do.. and the greatest economists are/have-been very successful financially in the markets.. e.g. Keynes et. al. spending 3 years on theoretical models can be very useful in an envirentment where u constantly require forming relations and making directional decisions.. other fields like physics may even give u a better picture in this sense, and statistics gives u ideas of probability etc.. but niether cover short-term/long-term financial anamolies and actual data/historical events that u typically study in a BS Econ.. this can be very useful. in short, BSc Econ promotes ur causal thought processes.. as far as TRADING goes, most juniors that get jobs at investment banks here in london typically have backgrounds in natural sciences e.g. phyisics, chemistry.. and enginerring..but some economics too.. none with a degree in psychology in my experience - probably better be the best hope for little girls in the retail market who arn't really good with numbers.. p.s. trading and investing are really different things.. if u look into the buy-side, portfolio managers etc. u can find more BSc Economics, and even some members with degrees from disney (psychology, arts, etc..) i have a BSc in Economics and im happy that i took it. the area u may cover in econometrics or Econophysics will eventually take over natural sciences in dominating the financial field.. but in general a BSc Econ gives u alot more than a financial education.. it's a good philosophical field where u learn about man and society... and life etc.. concepts such as comparative advantage and opportunity cost that u can apply to everything.. If i had a 2nd chance in life, i'd probably would go the same root or maybe do something more hardcore mathematically.. BUT i would definately have rather gone to a better school THAN what i actually studied.. if u plan on to getting a good JOB in the rat race, go to a better school even if it means doing a degree in psychology. but if u plan to get through life on ur own feet, do something like engineering etc.. good luk.
I don't want to sound rude, but a friend of mine and myself are debating.... are people in elitetrader message boards that reply to messages at all really successful? If you think of it, say you made millions of dollars daytrading... are you really going to take your time replying to people on these forums. I'd like to think I'm really talking to successful people on here... if you are successful, can you please specify how successful are you? I'm talking about overall success... are you a millionaire from trading stocks or have you just made lots and lost a few... and really only gained a few thousand dollars. I'd like to think I'm really getting advice from very successful traders here... can anyone give any good reason why successful traders would really go out of their way to reply back to my posts? I would probably be out on vacation if i made serious money whenever I'd have the chance. I'm just curious. Don't take it the wrong way. As a matter of fact, i don't see anything wrong with being a little suspicious.