Hi, I'm keen on economics and I'm thinking about getting some education in this field. Will it give me some more or less distinct edge for fundamental trading (at least in some sectors?)? Now it seems for me that the majority of players already understand things and that edge would be not so distinct, am I right? What educational resources would you recommend?
I think it's generally necessary but not sufficient that you have a basic finance education to be successful over the long term in finance. There are lot's of dumb things you can avoid doing if you have a basic background in the subject. There's a lot of brain cells you can use to think up new things when you're not using them to independently discover a subject that's already been extensively studied, as I know I've done and I've observed others here doing. There are plenty of sour grapes folks here who will doubtlessly hop on this thread to tell you that "gut feel" is what it's all about and people who are too smart can't trade and education is bad and all other manner of anti-intellectual bullshit that you typically hear from the uneducated. I'll just point out that there's thousands of highly educated folks in finance making very decent, livings in the field over long periods of time, and not a lot of uneducated folks who can say the same although again I'll predict you'll see it claimed on this thread. The one kernel of truth that they build their delusions on though, is that simply being educated doesn't ensure success, in finance or any other field. And trading especially is very much unlike say, engineering, where you can be a solid engineer who simply plugs and chugs equations all day and makes a decent but not outlandish living. Trading is much more binary, you either succeed to a high degree or fail spectacularly but there's not a big middle area of $75-100K a year, year after year, just for coming to work and doing your job. At the very least, I highly recommend taking finance 101 and if you don't have a background in statistics a couple of stats classes from either your local college or free MOOCs, of which there are some very good ones taught by top professors. If you're intellectually curious you'll find the find them both very interesting and if you've been deriving a bunch of this stuff on your own for any amount of time you'll have a lot of "ah!" moments where you realize "there's a name for that, and a whole bunch of research on it as well!" Good luck!
If you plan to work for a firm...obviously yes. If you plan to work for yourself as in a retail trader...not enough info about you to determine if it will give you a distinct edge for fundamental trading. Like I said, don't know you but if you're planning to go to college...talk to your guidance counselor from your school and again when you arrive to college. Yet, if you're really talking about just trading for yourself...make good use of the forum search, Google search because I've seen others answer your question before with tons of specific details. One more thing...if your question is really about college...there are a lot of universities with professional trading rooms, graduate programs that get into that such...some of which compete in international trading competitions like the Rotman @ https://ritc.rotman.utoronto.ca/ If you're a good student / great grades and already at a university...transferring into one of those schools shouldn't be a problem. wrbtrader
Well, if you want to know more about the economy, I think the best option is to study at the university and read many books, but if you are only going to trade I think it is good that you read books about it and that you look for more information on this market, find a good runner and work.
I found them to be fun and enlightening while taking them but then have found no application for anything but the most basic concepts since, concepts that were also covered in negotiations classes. If you've got the time I'd definitely take one just because you'd enjoy it. And you may very well trade in a way that it's useful to you. Even if not, you'll still have enjoyed taking it.
Appreciate your response. I took one a couple of years back, taught by a professor from Stanford/UBC (offered by Coursera). It was way too mathematical I couldn't keep up and dropped out after several weeks. The introductory first lecture was however quite useful for understanding negotiation.
Negotiations class I highly recommend, and it is one where I'll diverge from my usual push for MOOCs and say that you're probably better off taking it at whatever local college you can in-person rather than online. Half the class is actual negotiation exercises and it would be really hard to get the full benefit of that without actually doing it in-person (post Covid of course). For you I just recommend you do a full MBA at some point, I think you'd get a lot out of it and really enjoy it. HSW if you can because it will dramatically alter the course of your life, if not then an executive program at any accredited school gets you the same academics.