Will they hire me?

Tell me more about intermediate macro, I'm interested. Also, I'm not a day trader. Weeks to months is my area. Economics probably has a better predictability over the longer term (swing/ position trading).

- Nathan

 

As always it would depend on the school, but my intermediate macro class was entirely centered around a mathematical model that kept adding components until it involved several black boards and the the use of derivatives. Yes I actually needed that crap calc. class they made me take. It was completely different from the broad theory based first year class.

Actually micro is a more useful education, It teaches you to sniff-out stupid behavior where ever it exists. A good quality for a trader. An optimistic trader almost always gets killed. Learn to look for problems first and if they are limited, pull the trigger.

 

if you want to be interviewed on TV or sales then go for economics or an MBA. if you want a legitimate job on a trading desk as a trader then go math/science and know how to program.

 

You don't have to know programming to be a trader unless you are working on a Quant Desk..............and even then most of the software is off the shelf now.

 

you are joking , right?

 

obviously you have never worked on a desk. every place i have been at the traders could program, not necessarily well, but could program productively. and most of the software was in house; not off the shelf.

 

geometry ...

 

You should also mention that many taders are using nothing more then Excel and Mathlab, hehe.

On another note, to the thread starter, if you are thinking of taking classes to round out your trader acumen make sure to take International World Trade or something equivalent to it, also don't forget a course in statistics, I think its the most important math you need in trading unless you want to do some heavy quant stuff, in that case take linear alg and calc.

-Neo

 

"You should also mention that many taders are using nothing more then Excel and Mathlab, hehe"

Excel may have a poor programming language but often the people with the best ideas are doing it in something like Matlab even though it is quite limited itself.

Ideas are what matter.

I think getting enough of an education to at least intuitively understand what the quants may be trying to say is critical.

I agree that statistics is essential---but even still elementary statsitics in college is really bone-headed formulaic aimed at getting people to understand basic psychology or medical studies.

The underlying intellectual understanding---meaning you have an "intuitive" idea and may be able to look at raw data and guess at statisitcal significance based on history and facts (not desires) is important.

Actually something that may work quite well in doing this in another context is effective gambling, e.g. blackjack or poker.

You won't be hired for actual quantitative ability without PhD level edumacation.

 

What got me to write this thread is that some traders trade their family's / friends money. Are there any traders out there that do this?