Best college major for trading

TradeRanger · Nov 12, 2003

For a young person interested in trading professionally for a fund or an institution, either on or off Wall St., what would be the best undergraduate major? Finance or Economics?
I know that the most important education is gained by trading practice, and so trading all during college may be a good plan. But which one is the best major, with maybe the other as a minor?
Any comments are appreciated.

running_bare · Nov 12, 2003

Philosophy.

CONTRARIAN · Nov 12, 2003

PSYCH 101.

IndexTrader · Nov 12, 2003

Theology. Then you can pray your positions go your way.

bungrider · Nov 12, 2003

hypostomus · Nov 12, 2003

The theory of statistical communication especially. Minor in Eastern studies, especially Theravadan Buddhism.

marketsurfer · Nov 12, 2003

most firms are seeking quant traders currently. i would major in advanced math and minor in economics. you can pick up the psych, philosophy on your own.

heavy math is where it is at.

best,

surfer

Sam Mcgee · Nov 12, 2003

If you want to trade for yourself get a degree in Business or something that will help you to find a good job. I believe over 90% of people that try to trade for a living never become consistently profitable. So be practical and be prepared for the statistical probability of never succeeding at it.

Another avenue might be to pursue a career that will pay well to give you savings to get started but will also allow you time off during the day to trade while you're still working. Something like Nursing comes to mind.

Courses that you could include in your studies and that would be useful for trading are Statistics, Computer Programming, Math, Accounting, Economics and Psychology.

PuffyGums · Nov 12, 2003

Quote from marketsurfer:

most firms are seeking quant traders currently. i would major in advanced math and minor in economics. you can pick up the psych, philosophy on your own.

heavy math is where it is at.

best,

surfer

You can pick up the pop psych and pop philosophy on your own. But nothing can really replace a graduate philosophy seminar with a top prof at a good school.

okwon · Nov 12, 2003

Quote from TradeRanger:

For a young person interested in trading professionally for a fund or an institution, either on or off Wall St., what would be the best undergraduate major? Finance or Economics?

He's intereseted in trading for a fund or institution! Not on his own. That means he needs to pick a major that will land him a job at one of these places later.

Psych, Philosophy, and especially Nursing are not good choices for what he is trying to accomplish, landing a job at fund or IB. He needs to pursue a degree in something that these places are looking for in grads. I think Math/Engineering was mentioned before and it is probably his best bet with the demand for quants these days.