CFA/Coding/Chinese/DataScience?

[globalarbtrader]

Small summary: Finance undergrad from a non target. Only took finance to learn about markets. Didn't learn jack about how to trade/markets in uni....and was spending most of my time reading about technical analysis in the uni library.

After many years of attempting to be a successful trader, failing miserably when I risked it all to go full time, rollercoaster equity curves, I have finally come to a place where it is consistent and rising. I'm sure there will still be setbacks but I am heavily aligned with Mark Douglas's Trading in the Zone and why it is a gem. I am waiting for a few more months of consistent profits before I increase the amount of contracts I am trading in futures and start earning back the tuition money I lost to the markets.

Right now I want to learn something new other than trading. (I will still be open to learning and adapting with the ever changing market, but I can do this as a hobby I've realized).

In terms of the future and the real world, I am wanting to grow myself professionally now that I've somewhat cracked the puzzle of the markets Ive been wanting to solve since high school.

1. CFA- I failed with a band of 9 the first time I took it. I didn't enjoy learning it at the time since it wasn't teaching me how to trade. Now that I am not looking for it to teach me to trade, I am more open to the things they teach and feel like I can actually soak it in this time around. Getting the certification will help me land a job in an industry I like and maybe help with networking and maybe one day build my own fund?

2. Coding-Honestly looking back, I wish I majored in computer science vs finance. However I feel like with trading, if I commit myself to learning and speaking code....I could become good at it. It's one technology that has revolutionized the world and helped my life in so many ways. I also think if I study how to code, it will help me automate my strategies/data research, etc.

3. Chinese- A mysterious place with interesting changes. It really does feel like the 21st century will be Asia's century and it could help me get a job there and get a better understanding of how people operate there. Won't help with my trading but opens a whole new world up by knowing the language.

4. Data Science- Currently data scientists are becoming more and more in demand. Professionally, this will help my "reliable salary" boost up by a lot. Also with the inevitable shift into AI, feels like it will become more in demand similar to how coding is now. Not only will this help professionally, I feel like it can help tremendously in my own individual trading. I'll have lots of data and heck, maybe might find a new edge I never thought of.

If you were currently young and weren't sitting comfortably in leisure now, which would you pick to learn for the next 20-30 years?
(I want to use my time to pursue one of the options above when market has low vol/opportunities/balancing)

Coding. And you can't be a 'data scientist' (whatever the hell that is) without being able to do a reasonable standard of coding anyway.

GAT

 

[traider]

A lot of trading shops require machine learning skills now

 

[MrMuppet]

I don't think you are understanding what I was asking for. The one thing I set out to do was to TRADE when I graduated high school. I was curious as to how 2008 happened, how I could have seen it coming, how I could have profited from it. Hence I chose finance as a major and through many trials and tribulations (I've started actually seeing consistency vs up and down), I have started to get the knack for it. Trading to me now is just being with the market, going with the flow. I can now "read" the market. I figure now I will just keep being disciplined, wait for opportunities, increase size/scale, and rinse and repeat to consistency. There will always be a need to adapt and learn new things about the market, but for now I got what I wanted out of the market which was reading and understanding the market. I accept there will be losses as always and there will be setbacks, but like you said---the key to trading is "Make a plan, follow it, fall on your face, get up, take notes, try again." Ray Dalio's Principles is much similar to the process of becoming a successful trader.

I will ALWAYS trade. For the rest of my life, I will be involved with markets. I LOVE it, but I also want something else to pursue/learn/challenge myself other than markets/trading.

What I am asking now is to see what one would choose given the 4 options I listed. As Miyamoto Musashi once said, it's better to learn other things than just swordsmanship.
Maybe through data science/coding, I can fine tune my trading with the knowledge I gain from learning something new. It will open my mind up to a world I did not know. I can contribute something to the world vs just adding liquidity to the markets.
And out of the 4 options, I don't "love" any of them. I just want to improve myself on those 4 options but don't have time to learn them all.

Well, for trading it's obviously coding.
Basic Python can be learned in a couple of weeks. But treat it as a side gig and don't compromise.
I also had to make that choice. For my trading coding is probably even more essential and that's why I decided against it.

I'll never be good enough to write a good feedhandler or even properly set up a column based database. For non - critical stuff I hire a freelancer at 10$ - 50$ an hour and for the critical stuff I partner up with the right people....people who only code and thus are experts in coding.

My time is better spend in researching new edge and executing trades and my hourly rate is a multiple of what a programer costs.

So at one point you have to make a decision: Do you want to be a good trader or a good programmer. You cannot be both.

 

[d08]

2. Coding-Honestly looking back, I wish I majored in computer science vs finance. However I feel like with trading, if I commit myself to learning and speaking code....I could become good at it. It's one technology that has revolutionized the world and helped my life in so many ways. I also think if I study how to code, it will help me automate my strategies/data research, etc.

I feel exactly the same way except I dropped out quickly from a business admin degree. They were training public speakers with PowerPoint skills, nothing about the markets. I would have enjoyed compsci in retrospect.

 

[newwurldmn]

Computer Science is about coding as much as electrical engineering is about toasters. 98% of people who take Computer Science do it for the job and fail out quickly when they realize after 2 semesters of rudimentary programming (to teach you the school's choice of language) everything is done with paper and pencil. Very little is done actually programming and most of the understanding in CS comes from theorem proving. It's a lot like a math degree, with a few less classes. I learned everything in software engineering in my internship and subsequent work full time. I can say honestly the last time I coded in my undergrad was for my advanced C++ class in my freshman year.

This sums up the Computer Science program I graduated from.

 

[MercForHire]

Stay away from CS if you didn't start programming when you are a teenager. Most people won't even make it through the undergrad program.
I graduated from an engineering school called University of Waterloo with a CS and let me tell you, I am still having PTSD from all the nearly failed exams and sleepless crunch time to this day. The average class score for most exams was <50%, so they just took lowest certain percentile, failed them and pass the rest.
I think the completion rate for my program was 60%, keep in mind everyone who got accepted into the program was a top performer in their high school with 90+% average.

 

[ESgambler]

Stay away from CS if you didn't start programming when you are a teenager. Most people won't even make it through the undergrad program.
I graduated from an engineering school called University of Waterloo with a CS and let me tell you, I am still having PTSD from all the nearly failed exams and sleepless crunch time to this day. The average class score for most exams was <50%, so they just took lowest certain percentile, failed them and pass the rest.
I think the completion rate for my program was 60%, keep in mind everyone who got accepted into the program was a top performer in their high school with 90+% average.

Your school seems to be the only one offering co-op program with great salary throughout school year to big hi-tech firms in Waterloo region like IBM, Motorola/Blackberry and etc. This is why it's so competitive to get into your school in Canada for CS/engineering because most of you are guaranteed for a job upon graduating. Unlike my school SFU in west coast where we struggled to find a job. Some were lucky to land an IT job in one of those oil companies located in Alberta. In retrospect, I should have gone to study business major and then mba so I can use my knowledge or skills to help out my family business. CS was really a waste of my time and efforts to this day.

 

[ESgambler]

I feel exactly the same way except I dropped out quickly from a business admin degree. They were training public speakers with PowerPoint skills, nothing about the markets. I would have enjoyed compsci in retrospect.

I bet you won't enjoy CS courses because none of these courses teach you any programming skills.

 

[MercForHire]

Your school seems to be the only one offering co-op program with great salary throughout school year to big hi-tech firms in Waterloo region like IBM, Motorola/Blackberry and etc. This is why it's so competitive to get into your school in Canada for CS/engineering because most of you are guaranteed for a job upon graduating. Unlike my school SFU in west coast where we struggled to find a job. Some were lucky to land an IT job in one of those oil companies located in Alberta. In retrospect, I should have gone to study business major and then mba so I can use my knowledge or skills to help out my family business. CS was really a waste of my time and efforts to this day.

All the top performers from my school went to SF and joined one of the tech giants with their $200k+ salary, only few guys like me are staying in Canada getting paid half as much.

 

[SteveM]

Hi OP,

If we are talking about money/job security, I would advise you to learn how to code/design A.I. programs for internet-of-things applications. That is going to be a huge industry in the next 30 years.

I've noticed in life, that the really big money is usually made by those are on the cutting edge of something, and learn how to harness it in a big way....these people also usually pay their helpers quite well, as the skills needed by the helpers are hard to find in the early years, until the industry becomes widespread and many people acquire the skills needed.

-Gates harnessing the personal computer
-Bezos harnessing internet retail
-Rockefeller harnessing oil
-Ford harnessing the mass-manufactured automobile
-D.E. Shaw harnessing the computer infiltration of market-making on stock exchanges.
etc.