What College courses to Take?

buzzy2 · Feb 11, 2003

Quote from gnome:
Philosophy for "logic", and Actuarial for risk/reward/probability.

wholeheartedly agree, it helps to detect "logical fallacies" and be able to elaborate logically proper deductions.
trading is an empirical discipline so you should understand why all we can hope for is to detect "propensities" from data, therefore Popper.
Popper will make you open minded enough to not dismiss any idea just because it doesn't fit into other people's "paradigm" (like kuhnians and 90% academics do) and skeptic enough to immediately reject an idea when "calculated propensities" clearly show that idea is bs, even if it fits the accepted paradigm.

RainMaker3000 · Feb 11, 2003

Game Theory
Macro Econ
Stat in Finance
Derv. Price
Price Theory

Corso482 · Feb 11, 2003

I am a former psychology major and can attest that undergrad psychology classes are USELESS.

Maybe it was just my school or the classes I took, but I found the classes void of any practical application. Instead of understanding myself better, I learned how to be culturally sensitive and recognize children with ADD.

Intro to psych. was interesting, and there were a few useful tidbits, but for the purposes of trading and understanding my own mind, all of the other classes were worthless. I learned more about psychology from reading books like "Emotional Intelligence" than from classes.

And this brings me to my next point-- If one truly wants knowledge for the sake of knowledge, I believe it's possible to learn more through self study. It's like that Mark Twain quote, "I never let my schooling interfere with my education" (or something like that). Maybe these classes are useful for learning the basics, but if you'd like to truly educate yourself, then take it upon yourself to learn. Why limit your knowledge to what your teachers dole out to you?

Learn to think in college. Take philosophy, math or writing classes not specifically geared towards some career application. Once you learn how to think, you can learn anything and do anything for the rest of your life.

wan2BTrader · Feb 12, 2003

Quote from vladiator:

I'm surprised noone suggested econometrics yet. Statistics is good, but it often is too theoretical. Econometrics knowledge with good skills in using econometric software is crucial for testing strategies etc.

Do you mind give an example, conceptual level, of your typical using for trading?

corvus · Feb 12, 2003

music comp and computer science?

Trajan · Feb 12, 2003

Quote from daniel_m:

african american studies and greek history.

It's funny because some Americans may not know in common European vernacular, although traders understand from experience with specilaists, Greek means getting fucked up the ass.

Trajan · Feb 12, 2003

To day trade, you need nothing except basic math. What you should take in college is a lot of math. That's where everything has been going for a long time. Economics is fine because people look for that, but, I have known a couple of grads in that major who are unimpressive.

dis · Feb 12, 2003

Statistics, Game Theory, Accounting

gnome · Feb 12, 2003

Quote from Corso482:

I am a former psychology major and can attest that undergrad psychology classes are USELESS.

Maybe it was just my school or the classes I took, but I found the classes void of any practical application. Instead of understanding myself better, I learned how to be culturally sensitive and recognize children with ADD.

Intro to psych. was interesting, and there were a few useful tidbits, but for the purposes of trading and understanding my own mind, all of the other classes were worthless. I learned more about psychology from reading books like "Emotional Intelligence" than from classes.

And this brings me to my next point-- If one truly wants knowledge for the sake of knowledge, I believe it's possible to learn more through self study. It's like that Mark Twain quote, "I never let my schooling interfere with my education" (or something like that). Maybe these classes are useful for learning the basics, but if you'd like to truly educate yourself, then take it upon yourself to learn. Why limit your knowledge to what your teachers dole out to you?

Learn to think in college. Take philosophy, math or writing classes not specifically geared towards some career application. Once you learn how to think, you can learn anything and do anything for the rest of your life.

You sir, are correct as far as you go... that is, for 1/3 of your education.

The others come in Jr. High, where you learn typing and algebra...
and even earlier in pre-school where you learn to say please and thank you (and to "flush", of course)

axehawk · Feb 12, 2003

Finance, w/ minors in statistics, computer science.

Oh, and you better be taking thoses courses at Harvard, Yale, or Columbia, otherwise you're wasting your parent's money.