Title says it all, I'm a 19 year old math major with hopes of one day landing a quant job. Is there anything in particular any of you would recommend I do to one day to land a job?
What did you do when you were my age? Or what would you had done if you were my age and planned on becoming a quant.
Any advice is welcome, thanks.
Take an Finance/Investments course that, at least, covers CAPM and its underlying topics. You should be top 10% in this class as a math major. You'll be introduced to the "jargon" of financing.
Wake up for your 8AMs. Aim for a 4.0 in ALL classes, and abuse your professors' office hours. This will come in handy when you're looking for letters of recommendation.
Start looking at the GRE prep material around your junior year, aim to take it your first semester of senior year (or second semester junior year if you want to take it twice) and to study for the quant portion, make sure you're solving harder problems than what you'll see at a faster rate than the usual 75 seconds per question allowed for the GRE. 170Q sounds improbable but is highly obtainable as a math major.
Take a mathematical modeling course, or at the very least some math-intensive physics courses involving ODEs.
MS Excel is great for monotonous calculations. Learn it.
Indulge in programming - take a few object-oriented language courses. C/
C++ preferred, but Java isn't SO bad. Computer Architecture is also good. So is Computability Theory and Automata (Turing Machines, normal languages, etc)
ODE is a great course. PDE even better. Take as much calculus-based statistics as you like, but at least 1, preferably 2.
Mathematica is great. Learn how to use it if your school offers it. If you can analyze basics of continuous random walks, you're above the curve.
intro-level Economics classes are fun and easy, and also help develop your reasoning skills.
Tutor if you can. If you can teach an 8-year old how to perform calculus, you've mastered the basics of the subject.
Most importantly: you're a math major. Physics and Mathematics are the God-tiers of academics. Once you hit proofs, you'll see what separates the boys from the men.
Courses you SHOULD take:
ODE
PDE
Linear Algebra and Advanced Linear Algebra
Multivariable Calculus
Calculus-based Statistics
Abstract Algebra OR Real Analysis
Mathematical Modeling
Mathematica labs for modeling
Discrete mathematics (graph theory, combinatorics, etc)
and ATTEND EVERY STUDENT COLLOQUIUM. Join KME Math Club as well (Math Honors Society, if your school has a chapter)
Lastly, your school should have access to the WSJ Online. Start reading a few articles a day, most of them are 300-600 words and take less than 10 minutes to read. For example, I recently read an article about the Chinese decline in demand for precious metals, both ores and finished goods - the next day I saw a commercial trying to shill silver, stating that "the Chinese demand for silver products has never been higher!" and I felt a deep sadness regarding the First Amendment.
Don't watch videos on technical analysis, its mostly baseless phooey. DO read the following (they're kind of leisure reading):
A Random Walk Down Wall Street - Burton G. Malkiel
-synopsis: blinded monkeys throwing darts at the financial section of the WSJ can pick better stocks than the "experts" 40% of the time
The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham
-I think this is what Warren Buffet suggested, if it deals with fundamental analysis
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
-you're a math major. chances are, your social skills could use some polishing
The Art of War - Sun Tzu
-chinese philosophy? Yes. Strategy and planning is VERY important and most effective when learned at a young age.
One Up on Wall Street - Peter Lynch
-if you aren't familiar with Peter Lynch or the Fidelity Magellan Fund, look it up
The Four Pillars of Investing - William J. Bernstein
Want a good book of puzzles? One quant suggested:
An Undergraduate Introduction to Financial Mathematics -
J Robert Buchanan
about $50-70 new on Amazon. Covers some nice stuff and was written by a Professor of Mathematics at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, so expect a lot of the material aimed at mathematicians and less dumbing-down for engineers. You'll need some statistics, calculus, and ODE to get past the first few chapters, then it heads into PDE/stochastic stuff.
I've also written a post about why I didn't apply to a program this year - you're still young enough to not make the mistakes I did. And I've read most of these books, currently working through Buchanan in my spare time.
