Hello.
I didn't really know how to start this topic, so I'll write a review. I hope I won't bore you to death.
I'm a Polish student currently at an average UK university (3rd year Business & Finance). I'm planning to work as an Investment Advisor in the future. It's a regulated profession here in Poland. I think the best way to describe it is that it's a Polish equivalent of the CFA. They are said to be quite similar, however, there are some differences. You don't have to be an undergraduate to start it, fail-pass threshold makes it IMO more difficult to pass, theoretically you can get the license in 1 year (there are 2 exams for each level every year). When it comes to content, the 2nd level (the most difficult one) contains 5 essay questions about financial reporting, company stocks, obligations, derivatives etc. I know it doesn't say a lot, but to give you a broad view of what knowledge is needed, to answer the option question you have to have Hull's "Options, Futures and Other Derivatives" at your fingertips. IAs responsibilities may vary a lot - from some trash like writing recommendations (which are just ads most of the time) up to managing portfolios, risk assessement etc.
Polish capital market is obviously much less developed than the US/UK one. The interesting part is that it's not as quant-driven. Quants that you know from the USA are minority (to say the least).
Up until recently I didn't even know there are such people as quants, which may sound pitiful. In short, yes, I want to "become" a "quant", but the quotation marks are there for purpose, so please do not treat this as an "oh, another guy without any knowledge that wants to become a quant in X time" kind of topic. What I want to do is to increase my knowledge in maths and programming throughout the time. I don't have a specific goal, but I would like to, if it's possible, slowly gain confidence in this area, develop a second branch of skillset, and maybe try to use it in my job / private trading in the future (it doesn't really matter if it takes 5 or 10 years or whatever). I'd like to do it because:
- I'm just interested in it, find it quite fascinating (as much as I can say something like that about the topic I don't know). But it doesn't mean I'll learn it by force - I'll probably stop if it doesn't suit me;
- I can't predict the future. If the Polish market stays the same, i.e. not so quant oriented, it can give me an advantage over the others. However, if it's by chance flooded with quants, it can give me means to compete and prevent going out of business;
- there's a chance I could use it in private trading one day, and testing it myself sounds like a fun thing to do;
- hard skills such as math knowledge and programming give me some options if I decide to seek opportunites outside of finance.
Hence, I'm asking for advice. Where should I start? My programming knowledge is non-existent. My math, IMO, is not much better - in this case I stopped education at highschool (HL Maths in IB). I know there's a reading list, but it's just a list of sources without any hand-holding. Shall I generally improve my math skills or rightaway focus on topics that are most used in the field? Start programming together with math learning or favour one over another for some time? Which langauge first? I'd prefer Excel and VBA as some IAs find it useful sometimes - is it fine? Try to get a decent grip on it, and then move to the next one, or learn more at once?
I have one more problem. In the description of many Master of Finance courses it is said that they prepare for the CFA. By the time I graduate from the present uni, I will know most of that stuff, so I don't see any point in choosing it. Ideally I would take something more math oriented, but I don't think there is a course I will be accepted for because of my math background, so don't really know...
Sorry for quite a chaotic post. I will greatly appreciate any suggestons.
I didn't really know how to start this topic, so I'll write a review. I hope I won't bore you to death.
I'm a Polish student currently at an average UK university (3rd year Business & Finance). I'm planning to work as an Investment Advisor in the future. It's a regulated profession here in Poland. I think the best way to describe it is that it's a Polish equivalent of the CFA. They are said to be quite similar, however, there are some differences. You don't have to be an undergraduate to start it, fail-pass threshold makes it IMO more difficult to pass, theoretically you can get the license in 1 year (there are 2 exams for each level every year). When it comes to content, the 2nd level (the most difficult one) contains 5 essay questions about financial reporting, company stocks, obligations, derivatives etc. I know it doesn't say a lot, but to give you a broad view of what knowledge is needed, to answer the option question you have to have Hull's "Options, Futures and Other Derivatives" at your fingertips. IAs responsibilities may vary a lot - from some trash like writing recommendations (which are just ads most of the time) up to managing portfolios, risk assessement etc.
Polish capital market is obviously much less developed than the US/UK one. The interesting part is that it's not as quant-driven. Quants that you know from the USA are minority (to say the least).
Up until recently I didn't even know there are such people as quants, which may sound pitiful. In short, yes, I want to "become" a "quant", but the quotation marks are there for purpose, so please do not treat this as an "oh, another guy without any knowledge that wants to become a quant in X time" kind of topic. What I want to do is to increase my knowledge in maths and programming throughout the time. I don't have a specific goal, but I would like to, if it's possible, slowly gain confidence in this area, develop a second branch of skillset, and maybe try to use it in my job / private trading in the future (it doesn't really matter if it takes 5 or 10 years or whatever). I'd like to do it because:
- I'm just interested in it, find it quite fascinating (as much as I can say something like that about the topic I don't know). But it doesn't mean I'll learn it by force - I'll probably stop if it doesn't suit me;
- I can't predict the future. If the Polish market stays the same, i.e. not so quant oriented, it can give me an advantage over the others. However, if it's by chance flooded with quants, it can give me means to compete and prevent going out of business;
- there's a chance I could use it in private trading one day, and testing it myself sounds like a fun thing to do;
- hard skills such as math knowledge and programming give me some options if I decide to seek opportunites outside of finance.
Hence, I'm asking for advice. Where should I start? My programming knowledge is non-existent. My math, IMO, is not much better - in this case I stopped education at highschool (HL Maths in IB). I know there's a reading list, but it's just a list of sources without any hand-holding. Shall I generally improve my math skills or rightaway focus on topics that are most used in the field? Start programming together with math learning or favour one over another for some time? Which langauge first? I'd prefer Excel and VBA as some IAs find it useful sometimes - is it fine? Try to get a decent grip on it, and then move to the next one, or learn more at once?
I have one more problem. In the description of many Master of Finance courses it is said that they prepare for the CFA. By the time I graduate from the present uni, I will know most of that stuff, so I don't see any point in choosing it. Ideally I would take something more math oriented, but I don't think there is a course I will be accepted for because of my math background, so don't really know...
Sorry for quite a chaotic post. I will greatly appreciate any suggestons.
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