Question regarding major

[Lukee]

-

 

[bigbadwolf]

Throw away the economics courses -- waste of time. Nothing wrong with applied math but make sure you get a year of real analysis, one semester of ODEs, and at least one semester of PDEs. Two semesters of statistics. A course in probability.

 

[Lukee]

-

 

[SD_]

Macro-eco is always important for building good models, you can take economics as well.

And because your target is Trading, not pure research, economics becomes more important.

You don’t want to be sitting at the back running analysis while someone else is taking part in strategy development. Understanding how FED’s rate hikes and the CPI data might mess up with your strategies is key especially during these times.

Economics will be required to understand the ghost patterns as well and if you want a career ỉn Portfolio management.
Good luck

 

[Lukee]

Macro-eco is always important for building good models, you can take economics as well.

And because your target is Trading, not pure research, economics becomes more important.

You don’t want to be sitting at the back running analysis while someone else is taking part in strategy development. Understanding how FED’s rate hikes and the CPI data might mess up with your strategies is key especially during these times.

Economics will be required to understand the ghost patterns as well and if you want a career ỉn Portfolio management.
Good luck

Thank you, I appreciate it

 

[MMFInfoAcct]

I'm currently a freshman at a state school ranked ~50 in the US and am interested in becoming a quantitative trader. I am planning on declaring a double major in applied math and economics next semester, would that be sufficient for MFE programs in grad school? If not what other majors should I consider? I also would be grateful for any advice on stuff I can do outside of class to increase my odds of entrance to these programs. Thanks.

I think applied math + cs is probably best but applied math + econ is fine too. However, I don't think you should be picking your major based on if its "sufficient for MFE", especially considering you're a freshman at a US school already and want to to go into Quant Trading and not Research (the value for MFE for me personally at least was extra GPA padding + an internship opportunity at a US firm + CPT/OPT sponsorship, but based on your circumstances you don't seem to need CPT/OPT and have plenty of time in your undergrad to load up progressively better internships year after year -> directly going into trading fresh out of grad). MFEs in recent years tend to place more into the research roles than S&T (several MFE career reports over the years show a shift from S&T into research over the past 10 years), and firms like JS generally avoid MFEs for QT and hire new grads primarily from their undergrad intern pipelines.

 

[Lukee]

-