Finance or economics degree for Global Macro employee?

Hi. I'm wondering what degree will teach me the things necessary to know as a Global Macro fund employee.

I think I'm better at fundamental speculation/macro/discretionary rather than micro/technical/systematic trading. I guess you are doing the technicals the first few years, but that's ok.

What should i get a degree in, finance or economics?

Thanks guys :-)

5 Comments
 

Depends. Some global macro are fundamental and discretionary in nature while others are purely quantitative/systematic. Thus, if you were more interested in the first style, you would want to understand macroeconomic issues, geopolitical issues and basically what makes the global economic machine tick. Initial career path might be world bank/imf type stuff. If you're more interested in quant/systematic global macro it is worth learning programming and probably getting a masters in financial engineering.

Just my 2c

 
Takeru95Depends. Some global macro are fundamental and discretionary in nature while others are purely quantitative/systematic. Thus, if you were more interested in the first style, you would want to understand macroeconomic issues, geopolitical issues and basically what makes the global economic machine tick. Initial career path might be world bank/imf type stuff. If you're more interested in quant/systematic global macro it is worth learning programming and probably getting a masters in financial engineering.

Just my 2c

Thanks. So do you recommend Economics degree or Finance degree for the "fundamental" style? You only mentioned what jobs to start off with hehe :)

i.e Where will I learn geopolitics and macroeconomics? ... I assume it's economics degree but I just wanna make sure ;)

 

I double majored in finance and econ. Finance can be learned by anyone anywhere, but I feel like the type of thinking you learn through econ classes adds a lot more value to your jobs and everyday life.

I also feel like the type of work you do in econ is more applicable to the type of work you actually do in finance (forecasting,l trending, looking forward, etc).

just my opinion.

You're born, you take shit. You get out in the world, you take more shit. You climb a little higher, you take less shit. Till one day you're up in the rarefied atmosphere and you've forgotten what shit even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake, son.
 

Many macro funds combine discretionary macro with some form of systematic trading for signals, however they might use discretion to act upon the signals instead of blindly following it. Also, almost all macro managers, even the 'pure fundamental ones' (i.e Hugh Hendry) utilize technical analysis or employ traders that utilize technical analysis for timing. Major in macroeconomics, minor in finance/ mathematics/ statistics/ computer science/ political science/ international relations and you should be good. Frankly, if you're truly interested in macro, you have a lot more to worry about than your major- most of your upper year courses will be inapplicable theoretical nonsense, and no major can prepare you for the leveraged risk taking that takes place in macro.

 
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