MA Econ for Global Macro
So to give a bit of a background, I’m a finance major, econ minor at a non-target. I’m ultimately interested in breaking into an investing role at a macro fund but I’m also perfectly fine with staying a macro research related role. For this upcoming summer, I’ll be working within Investment Strat on the buyside.
Given the types of people that enter into global macro (quants, FICC, ex fed/IMF, etc), I was wondering if I should pursue grad school Econ in the future, after a couple of years of work experience. Is the ROI worth it, say if I applied and got into Columbia’s MA Econ program (or CBS MS Financial Econ)? Or is my undergrad degree sufficient enough that I don’t have to invest in a Masters?
If you get a return offer and there’s mobility to be directly under a PM down the line, I’d stick with that before applying to grad school. I don’t really see many econ masters people in the industry. They typically have a PhD. Most people with an econ MS just got one as a condolence prize when they dropped out of their PhD program. I’d go for a quant oriented MS instead, as you’ve already studied finance.
I would say you’ll find more MS/MA Econ PMs in Europe/Canada offices since these countries actually have research masters (instead of mostly industry masters in the US).
Can you elaborate on this? Do you think it is more related to transferable skills, signaling effect, or the idea that the ex US folks probably could've done a PhD and just chose not to for whatever reason. Thanks
I'm highly, highly surprised that there are people here who seriously consider and discuss enrolling in an MS Econ program to build the (intellectual) horsepower for macro investing. From my econ undergrad experience, I struggled hard to relate the highly esoteric econ shit to what the macro funds are doing. What the macro funds do is what I'd say what a normie would imagine what economics is; whereas what econ in university looks like applied math and academic masturbation. I pick up a Dalio book or smtg like 'Macroeconomics for Professionals' and it's so 'normal econ'. The dichotomy between 'normal econ' and 'academic econ' has been bewildering in my experience and I wonder why the hard dichotomy exists
Also, econ programs literally train you to become an economist, not a macro investor. Literal distinction there. So I'm genuinely surprised. Pleasant surprise tho. Maybe I just failed to connect the dots while others could. Gives me hope
I was able to hard relate the CFA curriculum with markets and fundamental analysis, and that's saying smtg. Maybe if Mark Meldrum taught my econ program I could've seen the bigger picture
I would say it’s a matter of perspective. Given that I have a finance background, the stuff I learned from the intermediate econ classes added much more depth into the theories taught in finance. That plus some really interesting on cycle internships and extracurriculars have been really useful in creating a solid macro investing oriented foundation. It’s much more useful to have a solid application (finance) based background with a good theoretical framework overlay (economics). I just think that having an MA in Econ would add much more theoretical depth to my current skillsets, especially with econometrics.
That's good. Fair points.
What I'd like to add (in my opinion and from my perspective), econ and finance can be seen from 2 lens - econ and finance.
Explanation:
Economics can be seen/ taught thru the lens of economics, or thru the lens of finance.
Finance can be seen/ taught thru the lens of economics, or thru the lens of finance.
I generated this 2x2 matrix, with the x-axis representing the subject/ field and y-axis representing the 'lens which it is seen thru'
When you see economics thru the lens of finance, everything becomes more practical and worldly (apologies if I come across as making assumptions here, but I suppose that's where you sit, seeing that your background is in finance, and that's why going for econ would seem useful and fun for you). Whereas if you go into it only with a hardo econ perspective, shit gets convoluted and esoteric.
Sweeping generalizations here, and by no means comprehensive or completely accurate, but this is how I personally came to realize why these hard dichotomies exist (why some finance programs are piss easy whereas some are out of this world), and how I reconciled these dichotomies - they happen because of the lens of the user/ instructor.
Bumping this. Lack the quant background from undergrad to do a STEM Masters (bc of finance major) so I’m interested to see what happens in this thread. Def want to break into global macro and get further education.
A lot of good comments/questions here so I will summarize my views:
1.) Make sure you are really interested in macro- performance has been good and sounds sexy to be "taking directional bets on everything," but low vol RV/hard core data analytics may be decidedly less so.
2.) If you have a STEM undergrad and/or proficient in R/Python and have any remote finance background then try to land a Jr role in FICC, sellside econ research/strategy, buyside trading assistant...basically anything related; at the same time apply for one of the masters noted as a good stepping stone (Princeton's MFin prob the gold standard but others chime in)
3.) If you don't have the STEM background realized it is going to be a slog bc you will have to "get quanty" at some point- your path is going to be self study and in this case I would advocate an MA econ/policy masters as a way to re-recruit and use the time to take as quanty a courseload as you can. You will probably have to broaden your search to macro adjacent like sovereign credit/equity strategy etc.
fin
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