Industrial Engineer interested in Trading and Grad School
Hi guys,
I'm an international student studying Industrial Engineering at UIUC. I'm halfway through my degree now and my goal is to land an internship in trading or risk management. One of my professors at my IE Department who does research and teaches financial engineering recommended me to pursue a dual major with LAS in Math & CS. The thing is that I've found that LAS also offers a major called Stat. & CS.
I want to get a Master's degree in FE right after college to strengthen my Finance background. The reason for which I want an Internship in trading is solely to form a better curriculum for grad school. I'm looking at Columbia, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, etc.
I want to know what your advice is for this matter:
Should I get a dual major with LAS in Stat. & CS or Math & CS? (to get into a top FE program)
If I want to eventually (I know this is ambitious) be a Hedge Fund Manager, Asset Manager, Venture Capitalist or else...is trading a natural background?
A friend who is a physical trader at BP told me that traders normally stay there for their whole lives. My ambition is to eventually (~10-15 yrs.) start my own investments firm. So, is trading a good track to accomplish this? If not, with my background, what path is my best bet? Thanks.
Just to add a little bit to these. James Harris Simons is kind of the investor type I want to be...(I know this is very ambitious).
Okay...so here's an employee at a quant hedge fund saying that his "#1 recommendation is to develop a strong understanding of statistics and some programming skills." So this pretty much sums it up right? I should pursue the Statistics & CS...Do you agree?
Article: Quant Hedge Funds: String Theory + Algorithms = Binders Full of Money?
I'm no expert (fellow undergad as well); however, I've read/heard that people with programming skills (CS) in finance are sought after as the financial sector is becoming increasingly intertwined with the financial sector.
In my opinion if you want to differentiate yourself you should go after the double major in CS. It will also provide you a solid backup as CS majors are a commodity here in the US. Just my 2 cents.
Thank you for your response TheFratPack! Taking the double major will definitely open a lot of doors!
Whoops. That sentence should read: "the financial sector is becoming increasingly intertwined with the technology sector." But you get the idea.
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