The Majors

The "Is this [undergraduate major] any good for investment banking?" thread question is quite the common place on WSO. But since we are the Energy Trading group I figured it would be in order for our fellow energy monkeys (myself especially) to know if there are any particular undergraduate majors which are favored in energy trading.

I’ll start off by asking if majors such as Chemical Engineering or Petroleum Engineering hold any significant weight when trying to break into trading (e.g. oil or natural gas trading). I would presume that having extensive knowledge from university of how the product is refined or extracted could be beneficial when trading on the physical side, correct?

...Or is this all a moot point, and a ceramics major could very well land a trading gig at BP and the like as easy as anyone else.

Either way I, and I'm sure many others, would like to know.

Cheers

5 Comments
 

Not if you go directly into trading, if you do have actual work experience in the field that help in very specific situations.

I would agree with monty, that accounting/finance is tops with economics another very popular one. I would also say any coursework in weather, energy economics or mining economics.

A very common analysis is what price will the producer require to keep drilling or hedge themselves. If you know how to build or understand how a well economics model works that sure would help.

 

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