Getting a Master degree ...
hey guys, i am a recent graudate without any job offer and the job market is really bad. I am considering going back to the university to do a Master degree BUT my ulitmate career goal is to become a trader so should i do a Master in Finance OR Master in Statistics ?
How about a Masters in Financial Engineering!
There are also a number of financial mathematics programs like the University of Chicago and a few quantitative-oriented finance programs like Princeton that are largely equivalent to the Fin. Eng programs at Berkeley and Cornell. Princeton is arguably one of the best financial engineering programs in the country in terms of placement, quality of instruction, and quality of students- As someone who has met his share of pretentious Ivy League grads (as well as unpretentious ones), I say that through gritted teeth. :D
A good site to visit for advice on financial engineering programs is QuantNet.com.
You do probably want to go to a top 15 program. It will be harder to get recruited by a bank or hedge fund if you're not at a top 15 or 20 school.
All in all, Stats or AS might be a little stronger than a traditional finance MS. That said, a few programs (like Princeton and maybe MIT) call their financial engineering programs "Finance" degrees. If you notice an odd emphasis on math backgrounds and the degree is offered at a target school, that might be a good sign you're looking at a good Financial Engineering program. Still best to check on QuantNet.com- you'll get much more specfic advice there than from a forum full of bankers, sales guys, researchers, traders, along with a small handful of quants and strategies guys. In other words, we may not be as familiar with the specifics as the financial engineering students and quants that post over there.One other option would be an Econ PhD if you can get into a top twenty program.
UIUC had great engineering programs and a very good finance program when I went to school there, but you willFinancial Engineering has nothing to do with traditional engineering. Fin engineering is, amongst other things, about valuing new and less standard products in the financial markets like options and derivatives. The program will be highly quantitative and will involve things like stochastic calculus and ito's lemma. In my fin eng. class at college we spent a couple of weeks deriving the black-scholes in detail and from scratch. In short, this is definitely highly quantitative, and def not less so than stats.
Shouldn't matter too much. top programs are MIT, Berkeley. You might check out UIUC, it's a new program and they get good recruiting from top prop shops in Chicago. It's basically a third CS, third math, third Finance. Great for prop trading, not as big in flow.
An MFE would definitely be valuable... between the two you suggested Id say a masters in finance.
i just dunno what i shd do and felt like my life is fucked up
Georgia Tech has a Master's in Quantitative & Computational Finance program. The app is due on tomorrow (April 15) for fall enrollment. GT isn't necessarily a finance powerhouse so you would have to do quite a bit of networking to line up job interviews.
I was in the very same position about a year and half ago. I was deciding between the master in finance and master in statistics. Here are some things to consider. Finance will with out question be much easier, unless you are talking about a MFE, but that is an entirely different story. If you do not have sufficient background in math and statistics, a MA in statistics will be extremely challenging. Expect a lot of theoretical statistics, i.e. proofs. This was something that surprised me a great deal, as I thought of statistics as applied math. I was sitting in my first semester of classes, and I had taken previous statistics courses and math up through Cal III, these were all a breeze. Then the professor starts talking about Characteristic functions and Lebesque dominated convergence theorem. The class style goes Theorem, Proof, Theorem, Proof. Most of the time the examples are worse than the proofs. This material was the easiest for the students who had taken atleast two analysis courses. The people in the classes with me are all PhD math, engineering, and statistics students. I am the only person in my program who did not major in math or statistics and I am one of two American students. That being said, I was able to figure it out and do well so it is not impossible, but realize that you will be at a severe disadvantage going in, and you will have to work your ass off. As for the MFE programs, look at the profiles of the students who attend these programs, probably 30% of the entering classes are people who ALL READY HAVE A PHD. I would say that without significant programming background your chances of admission are virtually nil. If you do decide to do statistics, in addition to Dif-EQ, I would add linear algebra, that becomes really important when you get into multivariate analysis and linear statistical models. In my opinion, the MFE would be the best for trading, then MA statistics, and then MS finance. Good luck.
Honestly, go for your Phd. Bang it out in 4 years. Programs at the good schools are usually fully scholarship and even have a stipend sometimes.
my uncle say that to me too ... i am not those kids that learn/understand every single thing when a lecturer explains to them. I need to write my own notes that i copied and write the textbooks. I would say i am above average but not the bright guy. shd i still do a Phd ? i dun want to be kicked after 2 years of Phd man ... that wud be ashame...
i am not sure whether i have enuf background in maths or not, my last stats topic was hilbert transfer and time series. my honours project was based on Hilbert-Huang Tranform Times Series analysis, it was rocket science to me, I did not understand most of it... after all losing my first class hon average and i got 2:1 at the end ....
I use R but not C++... i graduated from the university of auckland ... and i have done a postgraduate Time Series course and i a B from it (70%). Again my utimate goal is to be a trader and started to struggle with the greek in my final year....dont feel like becoming a Quant anymore but i have no choice since I am trying to find a job in HK. it is impossible to get into M&A or Research since my chinese sucks :(
This is the description of my Time Series class STATS 726 Time Series Points: 15 Prerequisites: STATS 210 and either STATS 320 or STATS 325. STATS 201/8 is recommended Assessment: 5 assignments worth 40%, final exam = 60% Taught: Second Semester City
STATS 726 provides a general introduction to the theory of time series and prediction including stationary processes, moving average and autoregressive (ARIMA) models, modelling and estimation in the time domain, seasonal models, forecasting, spectral analysis and bivariate processes. This foundation course is particularly suitable for students in economics and finance, and in the engineering and physical sciences.
Specific topics covered include: the basic theory of stationary processes; spectral or Fourier models; AR, MA and ARMA models; linear filtering; time series inference; prediction and other topics such as the sampling of continuous time processes.
Thanks guys for giving me advices , i reli appreciated with these ... my last shot would be doing Master in Finance either in New South Wales or University in Hong Kong. Or Master in Statistics at University of Auckland.
tough shot would be to A+ all the class in Master in Statistics at University of Auckland, get scholarship to do Phd in the States possibly in Stanford or I DONT where is the best place to do Phd for Stats in the finance area . What do u guys think ?
The next is your GREs or GMATs. You need a 780 on the quant section to get into a top 15, maybe top ten program; you really need a 790 or better yet, an 800 to get into the very best programs. This should be easy for a stats undegrad, but you need to start studying.
Few people with a degree in math or stats are interested in trading or financial engineering; hence, it's a lot easier to get into a top program. (It's gotten harder over the past five years.) If you score an 800 on your GREs, I would absolutely recommend considering making a few applications to the three London schools, IIM, Princeton, Stanford, and maybe Chicago. I don't know enough to understand your academic profile, but if it's reasonably strong and you've got good recs, that and an 800 on the GRE will stand a good chance of getting you into one of those programs.
Well, first, lets learn how to spell correctly. Dun = Don't know and wud = Would. "Bang out your PHD" are you serious BCBanker? are you retarded? don't pursue a PHd unless you are very passionate and curious about certain subject matters. Its very hard work. It seems as though you are looking to expand your skill sets and gain access to a better network. Do a masters of finance at the best school you can get into.
So the first degree didn't get you a job and you want to get another one ?!
you are right...
Id quidem labore temporibus debitis aut et. Modi et et quam. Velit qui ut officiis in.
Esse omnis et quos et asperiores facilis. Voluptatem et sed blanditiis non odio aut sint. Temporibus commodi neque tempore.
Debitis quia eveniet dolores quia. Placeat inventore autem incidunt placeat. Quaerat repellat id non pariatur minima enim voluptas. Eveniet dolorem at repudiandae laudantium et.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...