Econ VS Finance

What quantitative courses have you taken? I doubt you could undertake a CompSci post-grad with inadequate programming courses.

Complete the Business/Finance major and take some Econ classes on the side. These are the classes you should be considering (roughly in this order) for trading:

Game Theory Money & Banking Math Econ ~~~~~~~~ The others you listed

Hello Economics is all theory. Accounting is for bean counters. If you major in finance, the sky's the limit. If you want to be in IBD you have to major in finance. The BB's laugh at other majors. You'll be making at least $175K out of undergrad plus bonus. Then when you get an MBA, you'll be able to make $500K+.

Economics is all theory. Finance is something you can use.

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Hey Vitun, if you are going to be a shill for your website at least try and not offer crap advice. Only reason I'm not deleting your retarded comment is because of the joy I plan on taking from people slamming the level of stupidity it involves.

You do realize that at most top business schools you major in finance. You also realize that starting salary, including bonus is not near 175k. You also realize that banks take people with all kinds of degrees. Know something before you post.

.... I will for my own sake ignore Vitun's comments.

I would strongly suggest taking as much Econometrics as you can. That stuff comes in handy in quant analysis, as it will train you at the very least.

In theory a double major in econ and finance is best. But I am a bit biased here

why not just do both :)

Thank you everyone for your input, I really appreciate it. I have been doing some research on my higher education. Since my career goal is to become a trader - keeping in mind that traders come from all background - I came to a conclusion that I want to seek higher education in mathematical finance since there isn't a higher education program that is exclusively related to mathematical trading currently being offered in United States. Case Business School currently offers Mathematical Trading & Finance, but it is in London. In this day and age, most firms seek quantitative academic backgrounds from traders. I have been doing some research on what I can do right now to prepare myself for future education. Most of these mathematical finance programs require a good fundamental of mathematics. Therefore, I have decided to extend my stay in college for an additional one more semester. So now I will graduate Spring 2011.

The courses I have decided to take prior to graduation are: MATH -Pre Calculas MATH -Calculas 1 MATH -Calculas 2 MATH -Differential Equations MATH -Elementary Linear Algebra MATH -Probability ECON- Money and Banking ECON- Game Theory And maybe, ECON- Econometrics

I decided to take the above mathematics courses following my research on Boston University's Mathematical and Finance program, CQF.com (Certified Quantitative Finance), and Case Business School's Mathematical Trading & Finance program.

If anyone thinks that I should add/drop some of the above courses, please tell me. Most of them are prerequisites to others.

imo drop game theory add calc 3

If you like math then take it, but outside of a MFE degree I can't see a situation where you would have to take those math classes for more education.

Take those math classes at a different school so that they don't bring your GPA down.

Anthony, It's not that I like/dislike math. That's not the problem. My passion is trading and I want to do everything possible from my end point to be better qualified for trading assistant jobs/internships. It seems to me that the HR department doesn't want to give anybody a chance if they don't have a strong quanitative degree. I'm a Finance major, but I have been trading for past two years, even with the experience it's hard for me to get interships that are trading related. Even though, after reading the job descriptions, I am confident that I will be able to perform the job with great precision. I'm just very worried about my future and I want to try to do things that will help me get these internships.

Please someone correct me if I am wrong, but depending on what you trade will really decide how quant you need to be. Take the math if you want, but unless you list out all your classes you will still be a finance major at the end of the day. The best thing you can do is spend time networking so you get a S&T internship which will set you up for a S&T position come graduation. To my knowledge the typical major is finance/econ or something related from a top school.

If you want to take those math classes either know you can get an A or take them at another school so the final grade doesn't F your GPA.

Not saying you're wrong Anthony, but I'd much rather hire a double major in Finance and Math. What you learn in math class will be at least legitimate knowledge. IMO econ is a soft science at best and outright rubbish at worst. It's nearly impossible to have a high degree of confidence in any economic analysis because it's very hard to run experiments.

Academic econ is rubbish and is not applicable to practical trading. Pick up some Galbraith, Milton Friedman or any of the best selling econ books on Amazon if you want to learn Econ. I'd go with finance.

I completely agree about the double major in math and finance, but don't let it hurt your GPA. If you tank your GPA in a quest for this double major you could really hurt your chances.

This is sound advice from Anthony. I'd also add that if you can't get As in undergraduate math classes, you're probably going to have a hard time finding a job in trading, whether you took the classes or not.

Finance is just as much rubbish and inapplicable to trading as is economics for the most part.

It's been said, many times, many ways... a major is very likely not going to make or break an applicant when you're discussing between finance, economics, maths, etc.

Derivatives desks tend to hire more quantitative majors, true... but I think that's more a function of quantitative minded people being attracted to derivative products (and likely these people majored in math, engineering, etc. because it is what they enjoy doing) as it is the desk head saying "I will only hire a person of XYZ Major" or "who took XYZ course."

If you are a finance, economics, or something else, and sit on an options desk, people aren't really going to care what your major is as much as evaluate how quickly you pick up on concepts. Maybe having a math background will help speed up the learning process, but if you were interested in options to begin with, you probably looked into concepts like partial derivatives, stochastic processes, etc. The same can be said for macroeconomic intensive products, credit products, equity, etc.

Use some common sense; if you are looking to join a derivatives/options desk, knowing partial derivatives would be helpful to understanding the greeks. But in the end, my advice to you would be to take the courses that interest you the most. If you're the more quantitative minded, you'll likely to be more drawn to the math classes anyway.

if you plan on pursuing comp sci at the grad school level then the gre cs subject test will be a beast without any proper training (course work or self taught.) Not to be a dick but your selected math classes you want to take in the 1 year before graduation will be rough considering you can't usually take calc1 without precalc, you can't take calc2 without calc1, diffyq's is usually calc4 or beyond at most schools and you can't take that without calc3 (which was not on your list). it is a lot more than 1 year worth of work but is it worth extending graduation to you? i think it is awesome that you want to do math but its not something that you just rush to do because you think it will check some box with a future employer. agree with above posters in that if the subjects interest you then take them..but if you were a quant minded guy then those classes would have been taken long before 1 year left to grad date just out of passion and curiosity.