Financial Analysts

Well for me it was pretty simple. I didn't study economics, econometrics or finance. I studied pure math and then went into finance, which means that all I know about anything comes from pure probability courses. Then, to not look like a dumbass on interviews, you start reading classical textbooks and you just see them filled with unreasonable probabilistic assumptions and realize that this is all bullshit.

The way I see it, classical education is just filled with bad assumptions because those bad assumptions lead to really nice formulas and methods for the students to learn but if managing money was that easy everyone would be rich, and if everyone was rich everyone would be poor, so there's a contradiction right there.

Graduating with a degree in both econ and finance in a year if that counts.

When it first launched there was a lot of talk about stocks and legitimate business idea. Now its just a crypto shill board. But it seems that after bitcoin crashed its getting better.

You make a valid point. I still look forward to my study though, to get a better understanding of the global economy in general.

Yeah, don't worry. You'll learn some useful stuff anyways, just don't fool yourself into thinking that the skills will get you the job. Concentrate on networking and getting internships while in school.

if we could see each user portfolio with net worth and holdings it would be different maybe 1 to 3 good comments out of a few hundred

provide example plz user

For example, the Black Scholes options pricing model assumes that prices follow a lognormal distribution. That is such a huge assumption with no theoretical backing at all. I mean, sometimes I wonder if people really think that the universe loves us so much that they would give us nice distributions, or are academics just memeing rich people into investing money by telling them big words? I think we can all agree that it is the latter.

so technical analysis only "works" if we assume a set of necessary assumptions/predicates is true which is often not the case?
can you give an interested but clueless user a hint or links about how predictive models are built? i mean, how do the wise guys learn who are groups of market participants or what events/conditions makes them react? thank you so far for your example.

Different ID because I’m out of the office but pretty much. TA also has pretty critical assumptions which is why it works almost as often as it fails.

As for how you get to know a market... well if you are one of the guys at the top then you all know each other and everyone knows that you all know each other. If you do not have those connections then the best you have is TA to measure market sentiment, so you use TA.

As for how predictive models are made, let me just break it for you. This is so subjective that there is no way I could give you a source that teaches it. Almost any sensible idea can be pitched as a predictive model, and then the methods for testing it are also subjective and prone to error which is why most economics is bullshit. If you want somewhere to start, you can start literally anywhere because you will never end. All I can say is that being good at probability helps.

Any advice for someone looking to become a financial analyst from a completely different field?

>t. degree in Aerospace engineering

Hey frenon, any sage advice for someone looking to switch career to financial analyst?

What do you need to learn/study to become one and how intelligent do you actually need to be?

I had the same realization at UChicago. Good to know I wasn't crazy.

My suggestion is to just apply. Take a look at your resume, gear it more towards the field and then start applying. As I said, I don’t have a degree in finance or econ. I just applied. If you have a STEM degree you will be fine. I just suggest learning some jargon. It’s all bullshit too but you need it to understand the others, and you get used to it.

Well, cutting the fat, you just need to learn how to manage money. Learn some math, learn some quantitative methods, read some books about trading, risk management, portfolio management, and you are golden. If you have time and can go for CFA then you’ll learn all there.

if a historical data is in a specific distribution then we can assume that this distribution is correct, amirite?

thanks user that helped me a lot. i hoped this board evolves into a place with more threads about economics and business and that more knowledge will be shared here.

Any resources you recommend?

I’ve mostly read Nassim Taleb. He has many books so I suggest you scout a bit for what you care. Also Market Wizards.

Thank you.

Thanks for the response. I've been looking at CFA you think it's worth it? Honestly I've already got the picture it's all bullshit and what matters is you're good at what you do.

I did a thesis on school using neural networks for market analysis. I've had some luck with applications just based on that but any advice on how I can leverage that better?

The black pill is that in the major derivatives market, a trade is not conducted unless the outcome is 100% known. So yeah, the entire system is essentially rigged. no one trades unless they actually know the outcome of the trade, 100%. so if you are trading based on 50-90% probabilities you will still get rekt