If I want to be an investment banker chad or trader what would be the best degree? At first I was thinking finance or econ but then I realized that those are useless compared to a STEM degree. That way, with math or CS I can still become a quant/data scientist or actuary, S&T...etc. Also the fact that understanding data and being good at computations is probably gonna be the most important skill for the future of finance
But my question is: which is better for achieving this goal? Math or CS?
math or cs will not teach you the finance or econ you need to be an investment banker or trader.
so can I just minor in finance then?
btw can't I just self learn the finance stuff?
financial mathematics and actuarial science are often in math degrees.
Depends on what your goal is. If your trying to get into an existing job at a bank, you have to fit yourself to whatever shape their peg happens to be that day. If your trying to be great and really understand the market you pick whichever is hardest and most applicable to your interests.
>hardest
so math major and cs minor as well as self learning finance?
or actuarial science + cs?
which one?
It depends on your school. I would recommend start taking intro classes in each and see which one you like. Some of the best investors are philosophy majors. Warning though, intro CS class is pretty representative of what programming is like (obviously simplified.) Math is tail loaded. You don't find out much about it until late.
If your on this board asking this question you may want to just be safe and get a finance degree and work at your local bank branch.
Idk about job prospects between the two maybe double major
But a math grad can easily devour any cs theory. Just start learning how to program on the side. The only relevant cs subject youll take will be algorithm analysis/data structures and algorithms
Just to add to my previous point cs theory especially at an undergraduate level is trivial for a math student. Ditto with finance which is hardly deserving of its academic status. You can self teach yourself just study a good book on microeconomics and/or find a mooc (see mot ocw).
If you’re asking Jow Forums you’re already disqualified
Thanks for the advice. I researched this a bit myself but was curious if Jow Forums said anything different from the general consensus and other sources
lol there is not much finance to trading besides micro, corporate finance and accounting. If OP wants he could get his math degree and either minor in finance, self study or take a semesters worth of units.
What do you mean by "working on wall street"? You have to be more specific. The subfields you listed vary hugely on the needed skill set. What do you want to do all day? Be descriptive.
Self teaching all the finance you need may be hard. There's a lot to finance.
further to the point most finance/accounting/trading jobs are going away as companies start delegating that work to ai. most trading companies have a handful of stem phds write their algos.
Go work in a trade and become a prop trader once you stack 20-30k and have a passive revenue.
yikes and cringepilled. this is not true at all. high level mathematicians are extremely hot stuff in wall street
if you're in maths or something in the likes, it means that you have a high iq and could easily learns the macro and finance part pretty quickly .
i hope employer do see it that way
Business students are some of the dumbest majors who think theyre top shit for taking calc 1
I'm worried about this but quants are safe.
thats my point if you want a future in finance get a strong stem background like math/engineering or physics
Doesn't matter. My friend did some engineering shit and now he's a Bateman-tier Hedge Fund Manager on wall st, absolute slayer.
The key is to get summer placements at banks while you study and aggressively network and show that you really mean business.
>being good at computations is probably gonna be the most important skill for the future of finance
Lol. Being good with people will always be the most important skill, fren.
Perhaps the only important skill.
The days of degrees are long gone.
We are in the era of proficiency and competence.
Dumb boomers and adhd zoomers are finished.