Best education if I want to become a financial/investment analyst?

[MichaelL]

Your chance of getting into Harvard? Almost nil, from what I understand. Probably better of staying in Sweden.. although if you can get into one of the big schools in the states that would obv. be the best option (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Wharton -- once again chance of getting in is fairly low)

Also, from what I recal D.E. Shaw only really take PhDs in Math / Stats / Physics. The only way someone with something less would be getting in is through some decent work experience.

[OtZman]

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Your chance of getting into Harvard? Almost nil, from what I understand. Probably better of staying in Sweden.. although if you can get into one of the big schools in the states that would obv. be the best option (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Wharton -- once again chance of getting in is fairly low)

Also, from what I recal D.E. Shaw only really take PhDs in Math / Stats / Physics. The only way someone with something less would be getting in is through some decent work experience.

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Yeah, my chances of getting into one of the big schools are probably pretty slim.

I'm thinking about starting out with the Industrial Engineering and Management program, and then choose some financial and financial mathematics courses, and see what I think about it and if it seems to be something I would like to work with in the future. If I decide it's something I'd like to work with, my education will not be completely useless. Then I can also choose an appropriate two year master.

If I end up not liking the finance courses and decide that I'd like to work with something else, I still have a solid education with many other interesting employment possibilities.

[OtZman]

Update: I've dropped out of the school I went to last year, and I've started at another one. I'm now studying a "base year" so that I can get into the industrial engineering and management program next year, my high school grades weren't good enough on their own.

[all_in_lam]

industrial engineering is not related to stocks very much, but more business/management.

take econ and finance obviously

i'm in electrical engineering btw at university of waterloo

[OtZman]

But what if I study industrial engineering with financial mathematics as my electable "base"? I'm don't quite know what the course contains, but it sounds like it could be of use.

A rough translation of the financial mathematics courses:

- Stochastic processes
- Options and mathematics
- Financial derivatives and stochastic analysis
- Financial risk
- Financial time-series

What do you think?

Thanks for all the help so far btw.

[edtost]

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But what if I study industrial engineering with financial mathematics as my electable "base"? I'm don't quite know what the course contains, but it sounds like it could be of use.

A rough translation of the financial mathematics courses:

- Stochastic processes
- Options and mathematics
- Financial derivatives and stochastic analysis
- Financial risk
- Financial time-series

What do you think?

Thanks for all the help so far btw.

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that sounds a lot like the program I did in undergrad (graduated last year). we sent lots of people to all sorts of places in the finance industry.

[OtZman]

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But what if I study industrial engineering with financial mathematics as my electable "base"? I'm don't quite know what the course contains, but it sounds like it could be of use.

A rough translation of the financial mathematics courses:

- Stochastic processes
- Options and mathematics
- Financial derivatives and stochastic analysis
- Financial risk
- Financial time-series

What do you think?

Thanks for all the help so far btw.

[/ QUOTE ]

that sounds a lot like the program I did in undergrad (graduated last year). we sent lots of people to all sorts of places in the finance industry.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. What exactly is your program/education called and where did you study?

Also, I heard from someone that the industrial engineering and management program at my school (Chalmers University of Technology if anyone's heard of it) has good contact with Berkeley in California. Hopefully my school sends the best students there and pay for the tuition etc. Needless to say, I will study until I drop. If only one student is sent, I will make sure that student is me.

[edtost]

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But what if I study industrial engineering with financial mathematics as my electable "base"? I'm don't quite know what the course contains, but it sounds like it could be of use.

A rough translation of the financial mathematics courses:

- Stochastic processes
- Options and mathematics
- Financial derivatives and stochastic analysis
- Financial risk
- Financial time-series

What do you think?

Thanks for all the help so far btw.

[/ QUOTE ]

that sounds a lot like the program I did in undergrad (graduated last year). we sent lots of people to all sorts of places in the finance industry.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. What exactly is your program/education called and where did you study?

Also, I heard from someone that the industrial engineering and management program at my school (Chalmers University of Technology if anyone's heard of it) has good contact with Berkeley in California. Hopefully my school sends the best students there and pay for the tuition etc. Needless to say, I will study until I drop. If only one student is sent, I will make sure that student is me.

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Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton.

[jumbojacks]

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Also, from what I recal D.E. Shaw only really take PhDs in Math / Stats / Physics. The only way someone with something less would be getting in is through some decent work experience.

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Definitely not true. They do recruit undergrads for the following positions: quant analyst, software developer, securities trader, operations, etc.

They definitely only look for superstars. Areas where you stand out academically or other great achievements that sets you above the rest of your peers.

I actually had a friend who got an offer. Amazing 4.0 from top US university, very tough engineering program, lots of solid work experience from major software shops, lots of computational research in areas that D.E. Shaw was interested in. They basically asked him to take his pick of positions. He initially rejected them saying that the positions don't maximize the value that he could provide. They agreed and offered some rotational leadership program. He's now pursuing an engineering PhD.

I think you're better off applying to someplace like Citadel that doesn't put a HUGE computational emphasis. They're currently recruiting at my school.

[SonnyJay]

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Any thoughts on pursuing a CFA license? Not sure though how that works overseas.

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I've never heard of this license before, but I googled and found their website. It seems like the license is useful all around the globe, you can read about one charterholder in Poland and one in Singapore on the website. I also read that you should expect having to put in around 250 hours of studies, maybe more. 250 hours doesn't sound like very much, if I studied 4 hours a day including weekends I would be done in about 9 weeks, which is nothing if this license is as useful as they make it sound on the website.

Apparently there are three exams. I had a look at a sample for the first exam and it looked fairly simple, I even knew the answer to some of the question thanks to the basic micro- and macroeconomics courses I've taken.

Is a CFA license really as useful as they make it sound on their <a href="www.cfainstitute.org" target="_blank">website</a>? If someone here has a CFA license or knows more about it I'd like to hear what you think about it.

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I'm currently studying to take the Level 1 exam in December. The subject matter of the test isn't very hard, but the breadth of the test makes it difficult for many to study. You need to be on top of: Financial Statement Analysis & Accounting, Micro & Macro Economics, Portfolio Management, Corporate Finance, Statistics, Ethics, and Pricing Equity, Fixed Income & Derivatives. It's not too bad if you've already done your undergrad work as a Finance major. Level 2 and 3 cover pretty much the same topics, but go into more detail.

The CFA is a great designation if you want to get into Portfolio Management or Equity Research. Sadly, from what I've been hearing lately, simply passing levels 1 and 2 doesn't carry a lot of weight to many bigger firms. This is especially true with NYC firms. But in the long run, becoming a CFA Charterholder will pay off.

Check out http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/ for more info about the CFA

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Thanks for the link. How much time do you think one would have to put in without that much prior knowledge to the different topics? Does 250 hours sound too little?

When looking at various rankings I see that Harvard is topping the charts... I guess it's very, very hard to get in there, but after looking at some information about Harvard's students' wages I'm thinking it might be worth a shot. I would have to loan money for every dollar that isn't covered by financial aid though. If I managed to graduated with good grades from there, do you think it would be worth it? How hard is it really to get in?

Oh, I also mailed D.E. Shaw & Co and asked what chances they think I'd have when competing for a place in their company with a bachelor or master in engineering from one of the biggest Swedish universities. Let's hope they reply. Are there any other major finance/investment companies I could try? I don't know if they even have the time to answer this kind of queries, but I can't think of a better source of information. Perhaps there are forums/sites where I can find more information?

I know so little about this area, and it seems almost impossible to get a grip of it.

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I worked at D.E. Shaw last summer. It's extremely exclusive and they look for the absolute brightest people in math, engineering, sciences, etc. In fact, I don't think I met a single trader or quant that had a finance undergrad. The firm was founded by computer and math scholars, and they have kept it that way. I have a finance background, and it became obvious that it would be hard to impossible to get to the jobs I wanted with my background, so I went elsewhere. It is a very cool place to work, very un-Wall Street (no dress code, multiple employee outings/events).

As a general statement, cold calls to these companies probably won't get you anywhere. It's hard enough to get noticed and get questions answered if you're going through formal recruiting, and doing it without any internal contacts is damn near impossible. My advice would be to do whatever you can to meet people in the industry. If your school invites people in finance to speak, go to every one, try to speak with the speaker afterwards, and get contact information. Go to any and all career fairs and recruiting events. Maintain e-mail or phone contact with these people. It is by far the best way to get into the industry. It's the best way to get questions answered, and when you actually start to apply to jobs, having someone on the inside vouching for you is incredibly helpful when you're trying to get noticed. I'm at a smaller firm right now, and when I got the undergrad resumes from just one school there were close to 200 students for 8 interview slots. No matter how qualified you are, it's easy to slip through the cracks without someone that works for the firm saying "I know that this kid is good, let's give him an interview."