Which University to choose for career as a Trader?

C

chrisroper94

Newbie
Messages
3
Likes
0
Hi,
Wonder if anyone can help I need some advice and would be great to speak to someone within the industry. Im 17 and just coming up to finishing A levels. Just looking for some advice, would you be able to give some comments as to which of the universities I applied for would be best in setting me up for a career as a trader. As well as answering a few other questions about the industry.

Thanks.
 
My (worthless?) opinon is oxbridge, LSE or any of the usual suspects that allow you to write your own ticket.
For trading, I think, if you want to stand a better chance than the history or geog grads with a first, make sure you do maths or physics or programming or some other such twaddle with economics but you'll need a good grade.

Hopefully someone who actually landed a job may be able to advise you better but as someone who got knocked back, I know a bit about what they're looking for lol.
 
MIT, Caltech, Stanford - if you are in US.
There is nothing more useful for trader than a solid foundation in math, engineering and finance.
 
The best University I know of is The Market. It has the interesting feature of either being free of tuition if you're a good student, or you might find yourself endlessly making payments if you're not.

You can set your own hours and study however you best see fit. It accepts anyone and everyone who wishes to come to class. Watch out for teachers calling themselves "gurus"; they are anything but! Once the good times roll, you will be tempted to party. Beware as The Market frowns on this. Only the diligent and disciplined can get through, though the occasional whiz kid will just fly by like with any other school.

The one caveat is that you will only get a degree once you leave the school for good, and only you can determine its value. No one can tell you how to obtain a degree of value, but plenty will still try to push you in the direction they think is right. There is, however, only one path available: yours. You must develop your path for success, and only you can travel it.

The Market is either the easiest or the toughest University there is. Always remember you are the one who chooses the difficulty of your courses. They don't have to hard.

Good luck.
 
Any of the top universities as Scose says, look for particularly strong ones in the sciences/math departments, top 10 math goes Oxbridge, Imperial, Warwick, Bath, Durham, LSE, St. Andrews, Bristol, Nottingham, Anything outside of that may be seen as a disadvantage.

(Source, Mathematics - Top UK University Subject Tables and Rankings 2012 - Complete University Guide)

I have friends from a number of these positions partaking in placements in 'the industry', always a good indication.

Regards

Engineering seems particularly sought after.
 
Last edited:
VielGeld said:
The best University I know of is The Market. It has the interesting feature of either being free of tuition if you're a good student, or you might find yourself endlessly making payments if you're not.

You can set your own hours and study however you best see fit. It accepts anyone and everyone who wishes to come to class. Watch out for teachers calling themselves "gurus"; they are anything but! Once the good times roll, you will be tempted to party. Beware as The Market frowns on this. Only the diligent and disciplined can get through, though the occasional whiz kid will just fly by like with any other school.

The one caveat is that you will only get a degree once you leave the school for good, and only you can determine its value. No one can tell you how to obtain a degree of value, but plenty will still try to push you in the direction they think is right. There is, however, only one path available: yours. You must develop your path for success, and only you can travel it.

The Market is either the easiest or the toughest University there is. Always remember you are the one who chooses the difficulty of your courses. They don't have to hard.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

I agree with your concept to an extent, but in order to find a good job in the city, it usually means rubbing shoulders with the elites through the time tested institutions and partaking in the activities that the the employers did themselves.
 
Yep I live in the UK but Theres nothing to stop me going across the pond.
At the moment I have offers for the IFS school of Finance, Exeter University Business School, and Cass Business School. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether these have good reputations within the industry.
Thanks.
 
The further you go from oxbridge the more your degree subject matters and should be more mathsy( economics/maths is like the THING for trading).

Also depends where you want to trade: An investment bank is only really going to take the smartest out there, whereas prop firms are more profit-orientated and if you can make money for them then you should have a decent chance. Even then though, looking at the prop traders, most seem to be good at maths (or at least smart enough to have got a good degree in a hard/traditional subject from a target uni).

Also, having asked around, IB prop desks seem to be dying; you won't find much 'conventional' or directional trading going on- it's more flow/client-based trading. While at Prop firms it's just you trading the market directionally.
 
scose-no-doubt said:
Dont listen to this vielgeld guy either.
Click to expand...

I drown my sorrows by typing up Tl;DR to help out the newbies. It's true. :drunk:

james1989 said:
I agree with your concept to an extent, but in order to find a good job in the city, it usually means rubbing shoulders with the elites through the time tested institutions and partaking in the activities that the the employers did themselves.
Click to expand...

Really? I'd have thought being a profitable trader with a basic understanding of market structure would have trumped any sort of degree you could obtain. Math is pretty much useless as far as I'm concerned... Of course, I suppose it's needed if you want to become an algo or a quant or something.

Ok, Chris, what kind of a trader do you want to become? Discretionary or Quant? That could determine a lot of stuff...

But never forget that to trade you must get your experience in the market no matter what type of trader you want to be, and no Uni I know is going to give you that.
 
VielGeld said:
I drown my sorrows by typing up Tl;DR to help out the newbies. It's true. :drunk:
Click to expand...

It's nothing personal I said it because turned up here asking for advice a few months ago and now you're dishing it out. It happens a lot on this site.

If this guy want's to get a trading job then there are very few people here who can help him. The only reason I offered an opinion is that I've asked people in the past and I can regurgitate their responses. But I also ensure that I let people know that I'm not working in trading and that my opinion may be tripe - something I think everyone should do when they're unsure about something. problem is this forum is full of lullers and bell ends who like to portray a persona rather than talk about their reality.
 
Oh, it's cool. I was being tongue-in-cheek there.

And yes, not many can help you get a job. I've tried getting a job trading myself, and around here it's either go the way of the prop firm or get hired by a bank, but the latter only takes you if you're an honours student or something.

As for capital management & hedge funds... good luck. You need to be either genius-level or very well-connected to get in as far as I can tell. Or start your own like one guy I know. That seems to work best.
 
chrisroper94 said:
Yep I live in the UK but Theres nothing to stop me going across the pond.
At the moment I have offers for the IFS school of Finance, Exeter University Business School, and Cass Business School. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether these have good reputations within the industry.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

They are not very "main stream".
As per the other posts. You need a top 10 institution either here or in the US. And dont study "business" whatever you do. Something like math or economics, even engineering is ok.

I went to Nottingham and managed to snip into Goldmans (for my intake year they took 8 from Oxbridge, 2 LSE, 1 Trinity (Ireland) and 1 other..... I was that lucky other.
 
Maybe try to contact a few of the companies you'd like to work for in the future and ask their advice and what they require for their graduate programs and where they take most of their entrants from.
 
isatrader said:
Maybe try to contact a few of the companies you'd like to work for in the future and ask their advice and what they require for their graduate programs and where they take most of their entrants from.
Click to expand...

No offence Isatrader but dont bother, you'll get some human resources retard who to put it bluntly "doesnt know ****".
 
Not sure what the difference is really, wonder if you could explain the main differences between Discretionary and Quantative Trading.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Career in Banking vs Trading
Replies
13
Views
2K
ffsear
ffsear
J
Career Advise
Replies
1
Views
2K
Magos
Magos
A
Career As a Physical Commodity Trader - Help Required
Replies
5
Views
7K
JackSmack
J
T
Which career path generally earns more?
Replies
2
Views
3K
tomhunter
T
R
Career advice
Replies
0
Views
1K
Roc88
R
Top