Prop trading or Investment Bank

[MrGecko]

96, what bloody difference does it make? Are you going to lure your teachers into a false sense of security by throwing your GCSE's, only to make a miraculous recovery and wow them with the brilliance of your developing mind??

Study bloody hard, get the best grades you can, and take it from there. I admire your ambition, but you must remember to perform in the present at all times.

As for the uni stuff, I thought warwick was pretty hot at economics? (incidentally i got offers from LSE and City but turned them down to to to W; physics though). I don't know how it is perceived in the industry, but Reading's ISMA centre course looked very interesting. Entry requirements are similar to top flight courses.

 

[96pills]

MrGecko, the reason I am asking about GCSEs, is to see if what I get relistically matches up to going into cambridge, or the universities that I am hoping to go to.

 

[arabianights]

MrGecko, the reason I am asking about GCSEs, is to see if what I get relistically matches up to going into cambridge, or the universities that I am hoping to go to.

Universities will only look at your A Levels so long as you get English, Maths, and a Foreign language for GCSE. Although they might be perturbed if you get a load of Ds.

 

[96pills]

thanks arabianights that isnt happening hopefully

 

[ft338]

predicted a level grades are important for uni applications and these will depend on your AS level results too.

strong gcse results are useful too. given how easy they have become in the past 3 years you should be looking to get mostly As and A*s.

as for cass, its second in the world to wharton for actuarial science. act sci is the top degree offered by cass, followed by ifrm. the latter is more pertinent for ibanking/trading and some of the courses will teach you specifics. also cass as bloomberg and reuters rooms and some really good lecturers. however, its rep is good but not as good as say lse or warwick cos its a much younger and growing institution.

if thinking of doing actuarial science then your math and stats needs to be really strong and if it is then try to get into warwick to study MORSE. its a really diverse and strong course and if you take it at its highest level then its on par with pretty any quantitative course at oxbridge.

 

[Masquerade]

masquerdae where did you go to do eco

I was at Leeds Business School - I took Economics and Management. It gave me a bit more flexibility as I could change my modules around and study things which had nothing to do with my course (an example of something I did that wasn't on the course was Social Psychology or Cyberlaw.)

I didn't do too amazing at one of my A levels so places like LSE were out of the question to me. Regardless of what people say, A levels and GCSEs do matter - i'm still getting penalised for something I did 4 years ago when I applied to places with a 2.1 degree with a good degree subject and from a respectable institution.

 

[96pills]

I noticed cass has a bloomberg room, sureley that is a bonus? What course would involve using that. acturial science is not considered good for trading jobs is it?? Is that not better for insurance. The MORSE course is another one I am considering. I dont know how well I would do in the Operational Research, I do not fully understand what that component is about. Would ifrim be better for trading jobs? i don't agree that GCSEs have become easier surely they just raise the boundaries? I am hoping for about 6-7 A*s and the rest As

 

[96pills]

well ne more advice??

 

[Joey25]

96pills, actuarial science IS trading - think for example why you might give a smoker a bigger annuity than a non-smoker. It's not a glamorous subject, but perfect for certain types of trading.

Operations Research - typically applied to manufacturing, e.g:

maximize: profit
subject to: a set of input/demand constraints.

Also known as the study and application of ... algorithms

Joey

 

[96pills]

what types of trading is it good for. I do not fully understand acturial science. My understanding is it is assesing risk. So say i went to cass did acturial science would thatbe just as respected if i was to go for a derivatives trading position, than if i went with an economics degree??

 

[96pills]

any views??

 

[arabianights]

Patience

 

[96pills]

i am trying to be, do you have any views o the matter?

 

[rawrschach]

I don't see why not, but imo actuarial science is the most boring thing on the face of the planet.

 

[Joey25]

what types of trading is it good for. I do not fully understand acturial science. My understanding is it is assesing risk. So say i went to cass did acturial science would thatbe just as respected if i was to go for a derivatives trading position, than if i went with an economics degree??

You've answered your own question above with "my understanding is it is assessing risk".
My point is that 99/100 people studying actuarial science may want to work for an insurance company, and people studying OR may want to work for Toyota, but both are excellent for trading - a lot more useful than the Phillips curve or Rational Expectations in Economics.

Products: options and interest rate swaps - the insurance company effectively has a "fixed" amount of money from the purchase monies from peoples' maturing pension schemes, whereas it has varible or "floating" payments based on the mortaility rates of those same people.

It's a common interview technique to see if with a few nudges from them you can quickly grasp how these things are structured and priced - they're not really interested in rote learning.

You sound to me like you've got great potential by the way!

Joey

 

[96pills]

Joey, Thanks for that very useful info. So if I can go to Cass and do Acturial Science I will still have a good chance of getting into trading. I am going to be seeing some people in the summer holidays, one hedge fund manager and 2 directors of 2 different prop trading firms., I will see what they ssay and tell you guys, their views shouldbe useful as they are the employers....

 

[rawrschach]

While Cass is good, don't underestimate the edge a top 3 uni wil give you on your cv when applying to an i bank.

 

[Joey25]

Totally agree. If you're good enough to go to Cambridge, then go to Cambridge.

 

[96pills]

but as you know most people go for a securityoption, and in mycase its goingto be cass. So you say acturial science is good and relavent.

 

[ft338]

overall your degree does not really matter because the max you will ever learn out of it is the basics. there are so many traders at banks who studied something like natural sciences or classics who are doing well.

if you are looking to get into ibanks then the university you go to is extremely important. hr sift through applications very quickly and in a number of cases automatically which means that if you a levels arent good enough or your uni isnt a "target uni" then your application will be dumped.

as far as i am aware prop firms dont look at your uni as much. more so on your personality, ability to think logically etc.

so overall, try to get into a target university (oxbridge, lse, warwick, imperial) and as long as you dont f up along the way you wont have too many problems getting into either prop or ib.

actuarial science can actually be quite interesting if you have the ability to supplement the highly quantitative content with qualitative analysis.