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What kind of Degree for Forex?

  • #1
  • First Post: Jun 17, 2008 3:35pm Jun 17, 2008 3:35pm
Hi all,

I'm going to college next year and I'm wondering what kind of degree is best to use for learning forex? I'm very interested in forex and I want to know what is the best degree for it. I thought Financial Engineering is pretty good but I do not want to be a quant. I want to be a trader.

Franklin
  • #2
  • Jun 17, 2008 3:44pm Jun 17, 2008 3:44pm
The only degree that will come anywhere close to helping you will be in psychology.
  • #3
  • Jun 17, 2008 3:59pm Jun 17, 2008 3:59pm
Quoting Vfforexlee
Hi all,

I'm going to college next year and I'm wondering what kind of degree is best to use for learning forex? I'm very interested in forex and I want to know what is the best degree for it. I thought Financial Engineering is pretty good but I do not want to be a quant. I want to be a trader.

Franklin
Actually Financial Engineering would be a wise choice and you'd most likely not regret it, even if you're interested in becoming a trader later on.

I've spent a good few months analyzing the basics of all these "naive" trading strategies presented in popular trading books as well as on this forum...my only conclusion is that while some of them could be profitable, none of them allows for rigorous risk management.Not even the spreadsheets and mini-tutorials here on risk management do not qualify as very precise.

All of them involve in one way or another a form of "let's hope for the best".The only solution to this is to go for quantitative methods instead for more control over your trading.

I used to think like that as well..."i'm not interested in advanced math and stuff because i only want to be a trader" but I recently realized that I could study financial engineering on my own if I wanted to and it would still help me with being a much better trader.

And this is what I'm doing now...going through tens and tens of books on nonparametrical, robust statistics and computational finance.It has helped immensely and I never plan to go back to any blackbox "use this indicator, these settings, look for this pattern etc" type of methods.

Remember that if you choose to study Financial Engineering to abuse the library of your university/college because I noticed at least some of the typical material taught in college on the subject isn't of particular use to a trader..stuff like pricing derivatives and such.It won't hurt knowing about it of course, but won't help much in trading.But in turn you can pick up books from the library and study on your own about anything you want.

That's the biggest advantage of going to college..having access to a lot of books for free.
  • #4
  • Jun 20, 2008 8:11pm Jun 20, 2008 8:11pm
I have degrees in unrelated fields and have never taken a business course. I'm just doing this because I'm sick of my job and I want to be able to make a second income in a short time.

There might be enough information online that you won't have to take a specialized business course to succeed:

Integrated Pitchfork Analysis - how to use the Andrews Pitchfork

Elliott Wave Theory - the study of impulsive and corrective waves

How to Use Stochastics

Plus, there are plenty of .pdfs floating around this forum that give you an idea of how to predict price movements, including this one on the Gartley Pattern. You can save that for your files.

I'll let you all know when I quit my day job because I've made enough money doing this.
HELL IS EMPTY, ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE. -- Shakespeare
  • #5
  • Jun 21, 2008 5:46am Jun 21, 2008 5:46am
Quote
I'm going to college next year and I'm wondering what kind of degree is best to use for learning forex? I'm very interested in forex and I want to know what is the best degree for it. I thought Financial Engineering is pretty good but I do not want to be a quant. I want to be a trader.

Depends if you want to be a trader or analyst. Finance degrees are great for analyst, not so useful for traders.

If you want to be a trader, go with computer science with a sub focus in psych and economics. During that process you'll be exposed to a lot of math, take particular interest in basic statistics, and how they do (and oftentimes don't) apply to trading.

Do you need any of that to be a good trader? No, of course not. But it will help.
  • #6
  • May 5, 2012 11:00am May 5, 2012 11:00am
I think you can assume whos advice sounds the most practical. Getting your degree in psychology will sharpen your forex strategy as much as taking a water color class. You may get butt hurt and blame yourself for a -400 pip drawdown but i think psychology won't give your strategy anything but stress management (which i guess can't do harm in learning). there are several fields of study that pertain to the psychological aspects of finance in general. while crunching numbers and getting your MQF seems like a headache take a look at what leading financial firms are doing in the foreign-exchange.

Perhaps a currency strategist with International Finance degree will be the more accessible route for focusing on specifically trade, a deep understanding in fundamentals backed with the sharpening of your technical skills with quantitative techniques is likely to optimize any strategy.

a posting on Wilmott's site listed a quantitative forex research position starting around $250,000.

A little something to think about
  • #7
  • May 5, 2012 11:42am May 5, 2012 11:42am
The kind of degree that will be best for forex is one that allows you lots of free time between and during class to practice trading a small account. That way you get 4 years of practice.

Hopefully your degree will allow you to get a job that will allow you to pay your student debt and other miscellaneous liabilities while building a resume for a plan B if trading doesn't pan out (which it will, just good comfort to have a fall back). Then you can build your trading account to a reasonable size, such that a few percent consistently each month is enough to split between withdrawals for insurance/bills/groceries/fun/savings for retirement and for kids' education/compounding.
  • #8
  • May 5, 2012 11:47am May 5, 2012 11:47am
Quoting Parizi
I think you can assume whos advice sounds the most practical. Getting your degree in psychology will sharpen your forex strategy as much as taking a water color class. You may get butt hurt and blame yourself for a -400 pip drawdown but i think psychology won't give your strategy anything but stress management (which i guess can't do harm in learning). there are several fields of study that pertain to the psychological aspects of finance in general. while crunching numbers and getting your MQF seems like a headache take a look at what leading financial...
Check out the post just before yours
  • #9
  • May 5, 2012 12:36pm May 5, 2012 12:36pm
Quoting Vfforexlee
Hi all,

I'm going to college next year and I'm wondering what kind of degree is best to use for learning forex? I'm very interested in forex and I want to know what is the best degree for it. I thought Financial Engineering is pretty good but I do not want to be a quant. I want to be a trader.

Franklin
A technical degree won't help you at all. What traders need most of all is self-discipline. Speaking as someone with instructor ranks in various disciplines from Tae Kwan Do to Kundalini yoga, I'd suggest enrolling in a good karate school instead. If you can stick with it for a couple of years, you've probably learned enough about yourself to start trading. And you're also learning some very useful stuff, besides.
To improve is to change. To perfect, is to change often.
  • #10
  • May 5, 2012 1:14pm May 5, 2012 1:14pm
I don't know an exact degree but I would take a macroeconomics course just to develop a basic understanding of international economics and the reprucussions of policy changes. Always nice having the ability to form your own analysis instead of listening to others. Of course, this is only effective when you have a decent grasp of the material at hand.
  • #11
  • May 5, 2012 2:14pm May 5, 2012 2:14pm
Finance and economics
  • #12
  • May 5, 2012 2:43pm May 5, 2012 2:43pm
A Masters in the art of living, from the University of Life!!!
forget about tomorrow, just steal away into the night
  • #13
  • May 5, 2012 2:44pm May 5, 2012 2:44pm
If you can make money they will hire, trust me.
  • #14
  • May 5, 2012 3:40pm May 5, 2012 3:40pm
Quoting spekitox
A Masters in the art of living, from the University of Life!!!
Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better. ~ Jim Rohn
  • #15
  • May 5, 2012 4:45pm May 5, 2012 4:45pm
If you want to study trading, just spend a year or two studying the charts.
All the info you'll ever need is in there, and there are some good people here in FF who can help you decipher all it has to show
  • #16
  • May 5, 2012 9:07pm May 5, 2012 9:07pm
also a black belt in karate won't stop the market beating your accounts ass like a slow-mo scene from blood sport.

never go without a smart phone if your a serious day trader. download your brokers app, and for droid users trader-interceptor is the best
  • #17
  • May 6, 2012 1:14pm May 6, 2012 1:14pm
Is there any degree for forex ???!
  • #18
  • May 22, 2012 10:47pm May 22, 2012 10:47pm
Quoting Vfforexlee
Hi all,

I'm going to college next year and I'm wondering what kind of degree is best to use for learning forex? I'm very interested in forex and I want to know what is the best degree for it. I thought Financial Engineering is pretty good but I do not want to be a quant. I want to be a trader.

Franklin
No degree required for trading forex, just school of hard knox. You want to become an economist for a journal or something like that then get a degree in Economics, but that shit aint gonna help you for trading. It will teach you about the echonomics that move the market, but it wont teach you to be successfull at trading.
Know when to hold em, Know when to fold em!
  • #19
  • May 23, 2012 9:59am May 23, 2012 9:59am
it does not really matter what degree you should have to trade better, if you have a decent level, and have a will to trade you can be a superstar trader without learning that in an establishment, so to be more successful in your life do something else than trading as studies and learn trading by yourself its not so hard, maybe you can do law and become a lawyer so you will be able to sue the brokers when they try to scam you)
  • #20
  • May 23, 2012 6:08pm May 23, 2012 6:08pm
You don't need a degree, although I think computer programming can become massively handy, once your are a successful trader.
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