<p>i really enjoy the stock market and am intrigued on how it works. i anticipate applying to udel as a transfer student and studying finance. i am, however, not the greatest mathematician in the world. in fact, its my weak point. (1150 on the old SAT, 640 verbal and 510 math)</p>
<p>is this not the major for me? if math is not my strongest subject, does that necessarily mean that i should pick another major to interest myself in?</p>
<p>Heyyy,</p>
<p>I'm a business/economics major at Lafayette College. We don't have a "finance" major but we have a route you can take in order to better prepare yourself. At our school we need Calculus and another math class called "Math 176" that is just comprised of Calc 2+3 and stats related to business things. For our financial route no other type of math is required. Math isn't my strong point but I'm managing to get through it. However if you are the type of student who is looking to to get 4.0's throughout the major you might need to work a lot harder since math is definetly an important part. Hope this helps any, this is just my view from my college.</p>
<p>Stefan
<a href="http://www.college-investor.com%5B/url%5D">www.college-investor.com</a>
Director of Marketing</p>
<p>awesome. thank you for the reply. im not great at math, but i think its the same for the schools im thinking of. calculus is the only required math. i do not know how tough that will be for me, but im thinking with enough studying and maybe even some extra help i can succeed in it.</p>
<p>Definetly, I used to enjoy math alot. (High School) Since then though the Business aspect of math can be tricky at times. I actually started a business site with a few of my friends. The link is in my profile, check it out. We are trying to network all business majors together to discuss stuff and post internships things! Sign up in the forums too if you want! I'd appreicate it, thanks!</p>
<p>Stefan
<a href="http://www.college-investor.com%5B/url%5D">www.college-investor.com</a></p>
<p>im just worried since i didnt particularly LOVE math in high school...completed only up to trig in h.s...and was not a super big fan of it to say the least.</p>
<p>and your site is extremely professional...did you get someone to design that?</p>
<p>Honestly, in high school I only did trig/stat my senior year. Once I got into college I did the calculus and now im in the other maths that I need. I wouldn't worry to much about it. It's definetly managable if you work hard.</p>
<p>And yes we did get the site professionally designed. We felt that the effect and network we are trying to build needed to be this way. I hope you liked it. If you have any comments about it or things you think needs to be changed drop us a note in the forums!</p>
<p>Stefan
<a href="http://www.college-investor.com%5B/url%5D">www.college-investor.com</a></p>
<p>stefan you got AIM or AOL...if so drop me a PM id like to talk with ya</p>
<p>anyone elese?</p>
<p>hellO? anyone?</p>
<p>what i dont quite understand is why do you need math for the stock market lol you really dont need it at all imo. for "business" i could understand why you would need it (financial analysis modeling etc..)</p>
<p>There are quite a few areas where complex math is used (this area is filled with Olympiad/Putnam folks, PhDs in Physics/Astrophysics/Engineering). However, to get into say Fidelity or something you will not require great math skills.</p>
<p>fidelity? explain..</p>
<p>You aren't going to see Fidelity running an operation like RenTech or DE Shaw any day soon. This is strictly speaking about math skills. To get into Fidelity and the like (investment management) one typically needs to graduate from a top tier school (or MBA program).</p>
<p>yea to make technical indicators probably or "try" to figure out the future.. yea righhtt</p>
<p>Your average technical indicator is made by some peddler who couldn't make a penny off the market. </p>
<p>You are probably not even remotely familiar with quantitative finance or funds. So here is a very brief primer:</p>
<p>Most of these firms focus on finding out non random behavior in the market using various scientific tools. The idea is to figure out periods of predictability in a very noisy time series. I have a feeling that firms like DE Shaw and RenTec (not to mention SAC, Citadel, your ibanks which have quant desks) know what they are doing. Shaw has ~20 billion under management while RenTech's flagship Medallion fund has ~6 billion under management with the best track record of any investment fund (~35% per annum for a decade and a half). </p>
<p>Here is a recent article: <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_34/b3998412.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_34/b3998412.htm</a></p>
<p>mahreas do you daytrade or "invest" yourself?</p>
<p>Yes (almost exclusively FX at the moment). I manage a small firm that manages client accounts (mostly family friends) with contracts with a bunch of dealerships as introducing brokers/liquidity providers.</p>