<p>do i need a math/stats major to go into sales and trading? is a business degree from berkeley haas good enough?</p>
<p>you dont need a technical major to do S&T, but it definitely helps. With a business degree, there are certain branches under the S&T umbrella that are really difficult for you to succeed in. I was on a very quantitative derivative structuring and trading desk last summer with someone from one of the top business schools. I ended up running simulations, back-tests on multi-leg structured products and built a few useful volatility/overall greeks tools while the business major worked on a few powerpoints all summer because she just doesnt have the background to understand exotic option pricing.</p>
<p>But does that mean you cant do S&T without a math/engineering degree? Hell no. There are plenty of S&T positions that doesnt require an intense background.</p>
<p>do you think you did all of that stuff because you learned the quant skills at school? ie you took specific math/stats classes that taught you how to analyze numbers? or are you just a quantitative thinker and you can learn what you need on the job?</p>
<p>I would bet more that latter in his case. I did do maths but its certainly just a quantitative mindset and not my courses which help me to understand the greeks, impact of skew/surface and correlation impacts that I deal with everyday.</p>