Financial/Commodity Trading: which MSc? : Have a Physics BSc

Schaeler2014

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A programme was broadcast yesterday evening at 9pm on BBC2 entitled Traders: Millions by the Minute

radiotimes.com/episode/c4y6xg/traders-millions-by-the-minute--series-1---episode-1

Of particular interest was the group of people based in London, who were being tested to determine if they had the ability to trade live with real money which belonged to the company in question.

I would have some interest in this field. I shall be graduating with a BSc Physics degree, and was wondering which MSc would potentially help in this role?

Possible options are:
1) MSc Materials Science (lower Russell Group uni)
2) MSc Advanced Composities & Polymers (ex-poly uni)
3) MSc Computational Finance & Trading (lower Russell Group uni)
4) MSc Plasma Physics (lower Russell Group uni)

Concern with option 1): would a MSc Materials Science be of interest to trading employers?

Concerns with option 2): this is not a Russell Group uni, also would this degree be of interest to trading employers?

Concerns with option 3): potentially this course will be of little use outside trading if I later discover I'm not suited to trading (as was the case last night with one guy who had an MSc Business). Also, possibly no point taking this course if going to be working in the field, since probably need to work in the field to genuinely understand it.

Concern with option 4): there are considerably more jobs available in the field of Materials Science than Plasma Physics, therefore MSc Materials Science more useful if looking for a non-trading job.
 
I can't see how 1, 2, or 4 could be a gateway to a trading role. A research/analyst one perhaps, but not trading. A more specialist economics qualification would be more likely to get you in the door.

Trading is often a short career also due to high levels of burn-out.
 
Given that you're talking about the Russell Group I'm presuming you are UK based? Just to note this is an Irish based site.

Having watched the programme I'm not sure that picking an MSC based on what might work with trading is worthwhile. As you saw prior experience does not guarantee success.
 
I can't see how 1, 2, or 4 could be a gateway to a trading role. A research/analyst one perhaps, but not trading. A more specialist economics qualification would be more likely to get you in the door.

Trading is often a short career also due to high levels of burn-out.
If I was able to secure a research/analyst role, or investment fund adminstrator role, using option 1 or 2 (is either of these better than the other) could such a role be a gateway to later securing a trading role?

Given that you're talking about the Russell Group I'm presuming you are UK based? Just to note this is an Irish based site.
I'm Irish, which is why I'm aware of AAM, but yes the universities concerned would be in the UK.

Having watched the programme I'm not sure that picking an MSC based on what might work with trading is worthwhile. As you saw prior experience does not guarantee success.
I see what you mean. The guy who realised that trading wasn't for him had an MSc Business yet he was still there being tried for a trading position. Therefore he obviously didn't need a technical MSc to secure a try-out.

My concern with choosing option 3) MSc Computational Finance & Trading is that if I later discover that I'm not cut out for trading, then the MSc may be of little use in other fields.
 
I think to thing to remember about that programme was that they were charging a hefty fee to train with them, so I'm not sure how choosy they are to begin with.
 
If I was able to secure a research/analyst role, or investment fund adminstrator role, using option 1 or 2 (is either of these better than the other) could such a role be a gateway to later securing a trading role?

Without an economics qualification, I can't see any firm taking you on as an analyst, let alone an administrator with either of those. They would give you a good basis of what the industry does, but it's a massive shift from that to analysing company performance, understanding financial statements, history, etc. Take a look at the job sites, all the ads talk about a requirement for a business qualification. For administration in particular, accountancy qualifications would be more relevant.
 
Without an economics qualification, I can't see any firm taking you on as an analyst, let alone an administrator with either of those. They would give you a good basis of what the industry does, but it's a massive shift from that to analysing company performance, understanding financial statements, history, etc. Take a look at the job sites, all the ads talk about a requirement for a business qualification. For administration in particular, accountancy qualifications would be more relevant.

Not true. Investment banks are always looking out for science and maths graduates. Indeed there is a known problem in london of banks stealing doctors from the NHS. You don't necessarily need to understand economics to be a trader because so much of it these days is quantitative based trading rather than qualitative. Many of the top traders come from engineering backgrounds.

Trading only suits certain personalities. That's why the personality traits are just as important as the academic achievements. I know seen people with a degree in biology understand risk and the pricing of risk in a real world environment a lot quicker than people masters in finance.
 
I don't think a masters in material science/ composites is going to get too many of them excited!

Is there a certain category of scientific (physics related) MSc which might?

Perhaps MSc Plasma Physics?

Or perhaps the MSc Data Analytics with UCD which can be studied online?

ucd.ie/online/dataanalytics
 
Data analytics will certainly be relevant. You've got to look at the course sylabus and determine what if any of it will be relevant to the day-to-day activities of the role(s) you are interested in.
 
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