Advice on elective courses

[bordingj]

Hi,

I have been admitted to a 2-years MSc.Eng. program in Mathematical Modeling & Computation at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). I would like some advice on which elective courses I should choose in order to increase my chances of successfully pursuing a career within the financial industry (specifically trading).
I currently work in the management consulting industry (baah too qualitative) and have a BEng in Bioengineering but I have had courses in linear algebra, matrices, differential equations, basic programming, numerical algorithms, probability and statistics and I’ve digged into the basics of financial markets in my spare time.

I’ve found these electives interesting and potentially relevant but I can only choose 11 of them. I would appreciate it if you could help me choose.

Financial courses

• Financial Products (basic financial engineering course with VBA/Excel)
• Financial Risk Management
• Optimization in Finance (think they will be using GAMS)

Stochastic modeling courses

• Stochastic Processes (will include stuff like markov chains, martingales & Brownian Motion)
• Time Series Analysis
• Advanced Time Series Analysis (includes modeling of stochastic differential equations and Ito calculus - counts as 2 courses)

Machine Learning and Signal Processes courses

• Introduction to Machine Learning and Data Modeling
• Digital Signal Processing (counts as 2 courses)
• Machine Learning for Signal Processes

Programming Courses

• High-Performance Computing (in C++ , Multi-CPU/GPU , CUDA programming)
• Functional Programming
• Applied Functional Programming
• Programming in C++
• Programming for Mathematical Software (in C++)
• Mathematical Programming with Modelling Software (using GAMS)

Others

• Scientific Computing for differential equations (includes FDM for ODE and PDE – counts as 2 courses)
• Diffusions and stochastic differential equations
• Graph Theory

Mandatories include courses in Multivariate Statistics, Risk Management, Stochastic Simulation(monte carlo methods etc) and Optimization & Datafitting.

Which courses/subjects should I exclude or include if I want to increase my chances of getting a job in Quant trading some time in the future?

I am inclined to not to take the programming courses as I have the impression that there are no benefits in having a lectured courses over self-studying when it comes to learning programming.

Can you help?

 

[daleholborow]

what type of trading do you want to do? algo, boiler-room, bond, equity, etc?

 

[Ken Abbott]

• Financial Products
• Financial Risk Management
• Optimization in Finance

• Stochastic Processes
• Time Series Analysis
• Advanced Time Series Analysis
• ACCOUNTING

 

[bordingj]

what type of trading do you want to do? algo, boiler-room, bond, equity, etc?

algo

 

[bordingj]

• Financial Products
• Financial Risk Management
• Optimization in Finance

• Stochastic Processes
• Time Series Analysis
• Advanced Time Series Analysis
• ACCOUNTING

Thanks for the advice - Why accounting?

 

[Ken Abbott]

Because without it you're just a quant with no understanding of the context.

 

[bordingj]

Because without it you're just a quant with no understanding of the context.

So would you recommend taking a course in basic financial accounting or accounting of financial instruments?

 

[Ken Abbott]

So would you recommend taking a course in basic financial accounting or accounting of financial instruments?

Basic accounting will suffice.