Financial Markets
Discussion
TVR man said:
Could someone recommend the best way to learn about global financial markets? I am meaning from the very basics. Whether it be a book, dvd, internet source......
I am looking towards a career in this sort of field, preferably as a trader.
I am looking towards a career in this sort of field, preferably as a trader.
It's a massive area. You could spend 3 years doing a degree in Finance! What knowledge/background do you have already?
A reasonably simple book to start with is Brearly & Myers - Principles of Corporate Finance. It starts with the basics of time value of money and builds on it. It covers IIRC capital structure, stock valuation, bond valuation, option pricing theory, efficient market hypotheses. If you are already comfortable with the maths something like Hall - Options, Futures and Other Derivatives would be a good next step. It is a lot more mathmatical but also goes into a reasonable amount of detail on topics such as the workings of futures markets.
Edited by eyebeebe on Thursday 8th February 23:31
TVR man said:
Sorry about the broadness of the topic. In your second recommendation, what sort of level is the maths at? I excell in mathematics but have never applied it to real world situations.
It's been a while since I looked at it but from what I remember there was calculus, applications of probability distributions, stochastic processes and random walk theory.
Just had a look at your profile. I assume you're taking your highers at the moment? The first book is aimed at mid-level undergrads the second is advanced undergrad/MSc level. I certainly hadn't covered enough material by the end of my A-Levels to comfortably deal with the second book. The 1st one is probably within your grasp but it will be hard going. I think it is a good 800 pages long but it is the definatie Corporate Finance text book. Something a little more straightforward as a good introduction to lead into the others would be Bodie (and some others) - Principles of Finance.
A decent macro/micro-economic textbook would probably be useful as well
Edited by eyebeebe on Thursday 8th February 23:48
Edited by eyebeebe on Thursday 8th February 23:48
TVR man said:
First one it is then!!! I'm going to bed now but thanks for your help and I'll research it tomorrow.
No probs this is the one. It looks a bit out of date to be honest but then the principles haven't changed much. It's only the cutting edge stuff.
www.amazon.co.uk/Finance-Zvi-Bodie/dp/0130869333/sr=8-3/qid=1170979033/ref=sr_1_3/203-2465096-1182318?ie=UTF8&s=books
If you have a uni near you try asking at their bookshop for the text book for an intoductory finance course.
efinacialcareers.com is a great source. advfn.com is also good for general financial information. there are loads of books on amazon.
If your really serious about breaking into the financial services industry, start contacting some companies asap and ask for work experience, go to interviews etc. (I'm presuming your still at college or uni?) It's good to read and learn as much as possible, but experience will count for a lot more at the end of the day!
If your really serious about breaking into the financial services industry, start contacting some companies asap and ask for work experience, go to interviews etc. (I'm presuming your still at college or uni?) It's good to read and learn as much as possible, but experience will count for a lot more at the end of the day!
jamesw2000 said:
If your really serious about breaking into the financial services industry, start contacting some companies asap and ask for work experience, go to interviews etc. (I'm presuming your still at college or uni?) It's good to read and learn as much as possible, but experience will count for a lot more at the end of the day!
I was hoping to do that but I am actually still at school, aged 16. I was unsure whether any of the big firms would accept me as I'm not penultimate year university. What do you think?
Edited by TVR man on Friday 9th February 15:57
TVR man said:
I was hoping to do that but I am actually still at school, aged 16. I was unsure whether any of the big firms would accept me as I'm not penultimate year university. What do you think?
Edited by TVR man on Friday 9th February 15:57
For a structured internship? Not a chance sorry. The reason they only accept penultimate year students is that the internship is a 10 week paid working interview, with an offer to start full time the following summer if successful.
The following bits are all opinion as I'm an accountant and don't work at a bank at the moment.
You might be able to blag a bit of unpaid photocopying/tea making, but for something like that I'd have thought you'd need to know someone working at the bank already. Even then I doubt you'd be on the trading floor. Your location is against you as well as most banks trading floors are in London, although more have a presence in Edinburgh than previously.
Your best bet at this stage is to get any work experience you can anywhere. If it's even indirectly relevant (e.g. working at an accountants) it's got to be a bonus. Show that you are willing to work hard.
Make sure you do Maths as a higher and preferably the remainder "hard" subjects like Physics. Make sure you get A's. Go to a red brick uni and aim for a 1st or high 2:1 in something hard like Engineering, Maths etc.
Do some paper trading online. It shows an interest in what you want to do.
eyebeebe said:
TVR man said:
I was hoping to do that but I am actually still at school, aged 16. I was unsure whether any of the big firms would accept me as I'm not penultimate year university. What do you think?
Edited by TVR man on Friday 9th February 15:57
For a structured internship? Not a chance sorry. The reason they only accept penultimate year students is that the internship is a 10 week paid working interview, with an offer to start full time the following summer if successful.
The following bits are all opinion as I'm an accountant and don't work at a bank at the moment.
You might be able to blag a bit of unpaid photocopying/tea making, but for something like that I'd have thought you'd need to know someone working at the bank already. Even then I doubt you'd be on the trading floor. Your location is against you as well as most banks trading floors are in London, although more have a presence in Edinburgh than previously.
Your best bet at this stage is to get any work experience you can anywhere. If it's even indirectly relevant (e.g. working at an accountants) it's got to be a bonus. Show that you are willing to work hard.
Make sure you do Maths as a higher and preferably the remainder "hard" subjects like Physics. Make sure you get A's. Go to a red brick uni and aim for a 1st or high 2:1 in something hard like Engineering, Maths etc.
Do some paper trading online. It shows an interest in what you want to do.
With regards to my subject choices, I am doing the hardest ones, in my opinion, that were available to me- Maths, English, Physics, Chemistry, Geography. I am expected by teachers an A band 1 in Maths and at least As in all others except English. I intend to do advanced higher Maths, Physics and Chemistry. I am also intending to read maths at uni but do you have any opinion over pure or applied maths?
I'm not quite sure what you mean by paper trading. Could you explain?
This is very useful advice and much appreciated. Thankyou.
As I said I don't trade for a living so can only go on what other people have told me who are in that line of business or are recruitment consultants.
I don't know exactly how the Scottish system works but when you were talking about Maths, English, Geography etc I presume that was for Standards, which I think are the equivalent of English GCSEs. If they are to be blunt when you have a degree (and to a lesser extent good A-Levels) they are worthless. They are useful however for getting you onto an A-Level course and supporting a university application.
I'm led to believe that pure maths is looked upon slightly more favourably but that may just be one persons opinion.
Paper trading is where you 'play' at trading. It's like playing with monopoly money, but still using real market data. I know Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein used to run one for students. I'm sure if you google it there will be plenty of people who offer it. You will probably have to pay a small fee though.
There's a guy on here called Northernboy who may be able to give you some more concrete advise than I can. He's had hiring responsibility in the past for trading. It may be worth dropping him a PM.
I don't know exactly how the Scottish system works but when you were talking about Maths, English, Geography etc I presume that was for Standards, which I think are the equivalent of English GCSEs. If they are to be blunt when you have a degree (and to a lesser extent good A-Levels) they are worthless. They are useful however for getting you onto an A-Level course and supporting a university application.
I'm led to believe that pure maths is looked upon slightly more favourably but that may just be one persons opinion.
Paper trading is where you 'play' at trading. It's like playing with monopoly money, but still using real market data. I know Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein used to run one for students. I'm sure if you google it there will be plenty of people who offer it. You will probably have to pay a small fee though.
There's a guy on here called Northernboy who may be able to give you some more concrete advise than I can. He's had hiring responsibility in the past for trading. It may be worth dropping him a PM.
Paper Trading- I started doing this about a month ago on www.bullbearings.co.uk for free.
I'll mabye contact Northernboy with some questions.
Thanks, Iain
Edit: I've done my standard grades. The subjects I said I was doing now are at Higher which I believe is closer to A-level than GSCE but is still than A-level
I'll mabye contact Northernboy with some questions.
Thanks, Iain
Edit: I've done my standard grades. The subjects I said I was doing now are at Higher which I believe is closer to A-level than GSCE but is still than A-level
Edited by TVR man on Saturday 10th February 13:54
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