Help!! Should I major in Mathematical and computational finance or Actuarial Mathematics/Finance or Finance?

[rhita]

Hey guys, I'm starting university in Canada in January. I'll try to keep this short so I don't bore you! I'm quite confused on what major to choose. I'm looking for a major that will teach me all the financial skills to build portfolios, know where to invest and why etc. as well as the technical skills to be able to make market predictions etc. My goal is to be able to work at firms like Fidelity Investments, Invesco Ltd etc.

I have 3 options in my uni- Mathematical and computational finance, Actuarial Mathematics/Finance, and Bcomm in Finance. I have 4 questions:

1) What are the differences between each major? (pros and cons/job opportunities/ domain knowledge)
2) Which one will give me enough skills in both finance and algorithms?
3) How difficult is each major is in terms of mathematics (I haven't done math in 2 years so I'm worried about that- However I'm motivated to shut myself out for success)
4) Should I study Computational finance only or Finance as a major and computational finance as a minor? or another combination?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post. I hope to get some insight and clarity!

 

[PepeQuant]

Will only give u brief ans...
(answer in order of your majors)

1. Quant, Actuary, Traditional Finance?

2. 1

3. 1 > 2 >> 3

4. Pick any of them... comb in this context is nonsense

 

[IntoDarkness]

i still believe traditional finance, i.e. investment banking, is the best

 

[PepeQuant]

i still believe traditional finance, i.e. investment banking, is the best

Tbh, that is not wrong... at least banks don’t really appreciate quants much these days but they still pretty much depends on traditional finance folks. Banks are being dumb down by regulation. Nowadays even if you replace banks’ CEOs by cows they are still able to make money.