Target Masters In Europe For Trading Desks

[Richmond]

I have been trying to search for some up to date info on the masters programs which are considered to be a target for trading desks in Europe, [with a preference for desks in the UK]. Can anyone provide an insight on the current situation?

 

[MikeLawrence]

Check LinkedIn.

Standard: top schools academically --> top schools in terms of recruitment

 

[johncoltrane]

I have been trying to search for some up to date info on the masters programs which are considered to be a target for trading desks in Europe, [with a preference for desks in the UK]. Can anyone provide an insight on the current situation?

In my opinion:

France:
- HEC is always top even if it is a business school, you just have a lot of connections.
- Dauphine 203 (Financial Markets): Top for sales roles at banks
- Pure math masters: El Karoui at Sorbonne Universite, M2MO at Universite Paris Cite, Lamberton at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, 272 and MASEF at Dauphine

UK:
Everything you find in QuantNet, MCF at Oxford, MathFin at Imperial etc...

Rest of Europe:
- EPFL/ETH for Financial Engineering in Switzerland, St. Gallen has a Quant Economics and Finance masters, less math than at the polytechniques, but good since ST Gallen is a target school
- SSE is target in the nordics, but not super quantitative programs
- You can always try the other polytechniques in Europe (Valencia and Madrid in Spain, Milan and Torino in Italy...)

In line with what @MikeLawrence mentioned above, these are top programs in academic terms, but some have better "business profiles" , so better connections.....

 

[Richmond]

In my opinion:

France:
- HEC is always top even if it is a business school, you just have a lot of connections.
- Dauphine 203 (Financial Markets): Top for sales roles at banks
- Pure math masters: El Karoui at Sorbonne Universite, M2MO at Universite Paris Cite, Lamberton at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, 272 and MASEF at Dauphine

UK:
Everything you find in QuantNet, MCF at Oxford, MathFin at Imperial etc...

Rest of Europe:
- EPFL/ETH for Financial Engineering in Switzerland, St. Gallen has a Quant Economics and Finance masters, less math than at the polytechniques, but good since ST Gallen is a target school
- SSE is target in the nordics, but not super quantitative programs
- You can always try the other polytechniques in Europe (Valencia and Madrid in Spain, Milan and Torino in Italy...)

In line with what @MikeLawrence mentioned above, these are top programs in academic terms, but some have better "business profiles" , so better connections.....

Thank you so much for the detailed response! Could you go into a bit more depth with the UK programmes? Also, I didn't know there were programmes to look out for in Spain. Could shed some more light into that? Also if I infer it correctly, MSc 203 at Dauphine is more suited for sales while MSc 272 is more suited for trading [MSc 272 is suitable only for French speaking candidates right?]? Or is either one suitable for both?

 

[johncoltrane]

Sure, I don't know a lot about UK programmes bc I'm France based. Still, from what I read: Oxford MCF, Imperial MathFin, UCL Computational Finance, LSE FinMath, and there are others such as good like City Uni of London Quant Finance, etc. I suggest you research QuantNet and RiskNet for opinions as there are always a lot of people looking for UK advice.

For your question regarding Dauphine, I'm currently a Bachelor's there. From what I see:

MSc 203 is part of the Finance department at Dauphine, If you go through the curriculum, you'll see they don't do much programming other than VBA and Python (There is only 1 optional course on C++). This is the only handicap I see for the program, if you follow the natural route you'll end up in Sales, or trading vanilla products. The strongest point of the program is the brand name and the connections, if you search on LinkedIn you'll see that most graduates work in American banks, in their London/Paris office.

MSc 272 is a different story, the program is part of the Economics department at Dauphine. There are a lot more courses on programming (C++, C#, Python, etc). It gives you stronger quantitative skills for trading or even Quant Research. Furthermore, the program has 3 specialization tracks (Corporate Finance, Markets Finance, and Quantitative Finance) so when you look on LinkedIn, graduates work everywhere from IB to Quant research. Those who follow the Quant Finance track normally do Trading and Structuring at French Banks. Handicap is a lot less recognition compared to the 203 masters.

however, just know that both masters are suitable for Sales, trading, or structuring. Grads end up getting jobs everywhere, to be honest.

For your question regarding other masters in Spain or Italy, I would keep them as a last resource. They're good because they're academically demanding, but the Job market there is terrible (I've been rejected from at least 4 Asset Mgmt firms in Spain because they don't want to pay the social security costs of hiring an intern....)

 

[MikeLawrence]

For your question regarding other masters in Spain or Italy, I would keep them as a last resource. They're good because they're academically demanding, but the Job market there is terrible (I've been rejected from at least 4 Asset Mgmt firms in Spain because they don't want to pay the social security costs of hiring an intern....)

Why are they posting the position then? Are the requirements on benefits different for non-natives?