Expert: Steve Hach - 5/19/2009

Question
 I am currently a college student double majoring in finance and accounting.  My goal is to someday manage money, I lean more toward researching the fundamentals as in I like Ben Grahams approach, although some advancements in the ways major hedge funds are doing things now do interest me.  My question is, is there still demand for people who use the fundamentals and are value oriented to manage money?  Seems like Mathematicians and computer engineers are in higher demand than actual finance majors.

Answer
Hi Mike,

Thanks for the question.

Right now there is not much demand for any type of finance person due to the horrible economy.

Lots of people are out of work and looking for jobs.

I would say that while there are a lot of quants around, there are also a lot of other finance/accounting types.

Graham and Dodd is considered a "bible" and everyone reads that--even the math people--remember that quants need to feed their models with something and that "something" is more often than not fundamental data.

Finance is about numbers, so fundamentals are always going to be very important.

However, please remember that many analysts now believe that the "Golden Era" for finance is over and that we are not going to see 20-something bazillionaires running huge hedge funds again any time soon.  The last 10-15 years are an aberration and many think we are going to revert back to an era of "boring banking" rather than the excessive lifestyle that became so prominent in recent times.

Please make sure you are doing what you are doing because you love it rather than because you think it will quickly make you rich.  You may be disappointed when you graduate.

Best,

Steve