How to Make a Career Change into Finance

By Staff Reporter - 25 July 2017

Business

Over the past decade or so, the power of markets and finance in everyday life around the globe has become even more prominent. And now, ever since the Brexit vote last summer, financial arrangements between Britain and the European Union have taken on a new significance. It seems that the finance sector is blooming – and arguably creating jobs in the process. But what are the latest trends and how could you get more involved with finance?

How to Break into the Finance Sector

Jobs in the financial sector are among the best paid – and come with perks, too. In London alone, the number of jobs in the financial and professional services sector rose rose from 638,000 people in 2009 to almost 730,000 in the first half of 2015. So if you are looking to set the foundation for a career change into another sector or are just looking to develop some extra skills on the side, finance seems as good an option as they come. Unless you already hold a degree in a relevant field, looking into relevant courses is a good place to start. For example, there is an upcoming introductory course to stockbroking in Swindon that provides insight into stock markets, market capitalisation and indices trading.

Source: : Pexels

Alternatively, there are online lessons that are usually more convenient, as you can complete assignments at your own pace from the comfort of your home – and they are, as a rule, a lot less costly. Browsing Coursera is always a good idea: there are dozens of online courses that explain mergers, acquisitions and day trading, tailored according to your specific interests and needs - but there are also other online finance and economics courses resources out there, often provided by institutions as prestigious as Oxford University.  Another good approach to making a career shift make sense is to go at it from an angle different than usual – for example, you can focus on analysing the stock market index using behavioural finance.

Behavioural Finance: Combining Psychology and Finance to Explain Market Movements

Behavioural finance is a theory for explaining stock market fluctuation based on behavioural science. It is a psychology-based approach that focuses on the emotions and behaviour of investors to analyse a bull or bear market. It argues that investors tend to repeat the same mistakes when dealing e.g. with bond trading or hedging – and understanding the underlying reasons will allow financial professionals to avoid similar behaviour in the future. One of the theory’s key elements is the “heuristic-driven bias” that informs investment choices: the notion that investors tend to disregard objective data such as statistics and probabilities in favour of intuition, past experience, and a trial-and-error approach. For instance, they tend to underestimate exposure when investing in blue-chip stocks, believing they will inevitably continue doing well. This is also termed “frame dependence” in behavioural finance – the fact that investors are overly cautious when the market is on a downward trajectory, and too optimistic when the indices are on an upward trend. This approach also demonstrates that there are ways to tie in already existing knowledge or work experience you might have. Going with behavioural finance seems especially convenient when you already have a background in psychology, or you could look into game theory economics applications if you are strong in math, or even education or health economics – the possibilities are endless.  

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