How important is math to investors and their job ?
I'm really interested in being an investor but i don't really like doing math. is it important ? #investing #investigator
3 answers
Jared Chung
CareerVillage.org TeamJared’s Answer, CareerVillage.org Team
Yes, Math is definitely an important part of the job, but there are tools to help you with the math. Usually you're dealing with some basic math when you're evaluating the financial performance of companies you might want to invest in, and there is some more advanced math involved in calculating how much a company is worth. A lot of the basic analysis is done using Microsoft Excel, Bloomberg terminals, or other tools that help you with a lot of the calculations, but you really need to understand how all of the calculations work. If you're putting millions of dollars into a certain company, you really can't afford to make a mistake on one of the critical calculations underpinning your investment thesis. So while investing is really a very interesting business with a lot of variety, if you're not comfortable with math, you might not enjoy a job where you spend a large portion of your time evaluating companies based on their financial reports.
David’s Answer
Math is very important, without solid math skills you will face substantial limits on what you can do in the investment field.
Investments are linked to numbers so you need to be very comfortable understanding and using numbers to solve problems and develop a good intuition on what a right or wrong (reasonable vs unreasonable) answer looks like. Now given the above that does not mean that all math skills are created equal.While I use Algebra on a daily basis I can't remember ever using geometry or trigonometry for a work related problem.
As said above the actual calculations are done through excel/calculator but understanding math lets you know you are solving the right problem.