What is Computational Finance?

[Granny11]

Hello,

I'm in my last year of a B.Sc with a double major in math and physics. I was somewhat interested in becoming an actuary, and was discussing it with a friend of mine when he brought up computational finance as an alternative.

I did some 'googling' about it, and i seems pretty interesting. I see a lot of schools offer a 16month Master's pogram in computational finance, or mathematical finance etc etc.

Is anyone involved, or looking into a similar program? Are people with these types of jobs in high demand? Are salaries in this field competitive? The master's programs I've read about certainly sound interesting, but what are the jobs in this field like? Are they high pressure, and stressful like many finance related jobs are? Are you stuck working 60 hours a week?

Sorry for the barrage or questions, but I'm having trouble finding useful information since this field seems to go by a number of different names. I read on Carnegie Mellon's site that after a 16 month program, 100% of their graduates were employed, and the mean salary somewhere around $80,000 plus some ridiculous signing bonuses. This just seemed too good to be true, since most things I'm interested in pay poorly!

Thanks for any help or insight you can offer!

 

[las3rjock]

http://www.markjoshi.com/downloads/advice.pdf

 

[hubris]

Judging from some of your questions you need to look harder, try wilmott.com and nuclear phynance as start.

% Cranky mode off

However, you definitely need a graduate degree.

 

[aniketprabudd]

is it somehow related to financial modellings ?

if it is just the financial accounting u can go for cfa ...

even I am confused .i want to pursue finance as my future .i am in second year ,engg grad

tell me if you have something apt for me related to finance which i can start right away