(ask) Graduate school for Econophysics

[damnation]

Does anyone know where to study for Master program in Econophysics? As i know from wikipedia, University of Houston is the one open for Master program. I have been searching for European University, but unfortunately i did not find one of it offer Econophysics course for Master Program.
Any information or suggestion will be very helpful. Thanks

 

[twofish-quant]

Does anyone know where to study for Master program in Econophysics? As i know from wikipedia, University of Houston is the one open for Master program. I have been searching for European University, but unfortunately i did not find one of it offer Econophysics course for Master Program.
Any information or suggestion will be very helpful. Thanks

Econophysics was a fad that went out of fashion. There is a few interesting research results, but nothing that would make sense for a professional masters program.

 

[damnation]

Econophysics was a fad that went out of fashion. There is a few interesting research results, but nothing that would make sense for a professional masters program.

Do you mind to explain why econophysics went out of fashion? Though i found it as intriguing subject as to investigate and comparatively phenomena in finance and statistical physics to modeled market (eg. stock, commodities, option)

 

[AlephZero]

I can guess a reason: the people who are good at modeling financial markets are more interested in making money than publishing their research in academic journals.

Of course there are plenty of academics publishing their research who are bad at modelling financial markets. That may explain why they are still academics.

 

[damnation]

Well, this information is new to me, though it could be happen to anyone.
Anyway, do you know of your colleagues who is recently/previously studied or research in Econophysics?
I need information for which university offer Econophysics for master studies.
Thanks

 

[inknit]

Why would you choose to get a masters in a narrow, nonexistent field like econophysics. Just apply to a regular PhD program in economics.

 

[Shackleford]

What the hell is econophysics?

 

[twofish-quant]

Do you mind to explain why econophysics went out of fashion? Though i found it as intriguing subject as to investigate and comparatively phenomena in finance and statistical physics to modeled market (eg. stock, commodities, option)

Physics methods applied to finance is a something that is extremely active.

What isn't active is a subset of those methods which is called "econophysics." If you google on econophysics, what you'll find usually are people trying to use path integrals and similar techniques to model financial systems. This doesn't work very well, because

1) financial systems are very noisy which means that you can't get the data into a form where you can use path integrals as a tool.

2) you can usually get better answers with less math by throwing the problem into a computer and using numerical techniques. This is done a lot, but for some reason no one labels this econophysics.

 

[twofish-quant]

I can guess a reason: the people who are good at modeling financial markets are more interested in making money than publishing their research in academic journals.

No. There is a lot of stuff that gets published in academic journals. The thing is that when you create a new field, you are in effect saying, "I want to create a new set of academic journals" and what has been published in usually in the standard journals.

Of course there are plenty of academics publishing their research who are bad at modelling financial markets. That may explain why they are still academics.

There are plenty of people that go into Wall Street that turned out to be horrible at modelling financial markets. That's why 2008 happened.

 

[twofish-quant]

Why would you choose to get a masters in a narrow, nonexistent field like econophysics. Just apply to a regular PhD program in economics.

Or better yet. A regular Ph.D. program in physics or mathematics or statistics. It's a zen thing. Sometimes you end up understanding some better by studying something else.

If you are looking for a professional masters. The magic google term is "masters in financial engineering."

 

[masterfool]

I don't think it's a zen thing at all. I think physics and mathematics are deeper, more serious, and more broadly applicable subjects than anything else, despite the popular notion that a given number of years studying anything makes one just as educated as someone who studied something else for the same amount of time. This is the reason I (a chemistry student) and my biology friend are getting out of our respective highly respected fields. So I think there are probably a whole lot of people with fancy degrees in applied subjects like finance who don't really know all that much. But as for the notion that

That's why 2008 happened.

I think it was scheduled after 2007.
(More seriously, I don't think you can blame individual people for the flawed system, but that's another story.)

 

[twofish-quant]

I don't think it's a zen thing at all. I think physics and mathematics are deeper, more serious, and more broadly applicable subjects than anything else, despite the popular notion that a given number of years studying anything makes one just as educated as someone who studied something else for the same amount of time.

And I think otherwise. Also, if you have that attitude that physics and mathematics makes you inherently smarter, you are going to have a really tough time in finance, because you have to interact, respect, and take orders with people that have different skills.

For example, I'm decent at quantum mechanics. I'm awful talking on the phone. For a lot of jobs, having someone that has had years of experience making a sales call is more important than knowing quantum mechanics, and so one of the things that I enjoy is just shutting up and watching as someone make a sales call.

So I think there are probably a whole lot of people with fancy degrees in applied subjects like finance who don't really know all that much.

Finance is pretty cool because there are a hundred different skills, and one is good at more than one or two of them.

(More seriously, I don't think you can blame individual people for the flawed system, but that's another story.)

You can blame individual people for creating a flawed system.