<p>What majors/and classes in them will teach how to play the stock market?..if there are any.</p>
<p>Self-Dedicationology</p>
<p>Perhaps Finance or Economics. Beyond knowing the basics of the market, playing the market is mostly patience, risk-tolerance, luck and intuition.</p>
<p>There is an entire school of “value” investing that does not rely much on luck or intuition. It is practiced by Warren Buffett and many others and is taught at several schools.</p>
<p>Read the Wall Street Journal, The Economist and the Financial Times. Finance classes will help from an academic perspective, but learning to “play the markets” is really something you gain from experience. Set up a fake investing account or something. Maybe as a competition with your friends, so taking fake losses means something (as opposed to little if anything)</p>
<p>I suppose I should have asked, do you plan on “playing” the market for more long-term gains or are you looking at attempting to make sizable gains in the short-term?</p>
<p>Finance, Accounting, Microecon</p>
<p>Math, Music, Econ., Business, Statistics</p>
<p>^ what is music going to do for you?</p>
<p>So you could rock out while implementing arbitrage in a trade:).</p>
<p>Morningstar.com has a free stock market/investment classes.</p>
<p>Math and music are closely related. IMO, I think if you are good at one you can be good at the other. Look at Greenspan.</p>
<p>There’s lots of research on the matter. Doesn’t mean you have to, but if you want to be in economics I would suggest you learn an instrument.</p>
<p>TO the OP, you are in no position to speculate. Maybe after you graduate, go to work, get an MBA, and go become the manager of a hedge fund, then you will have sufficient knowledge to speculate. </p>
<p>In summation, Jim Cramer may be able to speculate. You, on the other hand, aren’t in any position to speculate. If you want to invest, then invest in growth opportunities and in companies that can be bought for the long term at a good value.</p>
<p>Some would argue that it doesn’t even matter how experienced you are because value/growth investing will always win out over speculation and that the the speculators who hit it big were simply lucky.</p>
<p>You’re right he shouldn’t be speculating with money, dabbling is how most retail people lose their money in the markets, trying to get that big score, and end up taking large un-checked risks. </p>
<p>But what’s to say you don’t practice and learn from paper trading? And I don’t mean any offense, but I really don’t think (from what I’ve heard, others knowledgeable about the securities industry like BB traders, etc) that an MBA really does that much for you from a realistic perspective in terms of success in the markets. Who knows, maybe I am wrong, but I don’t think an MBA is really not focused on security market analysis. I think a genuine understanding of what’s going on and why its happening is more important (obviously not the only thing, but for someone who is just getting started, its the best way to dive in before any finance or economics classes). Feel free to disagree.</p>
<p>^ I have an MBA and you’re right, they may teach you modern portfolio theory and stock pricing analysis, but in no way will this make you a successful investor.</p>
<p>A degree or some classes in micro/macro economics is a great foundation. Also, I agree with above posters that keeping abreast of current economic trends by reading business publications, such as the Economist and Wall Street Journal, will go a long way.</p>
<p>Hehehe, no, I agree with you. When I said what I said, I was just trying to say that unless you have a lot of experience you should not be speculating. When I said MBA, I was just listing a bunch of career moves one might make on their way to becoming a veteran in the field. I meant for it to be looked at holistically.</p>