Lars Mosterd

Choosing a minor

During my minor, I wanted to do something more quantitative, because I was thinking about switching from ‘Technische Bestuurskunde’ to a more technical master. Finance turned out to be the right minor for me. Not only because it would give me a good feel of how it is to study something more technical, but I also realized that I was not that familiar with the financial world. Given the major impact this world has on our daily lives, I wanted to know more about it.

A good mixture of courses

The courses are quite diverse and give a good overview of the different areas of expertise in the financial world. I particularly liked the courses Time Series and Principles of Asset Trading. The first course is a more technical one, where you basically learn to ‘predict’ how a graph will behave in the near future. The second course is more about the business side of finance and I really liked it because it gave insights in the way businesses should invest in the financial markets. What I also really liked about the minor Finance where the ‘sneek previews’ in the financial world, that the lecturers provided. They come from practice and therefore they can give you a little bit more insight in how this world really works.

Side activities

The minor finance was not all about studying for me. During the minor, I joined the student investment society Bona Fide, where I learn to invest with my own money. Bona Fide even organised an Excursion to ABN AMRO and Optiver: two major names in the financial world. So, during this minor I not only learned what studying finance looks like, but I also gained a better view on the financial world as a whole. I am glad that I choose this minor and if you like a mathematical program, where you really learn something about the financial world, you can’t go wrong choosing this minor.