Post by krazykev on Oct 7, 2008 6:34:36 GMT -5
GREENSBORO - Let's say you're lucky enough to have a hypothetical $10,000 burning a hole in your pocket. But the money comes with a catch. You have to spend all of it to buy stock in one company.
You've got three choices: Walmart, Target or Sears.
You're basing your decision entirely on your own analysis of the companies' financial data from the past three years.
You've got about an hour to decide and then explain yourself.
Could you do it?
The N.C. A&T seniors in Susan Houghton's Strategic Management business class could. No sweat.
What would have been a time-consuming exercise last year is a quick drill this year because of the new Financial Trading Room on the second floor of Craig Hall.
"What makes it different is the software," Houghton said. "It gives you access to really high-powered data bases that give you real-time information on companies and businesses."
At first glance, the room looks like any other computer lab. But a closer look reveals twin, side-by-side big-screen monitors at each computer to accommodate financial data. Then there's the stock ticker message board. And the two TVs tuned to business networks. And the computer with the multicolored keyboard connected to Bloomberg's business feeds. (Students can take online courses at the machine and be Bloomberg-certified before they graduate.)
The technology brings Wall Street to Sullivan Street.
"It's not totally unique," said Wanda Lester, associate dean of A&T's School of Business and Economics. "What's different is to introduce this kind of facility in a public, historically black university. ... I think the growth potential is fantastic. And it's not just business students."
Lester said the easy access to business information could help communications students working on articles for the school newspaper, or professors of agriculture teaching futures classes, or history classes looking at the cycles financial markets go through.
That's down the road. Until then, the business students seem eager to use the room.
"It puts you more in the reality and gives you a feel for the way things are," senior Haywood Johnson said. "The only other way to experience it is to stand on the stock room floor when the market's open. That's not practical for us, but (the trading room) lets us see the same information they're seeing at the same time they're seeing it."
That instant access to information is critical, Houghton said, noting that her students once spent about 80 percent of their time finding information and 20 percent analyzing it.
"This flips that percentage around. Now they can grab very rich data very, very quickly," Houghton said. "Typically, trading rooms aren't available to undergrads. They're usually reserved for MBAs. Our students know that, and they know it can give them a competitive advantage."
It's an advantage students said they need in a financial world filled with bad news about Fannie and Freddie, Wachovia and WaMu, AIG and FDIC.
"We're about to graduate," senior Julian McClurkin said. "I feel like it ... gives us a definite advantage going out into the job market."
Graduation is months away, and the business climate will change daily until then. In the meantime, Johnson, McClurkin and their classmates can watch it unfold as it happens from a room with a view.
Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com
You've got three choices: Walmart, Target or Sears.
You're basing your decision entirely on your own analysis of the companies' financial data from the past three years.
You've got about an hour to decide and then explain yourself.
Could you do it?
The N.C. A&T seniors in Susan Houghton's Strategic Management business class could. No sweat.
What would have been a time-consuming exercise last year is a quick drill this year because of the new Financial Trading Room on the second floor of Craig Hall.
"What makes it different is the software," Houghton said. "It gives you access to really high-powered data bases that give you real-time information on companies and businesses."
At first glance, the room looks like any other computer lab. But a closer look reveals twin, side-by-side big-screen monitors at each computer to accommodate financial data. Then there's the stock ticker message board. And the two TVs tuned to business networks. And the computer with the multicolored keyboard connected to Bloomberg's business feeds. (Students can take online courses at the machine and be Bloomberg-certified before they graduate.)
The technology brings Wall Street to Sullivan Street.
"It's not totally unique," said Wanda Lester, associate dean of A&T's School of Business and Economics. "What's different is to introduce this kind of facility in a public, historically black university. ... I think the growth potential is fantastic. And it's not just business students."
Lester said the easy access to business information could help communications students working on articles for the school newspaper, or professors of agriculture teaching futures classes, or history classes looking at the cycles financial markets go through.
That's down the road. Until then, the business students seem eager to use the room.
"It puts you more in the reality and gives you a feel for the way things are," senior Haywood Johnson said. "The only other way to experience it is to stand on the stock room floor when the market's open. That's not practical for us, but (the trading room) lets us see the same information they're seeing at the same time they're seeing it."
That instant access to information is critical, Houghton said, noting that her students once spent about 80 percent of their time finding information and 20 percent analyzing it.
"This flips that percentage around. Now they can grab very rich data very, very quickly," Houghton said. "Typically, trading rooms aren't available to undergrads. They're usually reserved for MBAs. Our students know that, and they know it can give them a competitive advantage."
It's an advantage students said they need in a financial world filled with bad news about Fannie and Freddie, Wachovia and WaMu, AIG and FDIC.
"We're about to graduate," senior Julian McClurkin said. "I feel like it ... gives us a definite advantage going out into the job market."
Graduation is months away, and the business climate will change daily until then. In the meantime, Johnson, McClurkin and their classmates can watch it unfold as it happens from a room with a view.
Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com
