March 19, 2002
Nasdaq grant to help fund student trading room
Building on a trend to bring Wall Street into the classroom, the Nasdaq Stock Market Educational Foundation has given its first-ever grant to help create a virtual trading room at the University of Washington Business School.
The $250,000 grant will help support a trading room designed to give students first-hand experience with financial markets.
“Nasdaq has been involved in supporting similar labs across the country,” said Barbara Cosgriff, chief of staff for Nasdaq Vice Chairman Al Berkeley and a UW Business School alum. “This is the first time that the Nasdaq Education Foundation has issued a grant specifically for the creation of a campus trading room, and it is Nasdaq’s most significant contribution to date for such an effort.”
The UW Business School trading room will house computers equipped with trading and analytical software allowing students to simulate stock transactions using real-time market data and stock quotes. A data feed will supply the real-time security and currency market data enabling students to study diversification, hedging and other investment strategies.
Similar labs have been set up at a handful of other business schools in recent years, including those at Cornell University, Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Texas.
“It will greatly enhance our finance courses and our students’ understanding of the market by giving them a data-intensive environment to learn about investing,” said Vance Roley, associate dean of academic and faculty affairs at the business school.
Finance Professsor Paul Malatesta said the data software offers access to sample data not easily attainable.
“The lab’s applications will permit us to actually run simulated trading strategies for investment portfolios, and students will be better able to keep track of the financial score,” Malatesta said.
The grant strengthens Nasdaq’s presence in the northwest. The region is second to California in concentration of Nasdaq-traded firms. They include Costco Wholesale Corp., SAFECO Corp., Starbucks Coffee Co. and ZymoGenetics Inc.
“The creation of this lab at the school is the perfect fit for all parties. All of our major companies are engaged with the UW Business School on some level, including many executives who serve on the school’s advisory board,” Cosgriff said.
Foundation board member Michael Casey, also Starbucks executive vice president and chief financial officer, said the organization chose to award the grant to the UW because its members anticipate many of the business school’s students will become future Nasdaq business leaders.
“We think that it will be a benefit for the market, as well as whatever companies the students end up working for,” Casey said.
The trading room is slated to open in the fall and will be located close to the school’s new e-business lab.
###
For more information contact Malatesta at (206) 685-1987, phmalat@u.washington.edu; or Roley at (206) 685-3622 or vroley@u.washington.edu; or Michael DeMeo, associate director for media relations, The Nasdaq Stock Market at (646) 441-5006 or michael.demeo@nasdaq.com
