Newry based firm First Derivatives has opened the north’s first ever financial trading room at Queen’s University replicating the stock exchanges of New York and London. The First Derivatives Trading Room (FDTR) funded by the software provider and consulting service and Invest NI will provide a learning environment for students hoping to embark on a career in financial services or technology. Based at the university’s Management School based at Riddel Hall the facility will givestudents the experience of trading in a busy stock exchange will the capacity to deal in real-time equities, bonds, foreign exchange and derivative instruments. Brian Conlon CEO of First Derivatives says he views the Trading Room as a platform for the close engagement between the company and Queen’s students: “We already offer one of the largest trading programmes in Northern Ireland employing some 30 Queen’s graduates each year. From our perspective this is an opportunity to further collaborate with Queen’s on projects and develop courses in Computational Finance which align more closely with our company’s requirements. Partnerships like that seen today between First Derivatives plc, Queen’s and Invest NI create synergies between the world of business, government and academia and are exactly what’s needed to drive the development of Northern Ireland’s knowledge economy. Students will have access to 12 trading stations a real-time electronic ticker tape featuring financial information feeds from Bloomberg, two large screen displays providing live coverage of CNBC, CNN and other financial networks and software for trading, deal capturing, settlement, analytics, pricing, portfolio management, derivatives pricing and other finance related challenges. Speaking at the official opening Professor Donal McKillop from Queen’s University Management School said: “With first hand experience of the high pressure atmosphere of the trading room Queen’s finance students will now have even more of an edge in the global job market.” The opening of the First Derivatives Training Room is the latest development at Queen’s Riddle Hall campus following £15m investment in the site.
Newry Democrat
18th September 2012
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