Kickoff Home Football Games With A Trading Room Tour

Kickoff Home Football Games With A Trading Room Tour

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA - Visitors can experience the challenging world of global trading prior to each Penn State home football game this season during a series of "Open House" events showcasing the Smeal College of Business Trading Room.

The Trading Room, believed to be the most technologically advanced room of its kind in the country, is located in Room 201 of the Business Administration Building at the University Park campus.

The Penn State football schedule includes home games on Sept. 1 (Miami), Sept. 22 (Wisconsin), Oct. 6 (Michigan), Oct. 27 (Ohio State), Nov. 3 (Southern Mississippi) and Nov. 17 (Indiana). More information regarding starting times for each "Open House" event will be posted online at ( /news/index.html ) prior to kickoff. It's also possible to take a virtual tour of the facility by going online at ( /traderoom/qtvr_tour/ )

The Trading Room functions as a classroom as well as a research facility, giving students access to the standard Wall Street data: live coverage of financial markets from CNBC and CNNfn and data feeds from Reuters, Bloomberg, and Bridge. Computer stations also in the second-floor room allow students to simulate trades using real-time information. The Trading Room made national news headlines ( /news/innews/apr01/hightech.html ) when its stock ticker fired up on April 20, 2001, bringing the reality of Wall Street to the University Park campus. News reports highlighted that only a handful of other business colleges around the country ( /news/innews/may01/bullish.html ) have trading rooms.

Students practice the art and science of financial risk management in the 1,520-square-foot facility in the Business Administration Building. The room features five display boards running stock quotations and other data on a continuous feed, as well as nearly 44 trading stations. These stations are equipped as a trading desk would be in a Wall Street firm -with computer screens providing data feeds from multiple sources. There is also a multipurpose lab, a systems office, and a student lounge area.

The Trading Room is paying dividends for the developmental needs of executives, too. Members of the Centre Region's financial community will take a working tour of the new financial learning laboratory on August 14, and Penn State Executive Programs ( PSEP ) utilizes the room for executive education programs.

J. David Rogers, former Managing Director/Equities Trading at Goldman Sachs & Co. in New York City, and his wife, Tricia, contributed the $1.1 million founding gift for the Trading Room. David graduated from Penn State in 1978 with a B.S. degree in accounting, followed by an MBA in 1980. Tricia is a 1979 graduate of Penn Sate.

Several firms-including Merrill Lynch & Co. Foundation and Goldman Sachs & Co.-have already signed on to sponsor the Trading Room's ongoing operations, and Dell Computer Corporation, Bridge Information Systems, Inc., Reuters America, Inc, Sky Technologies, Inc., and the Trade Station are among the corporate partners.