Finance trading room a boost for Belfast
Giving students a real taste of the finiancial markets is the aim behind the First Derivatives trading room planned for Queen's University's business school later this year.
A LITTLE of the buzz and the tension of the stock market is to come to Belfast in a three-way initiative announced yesterday to open a trading room at Queen’s University.
The project funded by Newry-based financial consulting firm First Derivatives with support from Invest NI, will see the first trading room opened in the city by the spring, aimed at providing a dynamic learning environment for students hoping to embark in a career in financial services or technology.
Based at the Queen’s University Management School at Riddel Hall, Stranmillis, the facility, which will replicate New York and London trading rooms, will give students a real-life experience of a busy stock exchange with the capacity to deal in equities, bonds, foreign exchange and derivative instruments.
It will transform a corner of the school into a financial hub reminiscent of Wall Street or Canary Wharf, and prepare future graduates to make their mark in the world.
First Derivatives offers one of the largest graduate training programmes in Northern Ireland with up to 30 Queen’s graduates employed annually by the company.
Chief executive Brian Conlon said he saw the trading room as a platform for closer engagement between the company and Queen’s students and staff.
“As one of Northern Ireland’s key graduate recruiters we recognise the value of working closely with universities.
“From our perspective, this is an opportunity to collaborate with Queen’s on projects and develop courses in computational finance which align more closely with our company’s requirements.
“At First Derivatives we are recognised in global financial centres for the quality of our people. Taking in graduates who have practical experience of the trading floor as well accessing the facility will allow our in-house training to build upon this knowledge and provide more rounded consultants to market.”
With the potential to make Belfast a more interesting proposition to international companies and investors keen to set up where there is a pool of highly skilled graduates, the project should also make the management school more attractive to international students.
That, said Invest CEO Alastair Hamilton, could help leverage significant investment into the province.
“Northern Ireland is already among the top global destinations for financial technology investments and Belfast is the number one city for attracting research and development in financial services software.
“We know the financial services sector offers further opportunity to create high value employment in Northern Ireland. Developing the skills to make this happen is crucial to growing the sector so we are delighted to support the First Derivatives trading room.”
From Queen’s, prof Donal McKillop said the school was looking forward to providing a more sophisticated package to students.
Established more than 40 years ago, it was one of the first in the UK to offer undergraduate management education and an MBA degree.
“The First Derivatives trading room is an interactive virtual environment where students learn to trade financial instruments and manage financial portfolios using live prices and the latest investment and trading technology,” he said.
“They will have the opportunity to think and learn on their feet, building up the skills needed in the high-pressure world of the trading room.
“Having these practical skills in today’s competitive and uncertain environment will undoubtedly give Queen’s finance students a competitive edge in the jobs market.
“There is no doubt that Queen’s is taking teaching to the next level and enhancing the University’s reputation as a global leader in financial education.”
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 12 C to 20 C
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