Coventry Business School Trading Floor

COVENTRY BUSINESS SCHOOL

TRADING FLOOR

Coventry University Priory Street Coventry CV1 5FB T 024 7765 8444 E info.fbl@coventry.ac.uk www.coventry.ac.uk/fbl

15683-15 © Coventry University. All rights reserved.

WELCOME TO COVENTRY BUSINESS SCHOOL You may already be familiar with the frantic and exciting nature of a Trading Floor through the world of film and TV. However, this is an area that few people have experienced first-hand. If a career in business interests you then such an experience can be a real eye opener. If you’re passionate about Economics, Finance or Accounting, the experience is invaluable.

Coventry Business School students benefit from access to the largest academic Trading Floor in Europe. Students receive hands-on experience of the software, techniques and environment that they may come across in their professional lives.

We can offer simulation activities designed to test your analytical skills, not to mention test your nerve! Additionally we have live access to Bloomberg software allowing you to see exactly the same data on which real traders are making multi-million pound decisions.

We are pleased to offer this exclusive opportunity to students of our Phoenix partner schools to experience this for themselves. If you think you have what it takes to make it as a financial trader, or even if you just fancy seeing how financial trading impacts on, and is influenced by other sectors of business such as Marketing and Management, this is a great opportunity. We will provide insider knowledge of how a trading floor really works, and the skills you need to succeed in this exhilarating environment. After your briefing we will let you loose on the trading floor with £500,000* to invest.

Use your skill and judgement to invest shrewdly and you could be on your way to your first million. *The activity is simulated and so is the money – sorry!

In this brochure, you will find out about a couple of modules that take place exclusively in the Trading Floor, as well as information about our current students and student-led Financial Trading Society.

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BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE The Coventry Business School Trading floor incorporates the best analytical, news and data platforms into the teaching and learning environment to give students a first-hand experience of these industry standard tools and enhance teaching and research. The trading floor has 42 dual screen Bloomberg terminals which currently makes it the biggest academic trading floor of its kind in Europe.

The Trading floor was established to: urther improve the quality of teaching, learning and research at the Coventry Business F School and it presents students with the opportunity of learning in a highly professional facility using the best finance analytical tools in the industry. It is mainly powered by the two leading financial news, data and analytics platforms – Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters (including Eikon and Datastream). aintain links with regional and national schools by exposing young and aspiring finance M professionals to the professional world of finance through activities like trading competitions and finance summer camps. ork closely with the finance industry through partnership developments activities as W well as employer led skills and knowledge development activities. Some of such activities include integrating real trading and finance activities practiced in large financial institutions into a student led simulated environment.

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TEACHING AND LEARNING The Trading Floor provides students across a range of departments in the business school with the opportunity to learn in a highly professional facility using the best finance tools in the industry.

Examples of some of the modules currently being taught in the Trading Floor are: Bond Analysis using Bloomberg Investment Analysis using Thomson Reuters Eikon International Oil and Gas Trading Academic and Professional Skills in Finance There is also an opportunity for all second year undergraduates across the university who have access to the Add+Vantage scheme to study the ‘Financial Trading and Investment Using Bloomberg’ Add+Vantage module.

In addition, most of the modules taught in the Trading Floor give students the opportunity to go on and obtain Bloomberg and Thomson Reuter’s certifications for free.

RESEARCH AND DATA ANALYSIS Studying at the Coventry Business School means students have access to the best data and analytical tools available via the Trading Floor to aid their research. This is not limited to students studying Economics, Finance and Accounting, but is accessible by all students of the Business School.

Using the Trading Floor, students have full access to data from finance leading sources including Thomson Reuters Datastream, Thomson Reuters Eikon and Bloomberg.

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THE FINANCIAL TRADING SOCIETY The Financial Trading Society (FTS) aims to be a fun society where its members can learn about investing and trading. This year we’re looking at traditional stocks and shares as well as newer options and technology such as P2P loans, as well as one of my personal favourites, Bitcoin.

There are a wide range of topics we aim to cover and we tailor our sessions throughout the year to our members, using the feedback we get session to session. The sessions vary weekly as we try and keep things fresh throughout the year, and look to incorporate a range of activities including running trading simulations on the trading floor alongside presentations and guest speakers. We hold weekly sessions on Thursday evenings and in addition to these standard meetings, we plan to hold several events during the week throughout the course of the year. These vary between academic and social events.

We work hard with a variety of organisations, contacts and businesses to help support our society and our members. In particular, our relationship with Bloomberg has continued to grow, with access to the Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Aptitude Test (BAT), Bloomberg Essentials (BESS) and the Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC) as well as allowing access to visit their London HQ. The Trading Floor has been invaluable to the society, and is used regularly. The Bloomberg Terminals software allows our members to see and practice with professional, industry standard, software. The layout of the room allows us to use the overhead monitors to show the main computer so we can clearly demonstrate a process, such as performing a certain operation within the Bloomberg Terminal, while everyone is able to follow this by copying the process on their own computers. The hardware is of high quality, with high specification computers, dual screen monitors and the Bloomberg keyboard. In addition to this, we also have access to a range of software such as investment simulation games.

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STUDENT PROFILE

Christopher Smolak BA Financial Economics Final Year

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Chris is the current President of the Financial Trading Society (FTS). We spoke to him about his time with Coventry Business School and FTS. What is your position within the Financial Trading Society?

This year I’ve taken on the role of President of the society and this means I’ve had much more control in terms of where the society is heading as well as having the responsibility to organise, plan and deliver the sessions on a weekly basis. In addition to this, I also have regular meetings, ranging from discussing the society with university staff to negotiating partnerships and links that the society can take advantage of.

How did you get involved in the Financial Trading Society?

I helped grow the Financial Trading Society as Vice-President last year, which was the first year of the society. Trading in particular is something I’ve always had an interest in and have actively pursued into what has now grown to become more than just a hobby. Having traded on the markets and made money, I’ve proven that I can apply my knowledge in the real world and I wanted to share my passion, knowledge and experience around the subject for those that share an interest.

How has the Trading Floor helped you learn and improve your skills?

The trading floor has access to the Bloomberg Terminals, the exact same software which is used in professional environments and has consequently proven to be an invaluable resource for the society. I’ve personally found it extremely useful to be able to access this software, which is otherwise too expensive to access privately. Getting access to the system within the university gives students an advantage when looking to use the software at professional level, as they’ve already had experience and can even gain Bloomberg backed awards in the form of the Bloomberg Essentials (BESS) and Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC).

What do you hope to do once you graduate?

I’ve always kept my hobby of computers and it has proven to be directly useful towards my degree of Financial Economics. I’ve learnt continuously about programming and coding, specifically web development and I’ve created many websites for myself and clients. In more recent years I’ve turned this small hobby into something even more rewarding and I’ve developed several ideas into working projects. My interest in trading, along with my study of Financial Economics has worked well together – allowing me to better understand the markets and develop my analytical skills as well as giving me a deeper understanding of how an economy works and reacts to changes. Hand-in-hand I’ve created a range of web projects around my Economics background and I hope to continually build and develop upon them, as well as growing my own business which I registered at the end of last year.

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FINANCIAL TRADING AND INVESTMENT USING BLOOMBERG

BOND ANALYSIS USING BLOOMBERG

Add+Vantage Module

Module available on MSc Investment Management

The Financial Trading and Investment Using Bloomberg module is a skills based module that is available to all second year students that have access to Coventry University’s innovative Add+Vantage scheme. Add+vantage modules are career development modules that broaden students’ knowledge, skills and qualifications within a work focused environment.

The Bond Analysis Using Bloomberg module aims to develop students’ ability to undertake advanced analytical study of the bond market using the Bloomberg terminals. Students are exposed to both introductory and advanced aspects of the theory and applications of the bond market as well as using the leading analytical tools used by investment management professionals.

The main aspects covered include: Getting Started with Using Bloomberg Terminals Economic Indicators Currency Essentials Fixed Income Essentials Equity Essentials Using Bloomberg News and analytics in Financial Trading and Investment Analysis Portfolio Construction and analysis using Bloomberg.

In addition to the above, students then eventually get to practice simulated trading activities including managing a virtual portfolio of real world assets over a number of weeks.

The module is also tailored to guide students towards the attainment of the Bloomberg Markets Concept (BMC) certification, worth up to $249, for free.

Using Bloomberg, students will gain mastery of the following indicative aspects: verview of the bond market O Introduction to bond market; different types of bonds I ntroduction to Bloomberg terminal Overview of Bloomberg system; bond market analysis undamentals of bond pricing F Yield to maturity; bond equivalent yield; current yield; realised compound yield; bond price relations ond duration and convexity B Impact of interest rate changes on bond price; Taylor series; Macaulay duration, modified duration, effective duration, portfolio duration, convexity, effective convexity; portfolio convexity aluing bonds with embedded options V Callable bonds; putable bonds; convertible bonds erm structure of interest rates T Term structure theories; different yield curves; bootstrapping ond portfolio management strategies B Passive strategies; active strategies; hybrid strategies As with most modules that use Bloomberg, students will also have the opportunity to take the Bloomberg Markets Concept (BMC) certification for free.

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SCHOOL VISITS AND OUTREACH PROGRAMMES Since the Coventry Business School Trading Floor has opened, we have been fortunate enough to host several School Visits and Outreach Programmes. In April 2015, we invited Key Stage 3 pupils from 7 local schools to spend an afternoon in the Trading Floor. This was part of a Widening Participation Scheme to encourage children to consider university education in the future.

Lecturers from the School of Economics, Finance and Accounting were on hand to guide them through a simulated trading week. The simulation gave groups of pupils control over ÂŁ500,000 to invest in a range of companies and commodities. The pupils really enjoyed the experience and most were able to make a healthy profit by the end of the day.

Coventry Business School looks forward to hosting similar events in the future.

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