A Trading Place: New Financial Trading Center Receives $50,000

VALDOSTA -- A dedication ceremony, held Friday, Nov. 11 in Thaxton Hall on North Campus, honored the Langdale College of Business Administration’s new state-of-the-art Financial Trading Center (FTC). The center’s key sponsor, Southeastern Federal Credit Union (FCU) presented a check for $50,000 to the college during the ceremony.

The FTC will provide a hands-on trading experience to business administration students and will serve as part of a comprehensive plan for an actual student-managed portfolio.

“This is one of a kind in the state of Georgia,” said Dr. Wayne Plumly, dean of the college of business.

The new trading center, which is one of a few located in the southern region of the United States, is the only FTC on a university campus in the state that allows students to use real money for trading.

“It is an honor to give back to the community and be a part of something that will help students develop professionally,” said Southeastern FCU President and CEO Lee Morgan.

VSU Vice President for University Advancement John Crawford expressed the growing need for monetary support from private entities such as Southeastern FCU.

“More and more public universities are faced with cuts in funding,” Crawford said. “As a result, we will continue to see our margins of excellence being funded by private gifts. For us to stay on the cutting edge, we must continue to build and maintain strong partnerships like these.”

The trading center holds interactive four-panel 46” LCD displays, computer stations with double-monitors and an 8.2’ by 16’ full-color LED ticker display mounted outside the facility.

The interactive LCD displays feature live data on indices, stocks, commodities, currencies, metals and energy that appear at a touch of the screen. There are also graphs that show five-day to five-year prices. Current financial news highlights are also shown in the lower right quadrant. The stations with double-monitors allow current stock prices to be displayed on one monitor and financial spreadsheets on the other.

Students who utilize the trading center are required to take two courses, Investment Analysis and Advanced Portfolio Management, where they will apply investment strategies, risk assessment tools, asset allocation decisions, client-oriented portfolio construction and financial asset evaluation.