Financial Information Lab

Spawning leaders in a host of industries, primarily within financial services, both regionally and globally, The Peter J. Tobin College of Business at St. John's University officially opened the Financial Information Lab adjacent to the microlab in Marillac room 240. The lab enhances the education we deliver through the establishment of a learning environment that brings real-time news, market information, financial data and industry-class analytical tools to our students and faculty.” This type of facility enables our students to learn about and live in the financial markets in business environments and situations throughout the world.

Students benefit from the most contemporary learning technology and tools of analysis that are available in the marketplace today.

The Tools:
The Financial Information Lab offers state-of-the-art software systems and databases to support hands-on, real-world student learning as well as faculty research.  Its core application is FactSet, an extremely flexible set of applications which processes accounting data, securities prices and performance, portfolio analysis, earnings estimates, expansive economics data series, fixed income, and information on mergers, acquisitions, IPOs, and private placements.

Computers:

  • All 33 computers upgraded in 2011 and equipped with dual display, side-by-side monitors.
  • FactSet (www.factset.com) software, a premium suite of financial analytical tools and databases, installed on all 32 stations on the floor and at the podium.
  • 12 stations equipped with both the Bloomberg system and FactSet.
  • Two printers with ID swipe control.

Wall-Mounted LCD Screens:

  • Full screen mode for DirecTV, or
  • A multi-windowed presentation with DirecTV broadcast in the largest window, stock tickers running along the bottom, and market highlights and St. John's announcements displayed in the side window.

DirecTV Channels:

  • Bloomberg
  • CNBC 
  • CNBC World
  • Court TV
  • Discovery Health
  • Fox News Channel
  • CNN 
  • MSNBC 
  • Headline News
  • Current TV
  • Travel Channel
  • Weather Channel
  • C-SPAN 
  • C-SPAN2 
     

Audio/Visual Features:

  • A podium is equipped with a computer, dual monitors, a microphone, laptop connector, and DVD/VCR player, along with a control panel.
  • The microphone and audio feed through six speakers set into the ceiling.
  • There are three ceiling projectors...one for each of the PC monitors and the third (nearest to the podium) for either a laptop, DVD or VCR image.

World Clocks:
A digital strip of clocks sits above the main entry/exit door between the FIL and Marillac microlab and displays the time in six different parts of the world, starting with New York and moving east to London, Beirut, New Delhi, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.

Tracker Board:
The Tracker Board conjures up images of the "big board" at the NYSE. It displays, on a scrolling basis:

  • The list and current prices of the holdings of The Tobin College of Business undergraduate and graduate Student-Managed Investment Funds (SMIFs).
  • Values of major domestic and international stock indices.
  • Futures contract prices.
  • Currency exchange rates.
  • Treasury security rates and quotes.
  • Market prices of major sector ETFs (consumer discretionary, consumer staples, healthcare, utilities, energy, telecommunications, information tech, industrials, materials, financials.)

Competitive Advantage:
Building on our traditions of producing business practitioners who recognize opportunities and use these to competitive advantage, the College is moving in a direction that will further build visibility for programs in all of our major areas of study.

 For Students:

  • Risk management students can simulate scenarios using multiple variables to arrive at best formula for risk coverage.
  • Finance and economics students access to real-time business data and news from around the world, aggregated to make the soundest decisions on investment and portfolio management.
  • Decision sciences students can utilize the lab to draw from databases and databanks around the world in making decisions within or across business disciplines.
  • Students of organizations and organizational behavior use the lab to derive the most contemporary business cases for use in strategic and operational analyses.
  • Marketing students use the lab for research and planning relative to new products and services for consumers.

For Alumni:
Establishing the Financial Information Lab at the College contributes
significantly to our reputation as a leader and innovator in business education, thereby raising the profile of the Tobin degree worldwide.

For Faculty:
The lab enables faculty to provide instruction that is exciting, informative and engaging. Equipment and tools in the room support numerous applications, some of which are:

  • Direct analysis of a business case with up-to-the-minute financial information
  • Follow news with a class of major corporate mergers or financial market events via one of the business cable news channels on the LCD screens
  • Perform research in support of strategic business plans (EIRP)
  • Access a mergers and acquisitions database for case analysis of accounting treatment
  • Chart and/or download thousands of global macroeconomic variable series
  • Download historical price data for financial instruments for analysis·
  • Download historical financial statement data into Excel instantaneously
  • Evaluate the implications of a marketing plan
  • Create stock analysis research reports
  • Track the performance of a stock portfolio    
     

For Corporate Partners:
The laboratory environment holds virtually unlimited promise as a mechanism for provision of training, updating of skills or corporate education in innumerable fields of business, such as financial services, business journalism, e-commerce, management of risk, insurance and quantitative finance.

For more information about this exciting new venture, please contact John Neumann at (718) 990-88829 or Neumannj@stjohns.edu.