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 in Marillac room 240. The lab
enhances the education provided to our students 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 financial markets and
business environments and situations throughout the world.
Students will 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 workstations equipped with both the Bloomberg system and
FactSet.
- Two printers with ID swipe control.
Wall-Mounted LCD Screens
- Default mode is multi-windowed with DirecTV broadcast in the
largest window, stock tickers running along the bottom, and market
highlights and St. John's announcements displaying in the side
window.
- Full screen mode for DirecTV.
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 increasing the recognition of the Tobin degree
worldwide.
For Faculty:
The lab enables faculty to provide instruction that is exciting,
informative and engaging. Three screens run simultaneously in the
Financial Information Lab: One captures CNN and news of major
corporate mergers; another downloads historical stock data and a
third with a faculty member and student team using this information
to make decisions about a specific business case. All right
there, in one place and at one time!
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.