Local Financial Professionals Receive Demonstration About the Power of ODU's Trading Room, Bloomberg Terminals
December 17, 2014
Andrew Cohen speaks about ODU's Bloomberg Terminals.
The delivery was rapid-fire.
To an audience of 16 local, young professionals in the financial industry, Old Dominion University's Andrew Cohen gave a kinetic presentation in the Gregory A. Lumsden Trading Room and Research Lab on Friday, Dec. 12.
The three-hour seminar was designed to instruct the financial industry workers on the valuable Bloomberg Terminal, a powerful desktop financial analysis tool obtained by ODU in 2013, when the trading room opened.
During the event, participants received high-energy instruction from Cohen, who came to ODU as an instructor after two decades of work as a financial trader on Wall Street.
"I know I'm giving you a lot of information in a short amount of time," Cohen told the new and aspiring financial industry workers. "When you do this again, it can really sink in."
The workshop was created to let the local business community know about the asset ODU has acquired in the Bloomberg Terminals. More such events are being planned for 2015, to provide more detailed instruction in use of the terminals.
Vinod Agarwal, interim dean of the Strome College of Business, said part of the attraction of the Dec. 12 event was Cohen, whose Wall Street experience includes managing multimillion-dollar portfolios for top financial firms.
"He's an asset to the college because of his knowledge and enthusiasm for teaching," Agarwal said.
The Trading Room itself is also a significant asset, not just to the Strome College, but to all of Hampton Roads, Agarwal said. "Now what we are trying to do is let the community know that we have this facility, which can be of real benefit to financial analysts, supply chain managers. We want to provide this service to the community."
Kiran Karande, associate dean and director of the Strome College M.B.A. program, said the facility is also of tremendous benefit to students from across the ODU campus.
"The Gregory A. Lumsden Trading Room and Research Lab enables our students to experience how to use real-life data to make sound investment decisions. It is even more valuable to students who have taken the basic courses in finance," Karande said.
"But the Bloomberg research is not just limited to finance and investments; it provides information useful to students in many other disciplines. This facility is of great value to our students."
The Gregory A. Lumsden Trading Room and Research Lab opened in 2013 and contains 24 Bloomberg Terminals, which use a top-down global perspective to analyze markets, providing insider analysis of stock valuations; environmental, social and government monitoring; and advanced charting of future financial performance.
At ODU, Cohen has created the Wall Street 101 class, which is designed to provide information and expertise about investing to students who have no background in it.