The new Heidtke Trading Room in Johnson Hall, made to help train aspiring finance students, is equipped with enough high-tech equipment to make any trading floor veteran green with envy.The room was funded through a number of private donations, most notably from Nashville investment manager L.O. “Buzz” Heidtke.
The room features $150,000 in equipment to give finance students a cutting-edge education in the workings of the trading floor.
The room is equipped with “seven high resolution monitors that display quotes from a number of equity, debt, and currency markets,” said Bob Wood, the college’s associate dean and the Heidtke Professor of Finance.
“The servers are programmed so that we can change the content on the screens from our office computers.”
The room is currently being used by students to manage three investment funds totaling up to $400,000, and by finance professors to teach students using real-time market data.
“The room is used for the Investment Challenge courses – undergraduate and graduate finance portfolio management courses,” Wood said. “We also use the room for meetings and presentations. The room will continue to be used in this manner.”
The Trading Room gives students and professors access to equipment and information to put them on par with Wall Street traders.
