The University of Macau’s (UMAC) Faculty of Business Administration (FBA) and Thomson Reuters announced the launch of the Thomson Reuters Trading Room, at a special opening ceremony held yesterday at the university. The trading room is aimed to facilitate the faculty’s various teaching and research activities. The new trading room is equipped with Thomson Reuters Eikon terminal access, the same system and data that bankers and financial professions are using in reality. 80 users can log with different accounts, allowing them to use the trading room simultaneously. James Mirfin, managing director of Thomson Reuters in North Asia explained to Business Daily that the real time data is the same as what other customers use in the banks and will better prepare the students. “Not many students around the world have the benefits. We want to provide to our customers with the trading room with the same data access our customers have, because these are the people who may use it in the future. Our aim is to get people familiar with the product,” said Mr. Mirfin. Theory into practice Mr. Mirfin also mentioned the long-term parnetship between Thomson Reuters and the University of Macau that ‘‘we have relationship with the university for about five years, starting with a product in the library doing research.’’ He sees the trading room helpful in a practical way, ‘‘More likely, when they get to financial situation, they can use the product and are comfortable with the product. We want to equip the students with the best they can have.’’ ‘‘As we look at the evolution of financial market, we are certainly right in the heart of financial market, we work with banks, regulators, government, and central banks and universities, we want to make sure the students get access to the best technology, the best data and best information, so that they are learning, not using a power-point slide. It is not theoretically, it is real. We put theory into practice.’’ After the ceremony, Mirfin also presented a seminar on ‘The Findustrial Revolution’. He is an expertise with broad leadership experience in Europe and Asia and led also PayPal and American Express. Financial laboratory The university sees the trading room facility helpful for students’ employment opportunities. ‘‘It is like a laboratory when we study physics and chemistry in science, the trading room is a lab for majors like finance and accounting, and even communications because there is a great data base,’’ said Prof. Jacky So, Dean, Faculty of Business Administration, UM. ‘’One university in Hong Kong also has this kind of facility but not as in advance, so we are already good in competition.’’ Prof. Jacky So also explained that students can download data right after courses and directly from the system for analysis, which should help students understand the topics in depth. In addition to educating students, the trading room is regarded as also a continue aid to even the general public, the faculty may provide courses to share knowledge in this aspect. ‘‘Nowadays, the Hong Kong government and the Beijing government emphasize financial technology to be very important to stimulate economy, our trading room can help our next generations in this main direction.’’ Prof. Jacky So added.
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