UTSC rings the bell to open trading

The University of Toronto Scarborough was on hand to ring the opening bell of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TMX) March 15.

UTSC Principal Franco Vacarrino along with faculty and staff from the Department of Management joined Robert Fotheringham, senior vice-president of the TMX Group, to open the market and celebrate the recent opening of UTSC’s new state-of-the-art Finance and Trading Lab.

“This was an important gesture to recognize our new finance lab as it will train the next generation of financial leaders,” said Liang Chen, associate dean and senior lecturer in the Department of Management at UTSC.

Before being joined by faculty and students to ring the bell that opens the market, Vacarrino spoke about the department and the new lab.

"Our brand new co-op based Management in International Business specialist program combines a rigorous, globally-oriented management curriculum with work and study opportunities both domestically and internationally," Vacarrino said. "Our diverse and challenging curriculum invites students to engage with new and emerging knowledge, test their assumptions and reconsider their actions. Every course we teach incorporates the latest in management theory and practice.

"One wonderful example of our pedagogical approach is the Finance & Trading Lab, a first-in-class experiential learning hub for finance education and research at the University of Toronto Scarborough - a place that accurately reflects today’s financial markets."

A facility that will support both research and teaching, the lab will provide students with plenty of opportunity for hands-on learning, Vacarrino said.

"As the Lab evolves, students will develop expertise in real-world, real-time data products by the world’s finance professionals," he said. "It will allow students to try their hand at managing the emotional highs and lows of the trading experience on the largest academic trading floor in Canada, right at the U of T Scarborough."

Students also toured the Bank of Montreal trading floor to ask questions and see how those involved in trading actually do business. It was an educational experience for those more familiar with how stock trading is portrayed through the movies and television.

“Trading now is vastly different from before where traders would have to yell or use hand signals and there would be ticker tape everywhere. Now it’s relatively clean and everything is done through technology,” said Chen. “This was a great field trip for our students.”