Students can place trades using Virtual Stock Exchange.
Each semester two student clubs, the Financial Management Association and the Core Trading Consultants, sponsor the "Investment Challenge." This popular investing game allows students using the trading room facilities to buy and sell equities and derivatives with $100,000 of "play money." To broaden the challenge, the contest is open to all students interested in the world of financial trading, not just those enrolled in the School of Business. There is a $5 cost to enter the competition, which is partially used to cover prize money.
Students place their trades by submitting a trading form, which is linked to this web page, to the organizers at the correct bid or ask price as per the real-time quotes provided by Thomson One. Using Microsoft Excel students can track their investments in the trading room by custom designing an interactive portfolio. Excel is directly linked to the financial markets through a special software interface called MarketLink. This feature allows participants to view their gains and losses in a spreadsheet format that is dynamically changing with the market.
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Go to the Virtual Stock Exchange website and sign in under the Ithaca College competition. After signing in, you can make quick, up-to-date checks on your stocks from any computer on campus!
The concept behind the Investment Challenge is that students can learn some of the techniques used in successful investing and get a feel for the pressures involved in trading, where fortunes can be made and lost in a couple blinks of an eye.
At the end of the trading period, the three participants with the highest returns on their portfolios, as well as the highest-performing student in the freshman class, are announced as champion investors and receive special awards. These awards are named after distinguished alumni, who maintain an active interest in the center.
