Michigan State University MBA: Examine Broad's Difference

Financial Analysis Lab

A financial analysis lab, based on the structure and success of our unique Team Lab, gives students the opportunity to develop hedging and trading strategies. Finance courses are designed so that students work with actual data and make real-time decisions.

Managing the Portfolio
In the securities analysis course, a dozen students manage a $2-million Student Investment Fund on behalf of the Michigan State University Foundation. They monitor and research portfolio holdings, develop investment ideas and recommend securities for purchase or sale, with a focus on small and mid-cap companies and an emphasis on value stocks.

A State-of-the-Art Facility
The Financial Trading Room, on the first floor of the Eugene C. Eppley Center, is equipped with trading desks similar to those at most financial institutions. Workstations are equipped with high-speed PCs with dual flat-screen monitors and data feeds that simulate a variety of trading desks. Thompson ILX Financial Data Streams, including equities, options, derivatives and fixed-income securities feeds the workstations. Large plasma monitors, visible in the Eppley Center entryway, prominently display financial information and a running ticker. Other TV and computer monitors provide financial news feeds. The laboratory includes financial trading room technology as well as a network designed to transmit financial information feeds to most offices and classrooms in The Broad School. It is a state-of-the-art education in finance and investments and an integrating force for all graduate courses in finance.

“Because the securities analysis class is actually inside the lab, students can access up-to-date information and research on financial markets in the same ways professional investors on Wall Street do. It adds real-world perspective. They're making decisions that have real consequences. Students are perhaps more interested in the perspectives of their classmates, because they have real consequences to the portfolio we're managing.”
JAMES WIGGINS,
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR