Finance students find lifetime opportunity, visit New York Stock Exchange

 

 

Eight St. Cloud State University finance students attended the Quinnipiac Global Asset Management Education Forum March 30-April 1 in New York to listen to what professionals have to say about the current industry, but what they experienced outside of the conference is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The students and Professor Bill Hudson toured the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) floor and CNBC’s television studio Fast Money Nasdaq MarketSite.

The New York Stock Exchange floor has been closed to the public since September 11, 2001.

“(We got to) see first-hand how it operates during trading hours,” said senior Bradley Lee. “It was a breath taking moment to truly experience the kinetic energy and atmosphere.”

Hudson agreed.

“An opportunity like this brings to life the concepts learned in the classroom,” he said. “It was quite gratifying for me as a professor to see the excitement in my student as concepts they have studied on campus come alive in the real world.”

“It didn’t look at all what I had expected,” said junior Ally Erickson. “There were no papers really everything was done on the computer and hubs scattered around the room”…”The best part was Honeywell rang the bell to signify the day’s closing. In our Husky Growth Fund, we have Honeywell as one of our stocks.”

The eight students are a part of St. Cloud State’s Husky Growth Fund, a managing an investment fund course (FIRE 491), where students manage an actual investment fund for the University Foundation, acting as security analysists, investment advisers and portfolio managers.

“The opportunity to be in a student-run class that actually invests real money given by the school into stock is an experience not many schools offer,” Erickson added.

The tours were arranged courtesy of St. Cloud State alumnus Drew Sandholm, marketing director of Quontic Bank in New York City.

“Not only is it impossible for the public to get access to the floor of the stock exchange, they got a very intimate meeting with probably one of the most respected and popular pro traders on Wall Street, Kenny Polcari,” Sandholm said.

Sandholm was able to leverage his connections as a former CNBC producer to connect the students with the NYSE trader, get the group access to the NASDAQ MarketSite and ultimately introduce the group to the hosts of the Fast Money show.

“For as successful as St. Cloud State University alumni are now, we will be even more successful if we help one another,” Sandholm added.

Through another alumnus, Craig Popp ’00, the students received the chance to tour and visit with investment management professionals at BlackRock Inc.

“The NYSE and Fast Money experiences were for educational purposes and definitely left us dazzled and amazed,” Lee said. “However, the opportunity to participate and engage with professionals from BlackRock was another level.”

To put it in perspective, the prestige and respect of BlackRock is to the global investment industry as Harvard is to academic institutions, Lee added.

The discussions with BlackRock professionals were geared toward the fixed income industry, active equity management and retail technology.

The concepts covered by the equity manager reinforced the concepts the students already apply in their managing and investment fund course, Hudson said.

Despite the short trip, the students say they have come away with experiences of a life time.

“This conference, with all the tours we took and people we met is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what I’ve gained from attending St. Cloud State,” said junior Mika IIoven.

Funding for the trip was provided by the St. Cloud State University Foundation.

Students who attended

• Graham Christopherson, Albert Lea
• Ally Erickson, Mora
• Nathan Goebel, Freeport
• Mika IIoven, Espoo, Finland
• Ryan Jurma, Buffalo
• Bradley Lee, Maplewood
• Tyler Mumbleau
• Nolan Bloyer, Blaine