Trading Technologies Increases Options for Computational Finance Students

11-11-2006

Thanks to Trading Technologies, computational finance students at Purdue will be using the same software as professional traders, using real-time data. Trading Technologies International Inc. (TT) provided Purdue with 25 licenses for the software X_TRADER?, which is used to trade on 19 exchanges around the world. The software is being incorporated into master?s-level courses, according to Frederi Viens, associate professor statistics and mathematics, and the co-director of the Purdue Computational Finance Program.

Students don?t make actual trades but the data they use is very real. "It is a real life display of how trading occurs at an exchange. Naturally the trades aren?t real but the environment is," says Leo Murphy, university program manager at Trading Technologies.

The X_TRADER? software was designed for use in a corporate environment with dedicated hardware for each trader. Installing the software in an educational environment where students access the software from all over campus proved to be challenging. Doug Crabill, Department of Statistics manager of computer systems, and My Truong, Department of Statistics computer system specialist, installed the server side of the software installation on hardware provided by the Department of Statistics. ITaP (Information Technology at Purdue) installed the client side of the software installation on ITaP lab PCs. "We don?t have to have everybody sitting in the same room to use it, which makes it much easier to schedule a class," says Lisa Robertson, director of corporate relations for the College of Science.

The agreement was the result of many partners, including the Science Business Partners Program (SBPP) in the College of Science, ITaP, Contracts, directors, and more. "The partnership we have with universities is mutually beneficial: while the university benefits from state-of-the-art trading software, we benefit from the unique and new ways they put our software into practice," says Murphy.

Learning and partnership opportunities like X_TRADER help create better prepared students who can hit the ground running. They also help the college find jobs for students because companies who use the X_TRADER program know that Purdue grads are familiar with the program. Trading Technologies has already held one "TT Day," which included informational presentations and job and internship interviews, and plans on holding more over the next two years.

"All students using the software will gain the valuable industry-relevant experience of electronic trading, which will enhance their industrial profile. We hope that the use of the X_TRADER API will also allow a few PhD students to perform simulations and analysis which would be difficult to achieve in any other way," says Viens.

For more information on this story or to find out how your company can get involved with SBPP, please contact Lisa Robertson, director of corporate relations, at lrobertson@purdue.edu or (765) 494-4344.