Peadar proves his business knowledge

Ulster Business School students pursuing an MSc in Financial Services put their academic learning to the test recently resulting in a £55,620 profit made in only seven weeks - and a Ballymoney man was part of the team.
By The Newsroom
Published 21st Mar 2014, 07:33 BST
Ulster Business School student Peadar McMullan, from Ballymoney, runner-up in the CISI NI Investment Student of the Year Award at the presentation dinner with Wayne Nickels, CISI NI President and Professor Marie McHugh, Dean of the Ulster Business School. ©Press Eye Ltd Northern Ireland - 2014 Mandatory Credit - Picture by Brian Thompson / Presseye.comUlster Business School student Peadar McMullan, from Ballymoney, runner-up in the CISI NI Investment Student of the Year Award at the presentation dinner with Wayne Nickels, CISI NI President and Professor Marie McHugh, Dean of the Ulster Business School. ©Press Eye Ltd Northern Ireland - 2014 Mandatory Credit - Picture by Brian Thompson / Presseye.com
Ulster Business School student Peadar McMullan, from Ballymoney, runner-up in the CISI NI Investment Student of the Year Award at the presentation dinner with Wayne Nickels, CISI NI President and Professor Marie McHugh, Dean of the Ulster Business School. ©Press Eye Ltd Northern Ireland - 2014 Mandatory Credit - Picture by Brian Thompson / Presseye.com

Ulster Business School lecturer Paul Stewart explained:, “The 18 students were all completing coursework taken in the Financial Markets, Investments and Operations Module.

“Their challenge was to develop a trading and investment strategy with a virtual £100k each which they managed over a seven week period.

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“All of the students’ trades were in ‘real-time’ at actual market prices using market trading simultation software.

Whilst the cohort had a virtual £1.8million to start with, the average equity portfolio return of just over 3% in such a short trading window was very creditable indeed and gave the students a practical and realistic understanding of the investment sector.”

Five employers, Danske Bank, Cunningham Coates Stockbroders, Graham Corry Cheevers, Investec Wealth & Investment and Quilters along with The Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI) helped develop the coursework, facilitated student mentoring by their staff members and sponsored a prize for the top three ‘traders’.

Belfast student Aisling Armstrong was the overall winner of the CISI NI Investment Student of the Year award.

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Peadar McMullan from Ballymoney and international student Yiguan Li were both runners up.

The students themselves found the experience to be extremely beneficial.

Overall winner Aisling Armstrong said that she “really enjoyed the hands on trading experience and found the project challenging but simultaneously very rewarding and insightful.”

Runner-up Peadar McMullan commented that he found “the trading project an innovative and exciting introduction into the practical world of equities trading.”

Related topics:Danske Bank