On April 4-6, 2013, four College of Business students majoring in finance were able to attend the G.A.M.E. III Forum held in New York City. The Global Asset Management Education (G.A.M.E.) III Forum is a conference where about 50 speakers and 2,000 students attend from all over the U.S. and the globe. This is the second time that UTC students have attended the forum, last year being the first. UTC was selected to attend a Closing Bell ceremony at NYMEX – faculty chose John Loehle to represent UTC – John told others that it was a very exciting experience!
James Childers, John Loehle, Jazmine Logan and Paige Peterson were selected by application then interviewed by faculty/staff to attend the forum. After the trip, they’ve put together a presentation of what they’ve learned. Students described the trip has “once in a lifetime”, especially to those who had never visited NYC. Below are two firsthand experiences from students, Paige and James, describing different days of the trip!
Paige Peterson’s Experience
Yesterday (April 4, 2013) was an eventful day. Our morning started off with keynote speakers at the G.A.M.E. forum. My personal favorite was the topic of Global Markets and the Global Economy. I felt very honored to hear the opinions from very impressive professionals in the finance industry. At the forum, students were also allowed a chance to wait in line to ask the keynote speakers a question pertaining to the topic. I enjoyed hearing what the speakers had to say and it was related to what we have been learning in Dr. Bento Lobo’s international finance class. We then visited Galtere Ltd., where they provided us lunch and gave us an insight to what they do on a daily basis and we discussed typical trades they make, options, currency, and current news.
Later that day we were off to our next tour at Rothstein Kass, which is an accounting firm that provides a multitude of services including financial consulting. It was an honor to find such a lovely and close knit group of people who really care about their company and clients. Rothstein Kass puts focus on their core values and has a very open organizational culture with lots of chances to move up into higher positions. This was one of my favorite visits. Overall, Thursday was a great day and I’m learning that New Yorkers do have some southern hospitality.
James Childers’ Experience
Friday (April 5, 2013) was very eventful and was personally my favorite day. We started the morning by heading towards the financial district on the underground subway. Our destination was the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and Commodity Exchange (COMEX). Upon arrival at the NYMEX which is located in Battery Park City, we had our first chance to see the Statue of Liberty. This was the first time that Paige, Jazmine, and I had seen the Statue of Liberty. In addition, we were very close to Goldman Sachs which is located in New York a few blocks from the NYMEX.
On the tour we were lead by two gentlemen that worked for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME). To our surprise the trading pits were not packed with people as we had anticipated. In the last decade there has been a shift to electronic trading and the trading floor has begun to thin out.
For lunch we ate at the famous Katz’s Delicatessen. This restaurant has been featured in When Harry Met Sally…, Law & Order, Enchanted, Donnie Brasco, and several other movies. Katz’s serves kosher-style food; therefore, we had a chance to experiment with new types of food and everything was fantastic! In the afternoon we had an amazing tour of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) directed by Carmen Barone. On this tour we had the once in a lifetime opportunity to be on the live trading floor of the NYSE. It was a fascinating experience to watch the floor officials conduct trades and it reminded me of a sporting event since the floor officials wore jackets representing their bank. At the end of the day, we watched WWE professional wrestler John Cena ring the closing bell. Friday was an incredible day and I think everyone in our group will always remember this once in a lifetime experience.
