BMO CEO Bill Downe is photographed at the Bank of Montreal branch at First Canadian Place in downtown Toronto, Ont. Aug.20/2010.Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail
If Bank of Montreal's trading volumes are down a bit Thursday, it was for a good cause as many of the bank's senior traders were helping business students open a new trading simulator at one of Canada's top business schools.
Thursday marked the grand opening of an upgraded simulation lab at the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, where students can try out trading strategies and subject them to real-world risks. BMO funded the lab with a $1.75-million donation.
The room features rows of trading terminals, with big screens at each end of the room displaying market information. It replicates the feel of a real trading room – the difference being that marks are at stake, rather than real dollars.
BMO chief executive officer, Bill Downe, compared the lab to a flight simulator or the simulators on which surgeons practise delicate operations. Students who put on trades in the lab learn what it feels like to do it in real life.
"When you create a position you live with it," he said. "When you go home at night it's still there."
Mr. Downe argues such facilities "have the effect of making the education way more constructive and instructive."
The lab also plays host to Rotman's annual international student trading competition.
The software developed at Rotman now runs trading simulators at top universities around the world, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke University, University of Chicago, University of Laval and Stanford University, said Tom McCurdy, a finance professor who is founder and director of the trading lab.
For students, "it's taking them from the classroom and linking it to the real-time market," said Mr. McCurdy.