NSU has a new home for finance and trade

By Luqman Gbenro •

PHOTO BY ALEXANDRA ACEVEDO
The Jerry Taylor and Nancy Bryant Trading Floor is open to visit in the Carl DeSantis building.

The fall 2024 semester marks the Jerry Taylor and Nancy Bryant Trading Floor’s inaugural academic year. The trading simulator is the latest addition to the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business & Entrepreneurship, and it will serve as a hub for financial experiential learning. In it, people can pitch potential trades, take investor meetings and collaborate with other business students.

“The trading floor serves as a state-of-the-art conference room and classroom. Having a dedicated space fosters an enriching extracurricular experiential activity for the students that allows the application of knowledge obtained in the classroom in a real-world setting,” said Associate Professor of Finance Antonio Figueiredo in an email to The Current.

Figueiredo sees the space as a proving ground for young business professionals. The intention behind the simulator is to build the students’ confidence and perfect the vital skills necessary for a successful business career, he said.

The trading floor cost $5 million to construct.

Andrew Rosman, dean of the Huizenga College, feels that the floor was long overdue.

“The idea came from knowing what’s being done at other universities and [wanting] to provide our students with the same abilities,” Rosman said.

The trading floor, which is also a finance lab, is a key fixture in many business schools. Rosman believes hands-on experience is what gives curriculum life beyond the page and the ability to resonate with students.

“It’s not just enough to be able to understand the theory behind things. They have to be able to learn and experience things and bring those experiences to [their] work,” Rosman said.

Rosman oversaw the college’s recent accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, and his vision for the business school comes together in a sort of causal sequence. Each step builds on the foundation that was previously laid.

“As we expand our experiential learning opportunities at the university, in addition to what we’re doing with the Shark Cage businesses that our students run and other opportunities, the trading floor became an obvious one to help us build out our finance programs,” Rosman said.

Diego Fernandez, junior entrepreneurship major in the Huizenga Business Innovation Academy, is the co-owner of Power Bytes, a student-run smoothie stall that is part of the student-run business program. He said that the new floor gives students an advantage in a competitive world.

“It could potentially [be useful] depending on what events are going on,” Fernandez said.