04/29/2016
SUNY Cortland junior Pat Viscome says that he spends up to 10 hours each week “playing” with a Bloomberg Terminal in the Economics Department’s computer suite area.
But don’t confuse “playing” with wasting time.
For Viscome, a business economics major from Hartsdale, N.Y., playing means using the same advanced computer system utilized by top investors to create his own financial models. They’re part of an undergraduate research project he’ll tackle this summer, one that will look to compare the current market price of a company’s stock with its intrinsic value.
The technology that Viscome and his classmates can access is known as a Bloomberg Terminal, essentially a multi-monitor computer set-up that receives valuable real-time market information from the New York City-based financial data provider. SUNY Cortland has three workstations with the Bloomberg software in the Economics Department’s offices in Old Main plus an additional one in Memorial Library.
They’re worth a lot — not only in terms of dollar value, but with the precise data and potentially transformational education experiences they will provide.
“Another research project that I’m working on required gathering data from 38 different companies,” Viscome said. “To get it by hand would have taken forever. But with the terminals, it took maybe an hour. The time savings alone is phenomenal.”
Professor Kathleen Burke uses the terminals as a teaching tool in her Econometrics course, which applies statistical theories to economics for the purpose of forecasting future trends. Burke and other faculty members were trained on the software by a representative from Bloomberg, L.P., and now they’re passing their practical knowledge on to students.
She said she’s excited to see the technology’s application beyond classroom assignments.
“The terminals are incredible tools that will benefit undergraduate research and so many other hands-on opportunities for all of our students,” said Burke, mentioning their applicability to the Federal Reserve Bank Challenge that business economics majors participate in, the Bloomberg Aptitude Test that students from all majors can complete and a course on Monetary Theory and the Fed to be offered in the fall.
SUNY Cortland was able to purchase the valuable software that the terminals utilize — which costs $22,000 annually — thanks to a generous gift from Charles J. Bocklet, Jr. ’58, a former New York Stock Exchange vice chairman who visited campus as an executive in residence in November.
Viscome listened to Bocklet speak in his advanced finance class during that visit. He said that both Bocklet’s advice and the Bloomberg Terminals will pay dividends with the Summer Research Fellowship he earned from the College’s Undergraduate Research Council, which will look to build a model to determine the intrinsic value of a company’s worth based on different financial assumptions.
“My goal is to create something that’s simple and easy for the novice user,” Viscome said. “Luckily, I have this valuable resource. And best of all, it’s right here.”