CSMASTER

Students take specialized tour of Chicago Mercantile Exchange

The Hon. Terrence Duffy, third from left, executive chairman of the CME Group and a member of the Saint Xavier Board of Trustees, met with Saint Xavier computer science and business students to encourage them to enter the world of high finance.

John Charmelo was calmly explaining his job in high finance from a quiet window above the largest trading floor in the world when a closing bell began to sound.

Below him, elbow-to-elbow traders in the pits of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange yelled orders and gestured with hand signals in a flurry of global commerce buying and selling that he called “organized chaos.”

Ten students from Saint Xavier’s computer club and the Graham School of Management stood silently in awe as they stared at the massive price boards and listened to the open outcry trading within the octagonal trading pits.

“There is a lot of need for computer guys who can talk to traders,” Charmelo told the group. “The difference between traders and computer guys is that traders want things five minutes ago and computer guys are more methodical.”

The specialized field trip to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Global Command Center in the heart of Chicago’s financial district was brought about by a collaboration between Sister Susan Sanders, R.S.M., vice president of Mission and Heritage, and the Hon. Terrence Duffy, executive chairman of the CME Group and a member of the Saint Xavier Board of Trustees.

Of the 100,000 visitors who come to the CME yearly, the Saint Xavier students were among the few – if any – who were led into the so-called “War Room” in the Global Command Center to learn about the cutting-edge computer infrastructure that helps investment advisers, portfolio managers, corporate treasurers, commercial banks and others from around the world do their jobs.

They learned about the checks and balances the computer systems use for the market information that changes in milliseconds and goes out to 150 countries.

Dr. Don Fricker, associate professor of computer science, said the students really connected with how computer algorithms help financial experts navigate risk because these are concepts they are studying at Saint Xavier.

In a 40-minute sit-down with the group at the end of a day in which he had talked taxes with a U.S. member of Congress, Duffy, 52, encouraged them to learn electronic trading to better facilitate the interactions between technology and clients.

“We have some of the most sophisticated technology in the world here,” he said. “There are great opportunities for young people today. Technology has come so far.”

• < Prev
• Next >