Greenwich Business School

Dr Gabriella Cagliesi, Principal Lecturer in Economics, Department of International Business & Economics

Greenwich Business School uses Finance Lab Pro and Investus in their ‘Theory and Practice of Trading’ module. Dr Cagliesi presented the outcomes at UCL’s Academic Practice and Technology Conference 2019 (“Experiential Learning in action: effective and impactful teaching using the Finance Lab Pro trading simulation”).

Gabriella looked at the comparative performance of students over two terms using Finance Lab Pro (FLP) in Term 1 and building towards using Oanda or Metatrader in Term 2. There was a particular focus on achieving positive outcomes for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

She offered the following conclusions on the effect of the process on all students, BAME students and Direct Entry Chinese students:

• Across Cohorts: looking only at trading performance in Term 2, FLP training reduces the standard deviation of performance of all students and of BAME students

• Within Cohorts: looking only at trading performance in Term 2, FLP reduces the standard deviation of BAME students and improves their average trading performance

• Comparing Term 1 and Term 2 performances: FLP helps all students to prepare better for trading in Term 2. It is particularly effective for Direct Entry Chinese students

• Comparing Term 1 and Term 2 performances: FLP helps Term 2 performance of all students in the lower quartile, BAME and Direct Entry Chinese students in the second quartile, and Direct Entry Chinese students in the third quartile

• Overall module performances: the use of FLP contributed to reducing the overall BAME attainment gap when compared to previous years