Finance Lab Offers New Investment Opportunities

Taylor University seeks to train students to be intuitive self-starters who take advantage of opportunities to grow personally and professionally. In the Business Department, students use their collective knowledge from professors, mentors, and investment professionals around the globe to steward 6 million dollars of Taylor’s endowment. 

Collaborative Research Space

This fall, Business students have an even greater edge. Located in Reade Center, the newly-renovated Finance Lab is complete with nine Bloomberg Terminals that give students access to the state-of-the-art software. Additionally, students have access to a suite of financial planning software, including MoneyGuidePro, RightCapital, RiskAlyze, and AssetMap, and Income Lab. This collaborative space allows students to have access to investment expertise from all over the world in order to make well-informed investment decisions while furthering their personal experience and portfolio.

“The new Finance Lab has provided me with a great opportunity to utilize the Bloomberg Terminals for research and to collaborate with my peers, in and outside of class,” Finance major Reagan Smith ‘23 said.

Bloomberg Technology 

Bloomberg Terminals is highly regarded in the business world and widely recognized by investment professionals as the gold standard for a market data platform.

When Assistant Professor of Finance Justin Heneger began teaching at Taylor three years ago, students only had access to one Bloomberg Terminal. Now, Taylor licenses 12 Terminals (nine in the Finance Lab, one in the library, and two in professors’ offices), costing approximately $75,000 a year to operate. 

The overall expense of the Terminals is often the reason for their rarity at colleges and universities. Fortunately, a generous donor covered the cost of the machines’ subscriptions for the next several years. Through the Bloomberg Terminals, Taylor has further distinguished itself as a top business program in the country. 

$5.6 Million Endowment 

As a community, Taylor University values intentionally stewarding the resources that God has given us, and the university’s finances are a key example. 

Students can take an Applied Portfolio Management course in which they get a chance to manage just roughly $5.6 million of the university’s money through an endowment program. It is not uncommon for universities with an endowment program to allow students to be in charge of investing real money with real stakes; however, Taylor's program is one of the highest percentages of endowment money for student management nationally.  

Henegar said that few universities in Indiana have given students almost 6 million dollars of their endowment to manage, and an even smaller number of other Christian universities in the Midwest have done so. 

The newly renovated Finance Lab has been especially helpful for the Applied Portfolio Management class. This class accepts 10 students each semester who are given between $700,000 to 3 million dollars to manage. Each student is granted special access to the Terminals outside of class hours. 

“From the standpoint of understanding stewardship and our responsibility in managing God's resources, we have an opportunity, as faculty members, to begin to teach these students the biblical worldview of the impact money has, in that relationship as a steward of Christ's resources,” Henegar said. 

Students in the class are responsible for brainstorming their own investment strategy and monitoring their investments weekly, as guided by the expertise of the finance faculty. At the end of the semester, the class presents their earning results to the Board of Trustees. 

Right now, the Applied Portfolio Management class has yet to put their investment strategy into practice, but the university endowment is already up $800,000, with their collective goal of 1 million dollars in the near future. 

Opportunities in Future Investment 

Currently, these Bloomberg Terminals can be seen in action in various classes including Foundations to Financial Planning, Applied Portfolio Risk Management, and Behavioral Finance. 

Students can also take a mini-course in order to be officially Bloomberg certified. This is an incredible opportunity for students to get practical experience that will apply directly to their future careers. Henegar says that he has personally seen many graduate students land higher-up jobs in investment because of their prior experience with Bloomberg Terminals. 

Learn more about the exceptional Finance, Management, Accounting, and other business-related majors at Taylor University. Schedule your campus visit today, and come check out the Finance Lab on your personalized tour.