2019年，我一时兴起决定成立SMSAS交易俱乐部，作为一个开放论坛，供普通学生会员在现实世界的交易平台上练习投资(但使用模拟货币)。每个学生得到100万美元的纸币‘选择股票、商品和衍生品进行交易。我们在春季学期每周开会，讨论投资问题，研究和实践实际立场，有时还会邀请外部演讲者谈论相关话题。虽然我一开始只是把这个俱乐部作为一个实验，但事实证明，不仅对学生，对我个人来说，它真的很有趣，也很有价值。一方面，它帮助我思考创造性地思考将经验融入我的教学是多么重要。作为一名教授数学和精算学学生经济和金融科目的讲师，我一直认为应该把我的教学牢牢地放在学生所看到的或期望工作的世界的背景中。 This is easier in some subjects than others – my macroeconomics or financial economics assignments and exam questions always incorporate at least one issue that’s in the news, making it easy for students to research it (and hopefully motivating them to continue to follow issues). However, for some concepts that appear straightforward in theory (e.g. short-selling), I found it particularly puzzling that even advanced students struggled to transfer what they learnt from one context to another.

When I set up the trading club, it was partly because some of the students would often talk to me about their interest in investment, yet find it challenging to translate the concepts I taught in my portfolio theory or financial derivatives class to the real world – as if the two were disconnected. While I often ask students to look up economic statistics from different sources as part of their economics assignments, I did not realize how critical this step of the ‘how to’ was, in helping students make their learning functional. In more technical subjects too, we really should be showing them ‘how to’ more often. Whether it is to short a stock or write an option – the connection between theory and practice is often not automatically formed!

The students who joined the club (with a maximum size of 40 members – sometimes flexed) are clearly self-motivated and interested in learning. Some place value on our initial demonstrations of navigating the trading platform, placing different types of trade orders, making use of information sources, and generally monitoring the portfolio. Others come to discuss the latest trends – you can imagine GME featured a lot this year. Some already trade on their own small portfolios using the new apps that are proliferating – they are happy to share their experiences (both gains and losses) with their colleagues, giving students a realistic idea of investment experience. It’s also useful to learn in a safe (costless) way that not all good ideas offer great rewards. What seems like a brilliant consensus investment one week could show up for all to see as a fat loss the next. Most importantly, though, it’s the act of doing that I think students value.

I will be thinking more about integrating more such challenges in my formal curriculum. Recently, there has been a lot of emphasis on apprenticeships and universities’ role in supporting them. I think we need also to think more seriously about experience for regular degree training.

[Note: SMSAS is the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Kent, where I teach.]