Students for Bloomberg

As any money manager will tell you, the Bloomberg computer terminal is an essential tool for buying and selling securities.

In addition to timely business news, the terminal provides access to a wide variety of tools for analyzing all kinds of stocks, bonds and other investments. It even has its own custom keyboard that requires extensive training.

That's why Florida Gulf Coast University recently acquired a Bloomberg terminal for its finance students. The machine comes at a steep price: $25,000.

“It's a huge resource commitment for us,” says Shelton Weeks, chair of the FGCU economics and finance department.

The Fort Myers-based university wants all of the approximately 150 students majoring in finance to become certified in how to use the Bloomberg terminal. Indeed, learning how to use a Bloomberg terminal is as essential for finance majors today as it was years ago for anyone to learn how to use Microsoft Word. “It was an investment we just had to make,” says Weeks.

The department aims to have 12 Bloomberg terminals in its Wasmer Schroeder trading room at the Lutgert College of Business by next summer. The $65,000 cost will be partially offset by contributions from members of the CFA Society, the association of money managers in Naples.