Dubai Financial Market inaugurates educational trading floor at the American University in the Emirates

Chairman of DFM , Hassan Abdulrahman Al Serkal,
Chief Operations Officer (COO), DFM and Muthanna Abdul Razzaq

Dubai Financial Market ( DFM ) today inaugurated its educational trading floor at the American University in the Emirates (AUE). The fourth of its kind, the floor reaffirms the exchange’s pioneering position amongst regional financial markets in educational initiatives.

The educational trading floor at the AUE is the latest of a chain of similar floors, building on the overwhelming success of the first educational trading floor, inaugurated at Dubai Men’s College early 2012, as well as supporting 2 similar floors at Sharjah University in collaboration with the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), which have been widely praised by students and lecturers for its key role in promoting financial knowledge and merging theoretical studies with real life experience.

The educational trading floors reflects DFM ‘s firm commitment to social responsibility and strengthening the educational process through linking both the theoretical and practical sides and offering students the opportunity to learn through an interactive approach.

The educational trading floor has been inaugurated in the presence of Essa Kazim, Chairman of DFM , Hassan Abdulrahman Al Serkal, Chief Operations Officer (COO), DFM and Muthanna Abdul Razzaq, President and CEO of the AUE as well as other senior representatives from both organizations. During the opening ceremony both sides have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) outlines the key areas of cooperation and ways to strengthen the existing relations through the development of programs and mechanism that enhance the understanding and knowledge of the financial market in practical and theoretical manner that serve the educational efforts in the AUE.

As a micro version of DFM ‘s main trading floor, the new educational facility at AUE includes screen and ticker directly linked with DFM ‘s trading engine to display trading activity and real time market data. The walls of the trading floor have been designed to reflect the precise look and feel of DFM ‘s trading floor. As part of its plans to enhance the effectiveness of the educational trading floor DFM plans to regularly organize interactive workshops in cooperation with renowned experts to train students and deepen their knowledge of financial markets.

Essa Kazim, Chairman of DFM said:” DFM has pioneered the concept of educational trading floors regionally which demonstrates our full commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility on various levels and particularly through high level collaborations with educational institutions in the UAE to fully support their efforts and provide the necessary training for students to prepare them for the job market. This initiative is a key pillar of the DFM educational program aimed at preparing the new generation of investors. The students can follow live trading and participate in the DFM Stock Game and win competition prizes. Most importantly, the planned workshops and seminars will provide them the opportunity to directly interact with financial experts”.

DFM is planning to establish new educational trading floors at other campuses, with final preparations underway for the most imminent one at the American University in Dubai within the coming weeks. The enormous success and warm welcome of the first educational trading floor at Dubai Men’s College and its outstanding contribution in liking theoretical studies with practice and introducing students to stock market sector have been the key drivers to plan for new educational trading floors.

“In fact, the efforts of DFM would not have had such phenomenal success without the concerted efforts of various educational institutions in the UAE in general, and the AUE in particular. I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to this leading institution for its cooperation to see this initiative accomplished.” Essa Kazim concluded.

Professor Muthanna G. Abdul Razzaq, President and CEO of the American University in the Emirates said: “As we prepare our students for success following their education, we are delighted to provide them with knowledge of investments and the capital markets with the assistance of DFM . This educational facility will support them in both their future careers and in productive management of their own finances.”