Melbourne Girls Grammar STAR Lab Experience

A group of year 11 students from the Melbourne Girls Grammar (MGG) School visited Monash University, Department of Accounting and Finance, STAR Lab on 28^th August 2009.  The purpose of the visit was to give students hands-on experience using a simulated trading platform in the STAR Lab based at the Caulfield campus.

The school visit was hosted by Professor Madhu Veeraraghavan, Discipline Head of Finance and Dr Zoltan Murgulov, lecturer from the department.  The Accounting and Finance STAR Lab experience was preceded by a short presentation from Professor Veeraraghavan on the disciplines of accounting, economics, physics and finance and a brief introduction to Monash University. MGG students showed genuine interest in share trading and excelled at the trading game, the Mon STAR Challenge.  The excellence was confirmed by one student achieving the highest ending cash balance for any trading competition undertaken by high school students in the STAR Lab so far. Through trading, MGG students were also introduced to some topical ethics issues in finance such as insider trading, collusion and market manipulation.