More than 100 students from across the world have taken part in a ground-breaking asset management simulation this month, to try their hand at managing multi-million dollar investments on the stock, bond and foreign exchange markets.

Lancaster University teamed up with Amplify Trading to deliver the unique experience to undergraduate and post-graduate students who hold offers for a place to study a financial degree at Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) next year. They signed up to the free event to receive an Financial Market introduction by former Investment Banker, Paul McCormick, before being let loose on a ground-breaking Asset Management Investment and Trading simulation - which transformed them into Portfolio Managers for the afternoon.

Over the course of three hours, the students had $20 million to invest and had to navigate shock events that disrupted the international financial markets - such as a simulated earthquake in Japan, a shock European Central Bank interest rate announcement and military conflict in the key oil producing area of the Middle East. Students investment performance on the day was ranked against their peers to give participants a taste of the performance pressure that can exist in the roles.

Paul McCormick, who is now a Teaching Fellow and Financial Careers Coach at LUMS, said: "This was a fantastic and interactive tool to give our future students an insight into the world of Asset Management so they could see whether this world excites them and could be a potential career option. Students were engaged and actually quite enthralled by the experience - so I hope this gives them a flavour of what is to come in the years ahead at LUMS.

"This is an example of the sorts of applied learning we pride ourselves on, to ensure that our students get real skills and experience, as well as sound academic knowledge, so they are truly ready to hit the ground running when they enter the jobs market."

Lancaster students get the benefit of Paul McCormick's 30 years' experience of investment banking, offering a unique insight into the financial world from both a careers and teaching perspective. The mix of academic and applied learning, alongside financial careers coaching, has led to many of LUMS' financial students joining top investment banks and investment management firms.

Click here to find out more about accounting and finance at Lancaster University Management School.