Northern Ireland's first financial trading room is to open at Queen's University in Belfast to show the reality of a career on financial services.

Financial software firm First Derivatives, which takes on around 30 Queen's graduates every year, has funded the new trading room with the support of Invest NI.

The room at Riddel Hall in Stranmillis will be a mock-up of trading rooms in New York or London, giving an insight into a stock exchange dealing in equities, bonds and derivative instruments.

Brian Conlon, chief executive of Newry-based First Derivatives, said: "From our perspective this is an opportunity to collaborate with Queen's on projects and develop courses in computational finance which align more closely with our company's requirements.

"At First Derivatives we are recognised in global financial centres for the quality of our people. Taking in graduates who have practical experience of the trading floor as well accessing the facility will allow our in-house training to build upon this knowledge and provide more rounded consultants to market."