I'm a sophomore girl at a T5 university. After my first year, I got really interested in fundamental analysis- taught myself everything, began managing my own portfolio and have achieved excellent, consistent returns. I also recruited into IB and was very lucky to get an incredible sophomore offer. IB isn't my dream necessarily, but I'm excited for the opportunity and am glad that my salary will afford me the ability to pay off my loans and be financially independent.
Now that I'm done with recruiting (at least, I hope) I want to spend my time doing what I'm interested in on campus for the next 2.5 years. At my school, at least, sophomore year is your last year of eligibility for finance organizations. Though I've applied to clubs very seriously every quarter for the past two years, I didn't get into anything. Many of these organizations are managed by my close friends (who are also the ones making acceptance decisions), so it feels especially personal and bad to be rejected again this time around.
I was initially really upset and dejected (and still am). But, hard work and commitment doesn't entitle you to anything, especially here where everyone is brilliant. So, if I can't be a part of communities that want me, I might as well create my own.
We already have a value-investing, Benjamin Graham/Seth Klarman obsessed club on campus, as well as some equity research ones.
But, if you were coasting through the rest of undergrad and wanted to found something really cool (investing-related, likely), what would you start? What universities have sustained really exceptional student-run funds/clubs that I should look to as a model?
Thanks!
Sounds like your close friends aren't actually your close friends, might want to work on interpersonal and relationship skills instead
Stocks and blondes
I just want to say that I admire your mindset. Although it surprises me that you were able to successfully recruit for IB as a sophomore yet couldn't get into your schools finance organization is quite surprising, I can tell what ever you end up starting is going to be wildly successful. Cheers.
Thanks. Definitely hurts more to be rejected by my peers than it does to not get an offer, tbh. I just want to try and channel those emotions into creating something positive.
Did you ever consider that maybe you are a mediocre candidate and only received a sophomore offer because you're a female? And you have a conflated sense of self worth because you think you're hot shit after getting a diversity program offer, so you now feel entitled to acceptance to a club and despite your "friends" running them. FYI, no one outside of HR cares about your diversity identity.
Perhaps you should study your technicals more!
Do your friends have internships as good as your? Maybe they are jealous and want to take their personal little "revenge" to feel better with themselves. You know that some people feels better when they see others fail, even (or in some cases, even more) if they are their friends.
Something related to fixed income (especially high yield credit) would be interesting. A lot of college students only get exposure to equity markets in school when in reality the fixed income market dwarfs equities. Could be an interesting opportunity for someone interested in credit investing, restructuring, distressed/SS, private credit, etc.
the "How high will Tesla go" club
You're on WSO not WSB. Did you make a wrong turn?
i do NOT see the difference
Successful Ponzi Scheme
aka “how high can Tesla go club”
You could start something that revolves around restructuring or special situation investing that’ll set you apart.
This is actually a really interesting idea. Though RX might not be as big this year cuz of govt $, this would be really fun. ID RX candidates and build a case on how/why they should go through a process. Really unique!
I'm getting the feeling that you are doing this more to spite your friends and other clubs that you got rejected from rather than for your love of investing. Make sure you have your priorities straight or the club won't really go that far if it's the former.
you should start a local chapter of the pen15 club
Finance clubs aren't really cool - you already have an offer and if you want to keep learning you can always do it by yourself. Trust me when I say use this time to develop some non-finance skills because you have your whole life to continue working/becoming a finance "god".
wolf of wall street club
meetings with hookers and blow
$26,000 worth of sides!
Here’s a more fringe (while being topical) idea: quant investing. It’s well separated from traditional value investing, and isn’t that relevant to what you’ll be doing at IB, but knowledge of quantitative/systematic strategies can be helpful in a career, especially if you choose to go into AM at some point.
I’ve even read papers recently about quant processes being applied at non-traditional forms such as PE and VC, if you can believe it. The investment community’s willingness to explore such options has definitely increased. Many traditional money managers are starting up quant teams to grab some systematic alpha. If that seams like something you’d be interested in, then a club may well be a good starting point.
Not a bad idea. Macro quant can be interesting idea, either in an equity space, FI, or multi-asset. All the big shops are doing it in the AM equity space, and there's plenty of literature. I have no idea what's free other than Python, and it isn't really suited for it though. FactSet works very well, although I don't know what they have in the way of student programs. Bloomberg's OK with a number of caveats, and M* is terrible. (I could only run 10% of a model iteration per day due to Excel API limitations) If you want to work 40-50 hours a week designing multi-billion dollar funds while your 'Friends' talk about their 80 hour weeks in IB trying to build a powerpoint to help their boss close a deal for the same pay, this may be worth it for you.
IMHO Python is immensely suited for it TBH, unless you’re high-frequency you don’t really need anything else. R will do alright in a pinch as well. Most uni finance programs will have contracts with one or more major data providers to allow their students access (I.e. WRDS/CRSP). There are also absolutely tons of free Python/R/other APIs for finance, primarily for data (e.g. Quandl/Google) but also for transacting (Interactive Brokers’ API/Quantopian).
Invest in an import export club And by import I mean importing COLOMBIAs finest white powder (bonus points if you go to Columbia btw) and selling it at very high margins. If you succeed, you can pay off your loans and become financially independent AND hire hitman to take out the cunts who didn’t let you in the finance clubs
Pablo Escobar was the greatest commodity trader of all time. He invented to cocaine spot market.
I like your attitude.
Two options that both look good to me:
Find others like yourself that were rejected from these clubs and form a a club with them. Doesn't have to be different from the other clubs. Do the exact same shit, value or whatever. Be sure to publish your opinions and gloat aggressively when you outperform.
If that's not feasible for whatever reason, consider not starting one at all. You don't need a club to work on your craft.
You sound like wifey material. Any chance you are single and wanting to grab a coffee this summer in New York ?
Stop.
I was in a similar boat so I feel your motivation. For me, I wanted to be in a finance club coming into a new school as a transfer so I could have some learning structure from people smarter than me but no luck... I ended up having to learn it all myself.
As far as cool investing clubs that ACTUALLY make an impact that you can take into the professional world, make a student-run venture fund or start a venture scout program at your university. Many seed funds are starting to get interested in college student startups and need people like you to scout them out so you could start a club based out of that. It'll take some networking to get the right developments in place but it'll give you a nice option card down the line if you ever want to move to earlier stage and need a convincing story.
Just want to add that your mindset will get you very far in life. The type of people who don't resign themselves after rejection is incredibly rare, yet common among countless self made people.
Not sure about your club (or if you'd even need to start one) to get where you're going, but if you maintain your mindset and energy you'll get pretty damn far in life. Best of luck to you.
David Swensen and the Yale Endowment are worth checking out http://investments.yale.edu/
But, it looks like they haven't been doing as well lately. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-27/yale-s-5-7-return-pl…
The coolest club to create probably would be something that either turned into a live fund with investors or an LLC with a product that blew up.
Consumer demand is hot. So probably a Young Entrepreneurs club would be the most versatile type to create
.
Nice username! I always loved Seinfeld.
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