Student Investment Funds

Hey guys,

Rising junior at a non-target and I'm looking to get an internship in IB next summer. I've been doing some research and looking into student investment funds at other universities. Does anyone have any experience, stories, advice on student investment funds? I'm looking to try and start one, have a meeting with the president of our university endowment next week to talk about it. Anyone have experience starting one? Definitely seems like a large undertaking but I'm passionate about it. Any info you have would be great.

 

Lots of schools have student run investment funds. Some all virtual money, some up to a few $mil in fund size. Don't know anything about starting one, can't imagine it'd be easy, but get a group a students that are passionate, maybe partner with a finance club, and get the backing of at least one senior professor and you have a shot. When you say looking to get a job in IB I'm assuming you don't mean IBD because equity research wont help you much.

 
JeffSkilling:
Lots of schools have student run investment funds. Some all virtual money, some up to a few $mil in fund size. Don't know anything about starting one, can't imagine it'd be easy, but get a group a students that are passionate, maybe partner with a finance club, and get the backing of at least one senior professor and you have a shot. When you say looking to get a job in IB I'm assuming you don't mean IBD because equity research wont help you much.

Yah I've checked out several other schools investment fund websites. As for equity research, it's not as much a desire to show my interest in equity research as it is to show my interest in finance in general. My Goal is to get into IBD, I see this as a way to show my interest, leadership skills, and entrepreneurial ability. If you have other ideas that would be more suited to specifically show interest in IBD other than CFA, i'm open to them. Thanks for the help.

 
JayRaider4937:
JeffSkilling:
Lots of schools have student run investment funds. Some all virtual money, some up to a few $mil in fund size. Don't know anything about starting one, can't imagine it'd be easy, but get a group a students that are passionate, maybe partner with a finance club, and get the backing of at least one senior professor and you have a shot. When you say looking to get a job in IB I'm assuming you don't mean IBD because equity research wont help you much.

Yah I've checked out several other schools investment fund websites. As for equity research, it's not as much a desire to show my interest in equity research as it is to show my interest in finance in general. My Goal is to get into IBD, I see this as a way to show my interest, leadership skills, and entrepreneurial ability. If you have other ideas that would be more suited to specifically show interest in IBD other than CFA, i'm open to them. Thanks for the help.

Get an internship in something related to IBD.

 

Actually most people I know from my school that are in banking did some time with the [schoolname] Investment Group. Really helps with pitching and presentational skills, and will give you a good understanding of the markets--that is, it helps your resume AND interview prep. Definitely gives you something to talk about in interviews. At a school with a large endowment its not uncommon for student investing groups to have several million in real money to spend.

I was not in the IG, but have many friends that were. I helped manage the endowment (with a portfolio manager from ML PWM, so I was giving input more into general strategy and portfolio concentration than picking individual securities) of a nonprofit I worked with and that definitely gave me something to talk about in interviews. I talked about some of the investments we had that went bad in the crisis and so on.

Can't give you any advice on starting an investment group, but good luck--seems like a really cool idea and will definitely make you stand out.

 

In my MBA program we have a $1M investment fund. You need to be selected to be part of it, but it's certainly helpful - especially if you are applying for buy side or even sell side research. If your school doesn't have one but has a sizable endowment, you could petition your school's dean and he/she might be able to direct you (or shut you down early on that you don't waste time).

 

My school had a $3.5 - 4 million equity and fixed income fund that we, the students ran. The selection process was much like getting a job at a fund, interviews, internships examined, etc. The students selected a board of trustees and outside industry people (PMs, bankers, HNW wealth managers) were brought in as board members as well as finance professors to vote on selections (buy, hold, sell, etc.)

The business school had a trading room with bloomberg, reuters, morningstar, etc. and we were expected to build valuation models and develop in depth write-ups and presentations. It was wonderful, tangible experience that served as perfect talking points in interviews. Getting experience in equity / fixed income simulatenously with real money and consequences put me ahead of a lot of my target school competition.

"Jesus, he's like a gremlin; comes with instructions and shit"
 
JimmyDormandy:
My school had a $3.5 - 4 million equity and fixed income fund that we, the students ran. The selection process was much like getting a job at a fund, interviews, internships examined, etc. The students selected a board of trustees and outside industry people (PMs, bankers, HNW wealth managers) were brought in as board members as well as finance professors to vote on selections (buy, hold, sell, etc.)

The business school had a trading room with bloomberg, reuters, morningstar, etc. and we were expected to build valuation models and develop in depth write-ups and presentations. It was wonderful, tangible experience that served as perfect talking points in interviews. Getting experience in equity / fixed income simulatenously with real money and consequences put me ahead of a lot of my target school competition.

Were MBA's included or was it just undergrad? Would you be willing to tell me the school, would love to check out the website on the fund.

 
Best Response
JayRaider4937:
JimmyDormandy:
My school had a $3.5 - 4 million equity and fixed income fund that we, the students ran. The selection process was much like getting a job at a fund, interviews, internships examined, etc. The students selected a board of trustees and outside industry people (PMs, bankers, HNW wealth managers) were brought in as board members as well as finance professors to vote on selections (buy, hold, sell, etc.)

The business school had a trading room with bloomberg, reuters, morningstar, etc. and we were expected to build valuation models and develop in depth write-ups and presentations. It was wonderful, tangible experience that served as perfect talking points in interviews. Getting experience in equity / fixed income simulatenously with real money and consequences put me ahead of a lot of my target school competition.

Were MBA's included or was it just undergrad? Would you be willing to tell me the school, would love to check out the website on the fund.

purely undergrad. No can do on the school as it would most likely out me on this forum.

"Jesus, he's like a gremlin; comes with instructions and shit"
 

I tried to start one up with 12-15 finance students as well. Turned out to be a lot of administrative hassle to deal with. My school has one that gets to invest a portion of the endowment, but it is hard to give valuable input due to the size of the club. If you find that the administrative hassle isn't worth the trouble, start up a mock portfolio on Yahoo. This will also give you something to talk about in interviews.

 
DomerFball69:
I tried to start one up with 12-15 finance students as well. Turned out to be a lot of administrative hassle to deal with. My school has one that gets to invest a portion of the endowment, but it is hard to give valuable input due to the size of the club. If you find that the administrative hassle isn't worth the trouble, start up a mock portfolio on Yahoo. This will also give you something to talk about in interviews.

What would you say your main problems with the administration were?

 
NorthEastIdiot:
I think I know which school it is. I had some friends who went through the process at said school and they trumpeted the fact it was a $4 million student-run fund quite often.

The fund was far larger than I expected that school to produce, actually.

Haha what's your guess, I'm sure we could figure out if your right.

 
JayRaider4937:
NorthEastIdiot:
I think I know which school it is. I had some friends who went through the process at said school and they trumpeted the fact it was a $4 million student-run fund quite often.

The fund was far larger than I expected that school to produce, actually.

Haha what's your guess, I'm sure we could figure out if your right.

Highly doubtful, but I will neither confirm or deny.

"Jesus, he's like a gremlin; comes with instructions and shit"
 

I'm a non-target undergrad that is an officer with our school's investment program (~$500,000).

Our one goal set by the donor was to beat the S&P 500 every single year and we have for going on 10 years.

Good experience and pretty awesome to be involved in it as I am super non-target.

If you have any questions, I will try and answer them here. If not, I'll be totally willing to answer via PM.

 

Hello. I am a sophomore, studying Mathematical Finance, and Economics and Finance at Catawba college. Currently me and my friends are working on a plan to establishing an investment fund for our college . The idea behind the fund is to provide real investing and management experience to our students and valuable networking with the industry representatives. We would appreciate any support, information or ideas! Thank you very much!

 

Does it involve real money? What did you do? Unless it was a full time thing (or even like a part time job) , I would say no. I would however, put it in as an activity and mention it on the cover letter since it shows some initiative (based on my thinking of what at student investment fund may be). Be ready to answer questions though (on markets,investment ideas etc).

I used to do Asia-Pacific PE (kind of like FoF). Now I do something else but happy to try and answer questions on that stuff.
 

Apperantly, if you ask this question, you are trying to create entry level resume and don't have any other experience, or just don't have relevant experience for some job position. In such case you really need to find some ways to highlight at least some real skills. You can apply to Resume Writing Lab and see how they cope with this issue.

 

Actually, I think that you should create a separate section for this kind of experience. When a job seeker has a lack of professional experience, he emphasizes his internship or volunteering experience. Therefore, it would be reasonable to create a new section and place this experience there if relevant.

 

An old thread but one that is worth visiting again.

There are hundreds if not thousands of college/university based finance/investment clubs in the US and around the world. Some are wholly student-run but others are at least overseen by faculty.

The Student Managed Investment Fund Consortium keeps lists of all we can find as well as lists of publications that deal with the setting up and running of them.

It may be worth checking out the information we keep at https://indstate.edu/business/SMIFC/research/lists and https://indstate.edu/business/SMIFC/research/biblio

 

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