BIG is one of many student-run investment groups at the collegiate level. And every March they come together at the Redefining Investment Strategy Education (RISE) forum hosted by the University of Dayton. Last year's forum attracted 302 schools and 100 speakers from across the investment industry.
"Applied investment programs are a tremendous learning opportunity," says David Sauers, a University of Dayton finance professor who co-founded the RISE forum in 1999. "There's no better way to link together theory and practice."
Dayton's $10.6 million student-run portfolio--part of the university's overall endowment of roughly $500 million--is overseen by 15 undergrads as part of a competitive senior-level class. It's a long-only, growth-and-income-style fund that's invested 90% in equities and 10% in fixed income. Sauers says the fund has averaged about 250 basis points above its benchmark during the past ten years.
Unlike the Bentley portfolio, Sauers notes the Dayton portfolio has had outside cash infusions through the years in addition to its initial $25,000 seed money.
Sauers says collegiate-level investment funds can run the gamut from specific-purpose funds created by alumni or specific donors, to being part of a university endowment. "Typically, the larger funds are endowment-related," he says.
Investment clubs provide good experience and, in some cases, good networking opportunities. Soucy, the senior from Bentley, in July will start a full-time job as an investment analyst on the infrastructure team at J.P. Morgan Asset Management in New York. Two former BIG members, including the group president who preceded Soucy, work at J.P. Morgan Asset Management and helped him get his foot in the door and with the interview process.
"My BIG background helped from both alumni and experience perspectives," Soucy says.