By
Rebecca Missel
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Stock market project to translate into real-life experience
About 15 students in the UA finance department's Applied Investment Management class will invest $600,000 of the university's money in the stock market Friday.
The students have been hired as money managers by the University of Arizona Foundation to invest the funds previously earmarked for the business school.
"Right now is a great time to invest since the market's down," said Carolyn Lamm, a finance senior. "We can get a great bargain."
Although the UA has not had a course like this before, some institutions around the country have similar programs managing portfolios of up to $10 million.
"It's something we had always wanted to do," said Chris Lamoureux, head of finance department.
While other business electives involve real estate or international finance, the applied management course gives students a chance to put their previous knowledge to work.
"First of all it's real hands-on experience," said Don Seeley, adjunct lecturer in finance and instructor for the course. "Second, each class period brings in a senior professional from the investment business."
The class of finance seniors and second-year master of business administration students meets once a week for a lecture, guest speaker, discussion and portfolio research.
"They're exposed to quite a bit of the investment world in a very short time," said Seeley, a former chief financial officer for True North Communications in Chicago.
"This is an opportunity to take concepts from previous classes and apply them with full accountability for their decisions," Seeley said. "They (students) will learn more from their mistakes than their successes but hopefully their mistakes are modest."
The original donors were happy with the decision to invest their money because it brings the students into the process as one of the seven to 10 investment managers the foundation employs, Lamoureux said.
"The class has a fiduciary responsibility to the UA Foundation," he said.
Students have spent most of the semester researching different securities options in order to build a portfolio.
Lamm does some of this work on a special two-screen computer known as a Bloomberg Terminal which costs about $20,000. She also uses up to 30 different Internet sites to provide market information.
"I love that class," Lamm said. "It's much more work than other classes, and they hold you to a higher standard."
Besides learning basic information and research techniques, she has learned how to value stock prices and read financial statements.
"I'd love to become an equity analyst," she said. "What we do in this class truly excites me."
The money made from investments in this class will be kept in the market and rolled over to continue earning.
After spending the entire semester doing research, Seeley said the students are taking the class seriously and are being very conservative in their choices.
"The field is very competitive and this class should help give them some advantage," he said.
Since the demand for investment managers is growing, any extra knowledge students gain is helpful, Seeley said.
"In any area, the more experience you get the better off you will be," said David Lewis, a financial consultant from A.G. Edwards brokerage house. "We're always learning."
With the advent of mutual funds, more people are investing in formats similar to the course, said Lewis, who used to teach at the UA.
"We're seeing this from high schools to baby boomers to retirees forming investment clubs," he said.
In the future, Lamoureux said he would like to see the class expand from a one-semester course into a year-long study.
"Over time the students could get the bigger picture," he said. "A super group could look at the strategy and decide what they would tell investors if they were real-life money managers."
