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Taking Care of Business

Ohio Wesleyan students Vinay Raj (left), Nate Goodhart, Katie Nunner, and Roger Skidmore attended the recent Student Managed Investment Fund Consortium (SMIFC) Conference in Indiana for additional hands-on experience in managing an investment portfolio. (Photo courtesy of Katie Nunner ’16)

Student leaders from Ohio Wesleyan’s Investment Club attended the 2nd annual Student Managed Investment Fund Consortium (SMIFC) Conference, which brought together investment clubs from across the South and Midwest.

The conference was held Oct. 2-3 by Indiana State University’s Scott College of Business in Terre Haute, Indiana.

OWU students Nate Goodhart ’16, Katie Nunner ’16, Vinay Raj ’16, and Roger Skidmore ’15 had the opportunity to learn from financial professionals and to study the investing techniques of other student-managed investment funds.

Raj, president of the investment club said, “It was good to see other investment clubs and to see what we are doing well and what we are doing wrong.”

Ohio Wesleyan is one of the founding members of the SMIFC, now consisting of 34 colleges and universities. The purpose of the consortium is to build a community of institutions with a shared vision for student success and leadership in investing. The OWU Investment Club manages an all-equity portfolio of real money.

“I think we got a lot of good ideas for our own club, and we are excited about the future,” says Goodhart ’16. “We had the opportunity to share ideas with other schools like Oberlin College.”

The investment club was established in 1998 with a $50,000 grant from Jim Oelschlager, founder and chairman of Akron-based Oak Associates. The club meets weekly, proposing new stocks and re-evaluating current holdings in its portfolio through qualitative and quantitative analysis.

“Now that we have a broader idea of how other investment clubs work, the possibilities are endless,” says Skidmore ’15.

Each year, the University receives 5 percent of the club’s portfolio. Learn more about the investment club at investmentclub.owu.edu.