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Hashtags like #Prepared4PA, #studentsuccess and #InvestInOurfuture aren’t only used as battle cries for funding during Advocacy Days. Millersville University (MU) believes in them. With $200,000 provided by the MU Foundation endowment, the Marauder Fund Student Investment Association (MFSIA) established their first student-managed investment portfolio, the Marauder Fund (MF).
The mission of the MFSIA is to expand the economics and financial market educational experiences available to its student members by promoting and sponsoring workshops, seminars and career development events based on financial markets and investing.
In the fall 2017 semester, faculty advisor, Dr. Mike Gumpper handpicked a group of students to work with him on the new MF project. Gumpper constructed plans for the MF with help from Emerald Asset Management, a portfolio management service headquartered in Leola, and student representatives from the MU Foundation board.
The MFSIA and the MF portfolio went live in February 2018. The fall 2018 semester will be only the second opportunity for a portion of the MU endowment to be invested into stocks. During the spring, students invested approximately $30,000 in nine stocks (Amazon, Adobe Systems Inc., Chegg, Inc., Intel Corporation, iRobot Corporation, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co, Johnson & Johnson, Realty Income Corporation and Verizon Communications Inc.).
In early spring, the first group of new members were recruited. These new members worked through the junior analyst education program and were mentored by a senior analyst. These students are now going to serve as senior analysts to the new members who will be recruited this fall.
“Given that we are only going into our second live semester with the MF, we are very satisfied with our progress and the commitment of our members. We have a solid core of senior analysts returning to the fund. We hope to have as good a recruiting class of new members as we did in early spring,” says Gumpper.
This fall, the MFSIA will begin the semester with new member recruitment presentations in specific finance and economics classes. There will also be emails sent out and flyers put up about the new member info meeting. New members can either join the MFSIA as general members or as junior analysts. New junior analysts begin the educational modules and mentor with a senior analyst. Senior analysts and executive officers hold executive committee meetings every other week where they pitch new investments or changes to existing investments to the executive committee. The executive committee votes to make additions or changes to the MF Portfolio.
For the fall, the executive committee of the MFSIA will have a goal of investing approximately $50,000 into stocks and ETFs.
For more information about the MF or to get involved, visit MU Marauder Fund.
