{"id":72,"date":"2009-03-02T14:39:41","date_gmt":"2009-03-02T18:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=72"},"modified":"2014-11-14T16:01:08","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T21:01:08","slug":"727","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2009\/03\/727\/","title":{"rendered":"Budding financial analysts put their knowledge into practice."},"content":{"rendered":"
At no time in recent history has prudent investing been more important. A group of students in the College of Business Administration will try their hand at the process using real money\u2014thanks to generous donors\u2014and under the guidance of an eleven-person advisory board composed of members of the business community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board will ask tough questions of the Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) members and will decide which investments should be made,\u201d said Helen Simon<\/strong>, director, Capital Markets Lab (CML), who also will have a say in the purchases.<\/p>\n [flv:http:\/\/business.fiu.edu\/newsletters\/BusinessNetworks\/2009\/03\/videos\/smif.flv 500 334]<\/p>\n At the end of each year, half the profits will revert to the fund and half will go toward the support of the CML on whose resources\u2014including staff members and financial software\u2014the students rely for their research.<\/p>\n SMIF represents the hard work and dedication of many. As president of the Financial Management Association (FMA), junior finance major Jonathan Nejad<\/strong> approached Joyce J. Elam<\/strong>, executive dean, with the idea, which she enthusiastically endorsed and for which she secured the funding. Faculty members, primarily from the Department of Finance and Real Estate, formed an initial advisory board to shape the policies that govern the group\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n Investment Club provides boot camp training.<\/p>\n Members of the Investment Club\u2014a training ground for SMIF participation\u2014sharpen their abilities by completing weekly analytical reports and presenting them to a four-person student board.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see who has committed the most time to the tasks and discern how much they\u2019ve absorbed,\u201d said Investment Club board member and SMIF president Nejad. \u201cInvestment Club members learn to apply concepts to real-life scenarios, and demonstrate that they\u2019re showing initiative and can take an analyst\u2019s point of view\u2014all important achievements whether we ultimately invite them to join SMIF or not.\u201d<\/p>\n