Student Investment Club

BOILING SPRINGS, NC (April, 2004) -- The Student Investment Club at Gardner-Webb University (GWU) has consistently out-performed the S&P Index for the past five years. Four years ago, a generous grant from BB&T of $5,000 per year was given to the club for a duration of five years to provide students the opportunity to learn from investing real monies. As of March 15, 2004, the club boasts a portfolio worth $21,730 after deducting all fees and trading costs.

According to Dr. Philip Swicegood, faculty representative for the club and GWU School of Business finance professor, the students spend considerable time researching the companies and their potential investments. The club comes together on the third Thursday of the month, with each research committee bringing suggestions to the group for consideration. After formal presentations and rigorous debates, most of these possibilities are rejected, but a few meet club approval.

"We are very aggressive, yet very demanding," says Swicegood. "The club approaches their search for superior stocks by asking, 'Will it outperform the S&P 500?' Most portfolio managers in this country are judged based on how they perform against the S&P 500, so we use that same criteria as well. That way students know how they are doing, even against professional money managers. And so far, these students are actually beating most professionals over the four-year history of the club."

Swicegood emphasizes that the students themselves make the decisions on which investments to pursue, while he does the data entry for their account. "I ask the hard questions, but they make the final judgment call," he says. "So any credit really belongs to the students and their emerging analytical skills." Their current portfolio consists of 12 companies' stocks from various industries.

Below is a breakdown of the S&P performance compared to the performance of the Student Investment Club:

Year S&P Index Performance GWU Student Investment Club
2000 -09.19% +04.01%
2001 -12.28% +00.84%
2002 -23.37% -21.21%
2003 +26.40% +30.25%
2004(ytd) +02.69% +4.73%

The Investment Club hopes to accumulated enough profit to create its own scholarship for future business majors. The club is open to all Gardner-Webb students and currently has 12 participants.

Club officers include: Todd Ulrich, president; Abraham Gonzales, vice-president; Nathan Workman, treasurer; and Elaina Iltheva, secretary.

Change is good. Good change is better. The new practices that will be implemented in 2004 by the Student Investment Club are intended to make a positive and lasting contribution to the quality and efficiency of the club and its efforts.

In preparation for the meeting, suggestions were taken from numerous club members and corroborated by club officers.

The first item on the agenda was to set the dates of the group meetings, which were determined to be January 22, February 19, March 25, and April 15. Sub-committee meetings, instead of being held on Thursday mornings, will now be held at at a time agreed to by the sub-committee.

The next reform came in the way stock presentations are performed. Since there were numerous difficulties in the fall in regard to time length of presentations, the presentation overview will now be submitted to club members before the meeting in order to get a better feel for the stock and to make more informed purchasing decisions. This change will also hopefully speed up the presentation by affording less time for company introductions.

A promotional game for the entire student body will be held in the spring. A student will pick one stock by a predetermined date and monitor its value until the last meeting on April 15th. The owner of the stock that increases the most in share value will win a cash prize of $50. The game will be an exciting way to advertise the club within the school and display the power and importance of investing.

"I'm very pleased with the strides the club has made in the last few months, culminating with this meeting," said Nathan Workman, treasurer of the SIC. "We've received excellent feedback on what we can improve on from the club, and as a whole the atmosphere and quality of presentations is much better than last year. It will be exciting to see how the club will grow in the next few months, not only in membership, but in portfolio value."

Sub-committee meetings begin in early January. If you are interested in joining the student investment club or attending a meeting, please contact one of our officers or send an email to pswicegood@gardner-webb.edu. Thank you for your inquiry.

The Gardner-Webb University (GWU) Student Investment Club initiated in the fall semester of 2000. A local bank, Branch Banking and Trust (BB&T) committed a gift of $25,000 to the University to provide initial funding for the club.

The purpose of the Club is two-fold. First, the Investment Club is a practical way for GWU students to gain valuable experience in researching, selecting, and managing an investment portfolio. Secondly, the Investment Club will fund academic scholarships to business students through the University's endowment fund. In managing the fund, students meet weekly during the academic semesters to present research and decide allocation of resources. On occasion, the Club also invites investment professionals from the local community to share their insights.

Participating in the SIC doesn't require developing presentations. In fact, many members actually just watch the presentations, learn how to subjectively analyze corporations, and ask questions to better understand the process.

Participation members may be as involved as they would like to be, and are encouraged to voice their opinions and observations in meetings, however they have no voting rights in regard to stock decisions. They are eligible for extra credit in many business related courses (contingent on the decision of the professor).

Starting this year, SIC members have the option to participate in the club for two semesters and get one credit of independent study. A grade will be determined by the quality of research and presentations as well as participation in other presentations.

Credit members have full voting rights in regard to stock decisions, and can receive extra credit in many business related courses (contingent on the decision of the professor).

Dr. Swicegood from teaches Finance at Gardner-Webb University. He holds a PhD. from Florida State University, and M.B.A. from the University of Texas-Austin, and a B.S. degree from Liberty University. He has worked in the banking industry as an analyst for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and served as a business consultant in the U.S. and Poland. His research areas include banking, neural networks, fixed income securities, and real estate. He has published articles in the Journal of Real Estate Research, International Journal of Intelligent Systems in Accounting and Finance, Southern Business and Economic Journal, and Tierra Grande.

In addition to finance, Dr. Swicegood enjoys any outdoor activity, reading C.S. Lewis, family time, and development work in poor countries.

Dr. Swicegood has been featured on the GWU Faculty & Staff Spotlight. Read the article here.

Contains numerous articles on investing, finance tutorials, and term explanations. A great site for people new to investing.

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Gardner-Webb University; Boiling Springs, North Carolina 28017 USA (704) 406-4000

Send updates, comments, and corrections to the SIC & University WebMaster@gardner-webb.edu.