Portfolio Fund Manager

Each student is to assume the role of a portfolio fund manager and must design and execute an appropriate strategy to maximize the portfolio’s return over the semester. Most funds should seek capital appreciation and/or income growth as the main investment objective.

-Each student/portfolio manager will run a $1,000,000 portfolio.
-Trading accounts will be active immediately once you sign up.
-The student/portfolio manager should avoid any concentration of greater than 25%. -Borrowing on margin is allowed.

Each student will be responsible for: articulating the investment objective or goal for the portfolio fund, formulating an appropriate investment strategy to meet the objectives, conducting the necessary research, selecting the appropriate securities, executing trades, tracking daily performance, and rebalancing the portfolio.

You can choose to be a general stock fund (mainly invested in individual stocks, mutual funds, ETFs) or you can choose to be in a specialized area (such as bonds, commodities, small-cap, retail, industrial, oil & gas, futures, options, FX currency, ect.).

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III. Grading

Your grade for this project is based on several factors as outlined below:

A. Initial Investment Report/Presentation

Each student will give a brief initial report/presentation about your overall investment plan and portfolio along with recent trades or stocks that you are watching. The report/presentation should be made with the professor (me) in writing (or by other means in the spirt of our on-line course) and I will give direct feedback to the student. The initial report from the student should contain the following information below. Students will be called upon by the professor when it is their turn to give their initial report via e-mail. Reports will begin sometime after the first test. Specifically, the student should discuss:

1. Overall investment focus – short-term trading, long-term portfolio building; general stock or special/sector focus; benchmark index;

2. Investment selection process – fundamental analysis, technical analysis; combination; events;

3. Review of top holding – know your companies; products; finance; management know your positons in your portfolio.

B. Final Report

During Week 14 or 15 you should send me a final report or wrap-up report. The final report should provide: (1) a hard copy of your closing portfolio (a printout from Stocktrak or in MS Excel), (2) your portfolio performance against your benchmark index (i.e. what return and total return did your portfolio achieve vs. your benchmark such as the S&P 500), and (3) a brief reflective statement on your past portfolio performance and decision (such as brief highlights of your best/worst asset choices).