Under the guidance of Professor Michael Michaelides, students Rafael Balanquet ’20, Club President, and Trevor Day ’20, Vice President, have organized the department’s first wealth Management Club designed to give students a collaborative environment in which they can openly discuss and learn about topics relating to personal finance. The club will invite guest speakers, use simulations, and perform individual research in order to educate members about personal finance topics and how get a head start on managing their own money.
According to Balanquet, “While the club still is in an infant stage, we would like to insure that it continues to bring in students who are interested in learning about these topics in a rather relaxed environment. For this reason, we would like to have past executives and members alike to invest time into helping later generations of students through both alumni relationships with future employers, along with assistance in the actual club atmosphere itself. This will help develop topics and standards the club should abide by in order to get our aspiring financially conscious students a path in the right direction.”
There are no requirements for students to join the club other than a genuine interest in personal finance. The students have created an ambitious agenda to attack during the school year. Here is a small sample:
- Each student will “adopt a company” in other words, pick a company, in whichever industry they like, and consistently provide up-to-date analysis of their company, such as news, public offerings, stock price changes, different business deals, etc. This will also include the key information on their most recent earnings call for the respective fiscal quarter.
- “Index Watch” – Students in teams of two look at a certain index and report on the change in trading price and basis points each week.
- Students can participate in a Mock Stock Market Game on the club website.
- Students will learn how to perform a technical analysis to determine buy/sell states in securities
- The group will conduct discussions of recent news stories relating to the economy.
- The club members will reach out to alumni and external speakers to understand some of the more specific occupations in finance, such as CFP and CFA, and the process of them getting their designation (or pursuing) and their day to day activities and advice for the job market.
More information will be available at the beginning of fall semester, however students and alumni that would like to participate can email bryan@allegheny.edu for more information.