MSc Investment Club
About the fund by Sarah Mouabbi
Are you interested in gaining hands on experience in trading and portfolio analysis along side your studies? The investment club operates as a micro-fund and provides students of the School of Economics and Finance the chance to familiarize themselves with the financial world. Every student is guaranteed both trader and analyst related work, as we offer rotational seats. Everyone can join and it is a great opportunity to build up financial skills to impress future employers, to enhance your CV, or merely to see if this is the right career choice for you! If you are keen and would like to know more about the investment club please come along to our meeting.
Full description of the fund by Peter Blagden
The investment club's purpose is to enhance students ability to apply their academic knowledge of finance and economics to reality, as in many cases the two are very different. It is the first investment club of its kind at Queen Mary University of London. It was set up by Peter Blagden a Masters student whose career goal was to become a trader. With the current economic climate, and markets retracing from their recession lows its hard to sit by and watch hedge funds make 80% returns on their assets. These market conditions are ripe for investment opportunities. As students, by definition you lack experience. The investment club gives you the opportunity to participate in the markets as a trader or analyst, giving you the much needed experience students need to get a job in finance. "Before I started working as a proprietary trader, I had little to no experience when I was a student, the investment club I set up gave me the opportunity to show I had some experience in trading, so I could use that knowledge and experience in interviews. During my first interview I got into a conversation about whether trading volatility after the morning auction process was a good strategy, and whether it was profitable, as opposed to longer position keeping over several days. The fact that I felt I knew what I was talking about gave confidence, and gave the interviewer confirmation that I was right for the job."
The Future
The current market conditions are perfect for investment and trading opportunities. I hope to see that students will take the opportunity to use the investment club to firstly see if they really want to be an analyst, trader, investment banker or join compliance and corporate law. But also an opportunity to attach something practical to their CV, and gain some truly constructive experience.
How it worked
When the investment club was first launched it was run like a hedge fund. You have traders, analysts and senior analysts, compliance and legal, administrative, and operational positions. Most positions would be of the analyst kind. Senior analyst would be those who would compile the data and extract the useful information researched by the analysts in their division, and produce a one page report on their market sectors (e.g. banking stocks, utilities, retail, mining, etc). Each meeting of the investment club would involve the debate on what positions should be taken (long or short), in a particular stock. The execution platform used by the traders would be CMC Markets, although I'd advise for an additional portfolio to be opened for 'long only' investments that are longer term then weekly positions.