Minutes 4/28

Attendance:
1) Georg Machinist
2) Sean Murray
3) Arjun Agarwala
4) Brian Kim
5) Danny McBee
6) Dan Tan
7) Matt Fixler
8) Katy Mixter
9) Steve Donnelly
10) Robert Babbage
11) Chris Nieminski

We discussed opening up the mock portfolio over the next week to ten days, and the first stock we're putting on the watch list is Ford (F). Concerns were expressed about how to track dividends and stock splits using the yahoo portfolio tool, so if anyone knows 100% how to do this, that would be very helpful.

The account is vassarinvestmentclub@yahoo.com, and the password is [redacted], for future reference.

In the beginning of study week, the exec board is going to meet to vote on the stocks we've been researching, so aim to be finished by that week.

We also are going to hopefully have a guest speaker, a trader who Georg has worked with in the past, on May 8th. It will be low-key, question and answer, details to come.

Finally, we talked about trying to get some sort of physical location, and who and how is best to approach the VSA.

Minutes 4/14/08

Attendance:
1) Andrew Raz
2) Joe Davis
3) Danny McBee
4) Andy McKenzie
5) Steph Dini
6) Chris Nieminski
7) Nadia Jihad
8) Matt Fixler
9) Georg Machinist
10) Brian Kim
11) Stephen Donnelly
12) Katy Mixter
13) Dan Polhamer
14) Dan Tan
15) Arjun Agarwala

Agenda:
Georg, Dan, and Drew reported back on their meeting with Cappy. Basically, Cappy agreed to help us with the grant if we produce a few research materials with the resources we have. We will take a few of the best reports we produce in the next week, put them in a prospectus with a letter from Prof. Flynn and one or two of our models, and Cappy will take this to alums. Our mock portfolio will likely run for most of next year.

We discussed using our remaining budget for capital expenses and research materials, and we are going to purchase filing cabinets, a printer, and I will look into the prices for subscriptions to the financial times, the economist, and any other relevant monthly magazine. We are also looking to start a library of related books, and a few titles were floated around.

Georg and Dan presented a brief synopsis of how to value a company, including explanations for using P/E ratios, beta, the difference between long and short, gross margin, and other finer points of yahoo finance. Other tools people should use are dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com and themarkets.com, which is a good way to get a sense of a company's position within the market, as well as market trends on the whole.

Good work/attendance, and keep up with your reports.

Minutes 4/7/08

Attendance:
1) Stephen Donnelly
2) Drew Raz
3) Georg Machinist
4) Danny McBee
5) Nadia Jihad
6) Brian Kim
7) Andy McKenzie
8) Chris Nieminski
9) Matt Fixler
10) Dan Tan
11) Robert Babbage
12) Arjun Agarwala

We discussed making the changes to our constitution to reflect the group's changing executive board structure and voting procedures. Approval for these changes was not met with any resistance, and I believe Drew and Georg are going to make the necessary changes.

We also discussed moving meetings to New England Building, and this also was not met with any resistance, so our next general body meeting will take place in New England, in the first classroom to the left when you walk in.

Budgeting was the next point of discussion, with research materials being the major point of discussion for next year. Capital IQ, a Bloomberg Terminal, and a subscription to themarkets.com were the 3 services mentioned. Georg is going to see if we can get a grant for the Bloomberg terminal, and if educational discounts are available for all these services, before we decide what to pursue.

With the $875 currently in our account, it was suggested that we purchase filing cabinets to store our research materials, and finding a space for the filing cabinets would be the next step.

Andy suggested we post the minutes on the blog, and will be doing that from now.

Finally, we split into our industry subgroups to discuss possible companies/options and further meeting times.