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.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, April 7, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Which market sectors stand to benefit from which potential presidents?
Obviously this is a rather ambitious post, but I figured that I might as well get the ball rolling a little bit. First of all, here's the probabilities that each of the candidates have had of winning this election, via InTrade:
Perhaps the whole year graph is a bit superfluous, but it is helpful to remember that there is a lot of volatility in the election and although Obama has the top spot right now there is no guarantee that he will hold onto it. The probabilities as of the close on March 31, 2008 are:
p (Obama) = 47.4
p (McCain) = 39.7
p (Clinton) = 11.2
That's the easy part. Extrapolating each of these presidents and trying to predict how the market will react is much more difficult. One way might be looking at their economic advisers. Yahoo Finance has a write-up of each of these candidate's chief economic advisers and a has a quick blurb on each of their policies.
Although this is too quick of a summary to draw any sort of conclusions, McCain's adviser seems to emphasize limiting fiscal spending (although Bush's presidency nominally ran on the same platform, while our country's debt speaks for itself), Obama's adviser seems to be against some supply side economics, and Hillary's adviser seems focused on reducing the income gap and working through the effects of globalization on the labor market. Any thoughts?
Perhaps the whole year graph is a bit superfluous, but it is helpful to remember that there is a lot of volatility in the election and although Obama has the top spot right now there is no guarantee that he will hold onto it. The probabilities as of the close on March 31, 2008 are:
p (Obama) = 47.4
p (McCain) = 39.7
p (Clinton) = 11.2
That's the easy part. Extrapolating each of these presidents and trying to predict how the market will react is much more difficult. One way might be looking at their economic advisers. Yahoo Finance has a write-up of each of these candidate's chief economic advisers and a has a quick blurb on each of their policies.
Although this is too quick of a summary to draw any sort of conclusions, McCain's adviser seems to emphasize limiting fiscal spending (although Bush's presidency nominally ran on the same platform, while our country's debt speaks for itself), Obama's adviser seems to be against some supply side economics, and Hillary's adviser seems focused on reducing the income gap and working through the effects of globalization on the labor market. Any thoughts?
Minutes 3/31/08
Attendance:
1) Drew Raz
2) Brian Kim
3) Joe Davis
4) Andy McKenzie
5) Stephen Donnelly
6) Adam Ben-Avi
7) Danny McBee
The major topic of discussion was the skeleton for the mock portfolio, and the steps necessary to finish this project. We thought that of the six sectors, consumer-generalist, industrial, and biotech should receive a greater percentage of funds than real estate, media/telecom and fixed income.
We also split into sub-groups for the process of choosing investment vehicles for the mock portfolio. If you were not in attendance but expressed interest in a particular subgroup at our meeting before break, you will be meeting with that group. Assignments so far are as follows:
Real Estate: Danny M + Robert
Consumer/Generalist: Georg, Sean, Garrett
Fixed Income: Steve
Biotech: Drew, Joe, Andy
Media/Telecom: Brian, Arjun, Adam
Industrials: Dan Tan
There are still two spots open in industrials, and one in fixed income. If you are not on the list, email me by WEDNESDAY with your choice of sector, and I will put you on the list; first come, first served. If you weren't at the meeting, and absolutely hate where you've been placed, email me and we'll try to work something out. It will then be up to the subgroup chair to decide how exactly they want to divide up responsibilites. By next Monday, I think you should come in with a greater understanding of your industry and track the market leaders and current events.
By the end of the month, we'd like to bring in a speaker to help us firm up our knowledge with respect to allocation and selection, so it's important we've learned as much as we can before then. We also will consider buying research reports at that time.
I still get emails from the Middlebury Investment Club, and I found this in my inbox today, so if you're interested in oil, check this out. Have a good week, and get back to me if you're not in a subgroup.
1) Drew Raz
2) Brian Kim
3) Joe Davis
4) Andy McKenzie
5) Stephen Donnelly
6) Adam Ben-Avi
7) Danny McBee
The major topic of discussion was the skeleton for the mock portfolio, and the steps necessary to finish this project. We thought that of the six sectors, consumer-generalist, industrial, and biotech should receive a greater percentage of funds than real estate, media/telecom and fixed income.
We also split into sub-groups for the process of choosing investment vehicles for the mock portfolio. If you were not in attendance but expressed interest in a particular subgroup at our meeting before break, you will be meeting with that group. Assignments so far are as follows:
Real Estate: Danny M + Robert
Consumer/Generalist: Georg, Sean, Garrett
Fixed Income: Steve
Biotech: Drew, Joe, Andy
Media/Telecom: Brian, Arjun, Adam
Industrials: Dan Tan
There are still two spots open in industrials, and one in fixed income. If you are not on the list, email me by WEDNESDAY with your choice of sector, and I will put you on the list; first come, first served. If you weren't at the meeting, and absolutely hate where you've been placed, email me and we'll try to work something out. It will then be up to the subgroup chair to decide how exactly they want to divide up responsibilites. By next Monday, I think you should come in with a greater understanding of your industry and track the market leaders and current events.
By the end of the month, we'd like to bring in a speaker to help us firm up our knowledge with respect to allocation and selection, so it's important we've learned as much as we can before then. We also will consider buying research reports at that time.
I still get emails from the Middlebury Investment Club, and I found this in my inbox today, so if you're interested in oil, check this out. Have a good week, and get back to me if you're not in a subgroup.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
More from Berkshire Hathaway
Following up on the recent post linking to Warren Buffet's annual report, here is a blog post summarizing some points made by Charlie Munger, his long-time partner and Vice President of Berkshire Hathaway. You can find the post by clicking here. It written by Mark Andreessen, a very well known entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, who, among other projects, co-founded Netscape.
This post analyzes some of the basic biases and tendencies of humans and applies them to the business world. Although it is primarily directed at entrepreneurs, it also talks about risk management and some other behavioral economics stuff.
I highly recommend the piece, it's been saved to the bookmark site del.icio.us over 300 times. You usually have to pay for writing like this.
This post analyzes some of the basic biases and tendencies of humans and applies them to the business world. Although it is primarily directed at entrepreneurs, it also talks about risk management and some other behavioral economics stuff.
I highly recommend the piece, it's been saved to the bookmark site del.icio.us over 300 times. You usually have to pay for writing like this.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Minutes 3/24/08
Attendance:
1) Georg Machinist
2) Stephen Donnelly
3) Brian Kim
4) Daniel Tan
5) Joe Davis
6) Andy McKenzie
7) Robert Babbage
8) Daniel McBee
Portfolio Structure and Contents:
1) 70% Equities (70% blue chip, 30% small and mid cap)
2) 15% Fixed Income
3) 15% Indices
Possible Investment Ideas-Equities:
Consumer: Buying basics, discount clubs
Biotech: Buying blue chips
Tech: Google?
Shorting luxury stocks (jewelrs, cruiselines, etc.)-if allowable
We discussed the state of the financial sector, and we generally think that the losses aren't over, and this would be a good area to avoid equities, and instead looked at a double-short financial indice, SKF
The group discussed the possible effects of the upcoming election on various sectors, and decided to see if anyone was interested in researching the 3 remaining candidates' stances with respect to the major sectors, as well as looking at the historical charts from past elections.
Our next task is to compile a list of possible equities, indices, fixed income instruments to research. E-mail your ideas to me with a name, ticker symbol if applicable, and a couple lines about why you think it's a good idea. I'll put together a list and send it back around, and we can work from there. In about three weeks, everyone should have picked a stock, put together a report, and be ready to deliver it.
Our next meeting will be next Monday, March 31st at 8PM.
1) Georg Machinist
2) Stephen Donnelly
3) Brian Kim
4) Daniel Tan
5) Joe Davis
6) Andy McKenzie
7) Robert Babbage
8) Daniel McBee
Portfolio Structure and Contents:
1) 70% Equities (70% blue chip, 30% small and mid cap)
2) 15% Fixed Income
3) 15% Indices
Possible Investment Ideas-Equities:
Consumer: Buying basics, discount clubs
Biotech: Buying blue chips
Tech: Google?
Shorting luxury stocks (jewelrs, cruiselines, etc.)-if allowable
We discussed the state of the financial sector, and we generally think that the losses aren't over, and this would be a good area to avoid equities, and instead looked at a double-short financial indice, SKF
The group discussed the possible effects of the upcoming election on various sectors, and decided to see if anyone was interested in researching the 3 remaining candidates' stances with respect to the major sectors, as well as looking at the historical charts from past elections.
Our next task is to compile a list of possible equities, indices, fixed income instruments to research. E-mail your ideas to me with a name, ticker symbol if applicable, and a couple lines about why you think it's a good idea. I'll put together a list and send it back around, and we can work from there. In about three weeks, everyone should have picked a stock, put together a report, and be ready to deliver it.
Our next meeting will be next Monday, March 31st at 8PM.
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