Students beat the S&P 500 average with collaborative strategy for investing $1.65 million fund

The Student Investment Fund—which is run like a student organization and is open to all majors—is one of the stars in Longwood’s constellation of hands-on, real-life experiences. Created with a gift of $250,000 in 2002, the fund’s value was $1.65 million at the end of this academic year, said Keely.

With an investment strategy that involves just the right amount of risk, the fund’s goal is to outperform the S&P 500 average. They checked that box in 2023 with a 27.35 percent return compared with the S&P average of 26.29 percent. And the decisions leading to that rate of return were all made independently by students in the group, which this year had about 15 active members, Keely said.

Referring to the fund’s faculty advisor, professor of finance Dr. Frank Bacon, and its stockbroker, Brad Watson of Davenport & Company in Farmville, Keely said: “They’re pretty much hands-off until we come to them with a question. When it comes to investing, they let the students make the decisions.”

Charles Clemente ’24, who will graduate in December, is one of the students who has contributed to those decisions, including the investment in Nvidia, a company that makes a powerful computer graphics card. He said he’s proud of the fund’s growth over the 18 months he’s been involved.

“In less than a year we were able to grow it by $500,000. It was such a sense of accomplishment and a sense of pride,” he said, adding that he believes the collaborative nature of the group’s decision making is key to the fund’s success. “Everyone gets a say; everyone gets a vote. It has to be a majority that wants to buy or sell. We all have different backgrounds and different knowledge and experience. That’s the strength of the club.”

Taking over the fund manager role for 2024-25 is Joshua Burton ’25, a business administration/accounting major who joined the fund in 2023. He sees his new role as “a great opportunity to lead the team in a collaborative way to make sure we are having the best opportunities and that what we’re doing is sustainable for future generations of Lancers.”

His goal for the year: Grow the fund to $2 million.

“The majority of our portfolio is technology stock: Apple, Microsoft, Broadcom. We’ll be looking at companies that are already profitable and evaluating how they can continue to achieve that,” he said.

He also hopes to grow the fund’s membership roster. “Everyone is welcome. We’re always looking for new members.”

So far, his experience with the fund has taught him that “getting out of my comfort zone and looking at stocks I would not have looked at before” is important, said Burton, who started investing in the market when he was 18 with money he earned from his first job. “In my own portfolio, I have started implementing riskier stocks that I wouldn’t have thought about” before participating in decision making with the fund.

He’s also learned that being a part of the fund—especially as fund manager—is a great resume builder. “It sets you apart,” he said.

A recent example is Keely’s job search. After graduating this past May, Keely headed to an underwriting training program to prepare him for a career as an inland marine underwriter with Markel, a global specialty insurance provider.

His experience with the Student Investment Fund definitely caught the attention of the companies he interviewed with—even though he wasn’t heading to Wall Street—and Keely thinks it gave him an edge in landing the position he wanted.

“In every interview I had, it was brought up,” Keely said. “They were super interested to hear about the club and what we do.”

In 2019, members of Student Investment Fund provided $375,000 to join the Family Scholarship Program. After receiving matching gifts, this commitment established 25 new endowments which provide $25,000 in scholarships annually for the students in the College of Business and Economics.