{"id":63859,"date":"2011-01-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uris-amateur-stock-analysts-impress-pros\/"},"modified":"2011-01-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-04T00:00:00","slug":"uris-amateur-stock-analysts-impress-pros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2011\/01\/uris-amateur-stock-analysts-impress-pros\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s amateur stock analysts impress pros"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 4, 2011 \u2013 What if you worked for a major investment house and you learned of 11 amateur financial analysts who developed a portfolio that outperformed Standard & Poor\u2019s 500 and two other S&P indices?


\n\tAt a minimum, you\u2019d probably want to interview them, but you\u2019d be smart to make them part of your team.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe 11 analysts are actually 溏心vlog免费B站 seniors in the College of Business Administration who participated in the Ram Fund during the fall semester. Established in the spring of 2001 with $100,000 in seed money from the Alumni Association, the Ram Fund gives advanced business students the opportunity to invest and manage money for the long term.<\/p>\n


\n\tWhen the 11 members of the class presented the results of their work last month, members of the Alumni Association Executive Board and professionals from Fidelity Investments, Washington Trust Bank, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and others were all smiles as they learned that the portfolio was valued at $169,979. The fund holds shares in 21 companies, four of which were added during the fall: Diana Shipping Inc., Athens, Greece; Western Digital Corp., Lake Forest, Calif.; Preformed Line Products Co., Mayfield Village, Ohio; and Core Laboratories N.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands.<\/p>\n


\nSamuel Cox, an equity research analyst at Fidelity Investments, said the level of detail in the group\u2019s research was impressive, especially its completion of discounted cash flow analysis on each stock. Discounted cash flow analysis is a detailed and time-consuming method to estimate the attractiveness of an investment opportunity.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWhen I do a discounted cash flow analysis, I am ready to tear my hair out, so great job all of you,\u201d Cox said. <\/p>\n


\nAndrew Macken, vice president and regional director of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, added similar praise, saying, \u201cIf we had $100,000 to work with when I was in school, I think something else would have happened with the money.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPeter Dadalt, assistant professor in the College of Business Administration, who runs the Ram Fund class, said this is the first time the entire class had to complete discounted cash flow analyses.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThere were a lot of heated discussions among the students,\u201d Dadalt said. \u201cTwo years ago, only one student could complete this type of analysis. Now this entire group can. I don\u2019t spoon feed this class. I don\u2019t go over every line of analysis with them. I guide them and they make their own decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nJoseph M. Confessore, vice president and team leader of commercial lending at Washington Trust\u2019s Warwick office and president-elect of the Alumni Association, said the students are phenomenal. \u201cThis program is consistent with what President (David M.) Dooley envisions for the University in terms of experiential learning. This program opens doors and leads to careers,\u201d said the 1996 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate who majored in finance.


\nIndeed, each member of the audience received a 43-page booklet that listed team members\u2019 names and their resumes, detailed reports on each new stock purchase, performance comparisons and a hard copy of the Power Point presentation.<\/p>\n


\nNicholas Storti was one of two former members of the Ram Fund who attended the December presentation. A 2009 graduate of the College of Business Administration with a major in finance, Storti is now an associate underwriter for Bank of America.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe most important things I got out of participating in the Ram Fund were the team aspect of the class, and the end-to-end credit process,\u201d Storti said. \u201cTo have to justify your decisions in front of your peers was a great learning experience. You have to pay attention to very small, but important details. This is essential for a college that wants to attract top students who then graduate and land great jobs in the financial services industry.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nMany of the current Ram Fund members echo what Storti said.<\/p>\n


\nErin Murphy, a senior finance major from Portland, Conn., was the only woman on the team last semester.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI am soft spoken and tiny, so Professor Dadalt said I needed to speak up more,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cThis was one of the best experiences of my time at 溏心vlog免费B站 because it was like an internship.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nKevin Flynn, a senior accounting major from Johnston, R.I. said Murphy\u2019s work didn\u2019t need much criticism. \u201cPlus she was a lot nicer to us when she critiqued our work.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nFlynn added that working on the Ram Fund was like working on a real investment team. \u201cBy talking in class, we became really close, and we became comfortable learning from each other. We learned how to joke with each other.<\/p>\n


\n\tSenior finance major Will Martel, a member of the Rams\u2019 basketball team from Fairhaven, N.J., said he knew presentations in class prepared him well for the formal presentation to the financial professionals.


\n\t\u201cI knew I would be presenting to very bright students in class,\u201d Martel said. \u201cBefore the formal event, I took a look at my fellow students\u2019 resumes, and I realized my experience was nothing like theirs. I feel honored to be in a class with some of the smartest students in the College of Business Administration.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tWhen the formal presentation was over, Elizabeth Flanagan, vice president of human resources at Washington Trust, said the students were well prepared to defend their stock buys.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI was very impressed,\u201d she said. \u201cTheir presentation skills are as good as any I see in the various business meetings that I attend. I interview a lot of people, and I can see that these students have been given a great opportunity to gain real world experience.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe Ram Fund team members and their hometowns are:<\/p>\n


\nFlorian Behrmann, Hamburg, Germany

\nBenjamin Cheney, Newton, Mass.

\nKevin Flynn, Johnston, R.I.

\nMichael Holden, Winthrop, Mass.

\nYihe Luo, East Providence, R.I.

\nWill Martel, Fairhaven, N.J.

\nEric Mundorf, South Kingstown, R.I.

\nErin Murphy, Portland, Conn.

\nDerek Olson, Coventry, R.I.

\nZachary Pierce, North Kingstown, R.I.

\nRyan Ransford, Portland, Conn.<\/p>\n


\nPictured above<\/p>\n


\nA BIT OF DIRECTION: Peter Dadalt, assistant professor in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of Business Administration, who runs the Ram Fund class, addresses the class as students Zachary Pierce, left, of North Kingstown and Florian Behrmann of Hamburg, Germany consider their professor\u2019s points. <\/p>\n


\nA BRIEF PAUSE: Kevin Flynn, a 溏心vlog免费B站 senior accounting major from Johnston, R.I., pauses for a minute from analyzing some data as a member of the Ram Fund. <\/p>\n


\nTAKING STOCK: 溏心vlog免费B站 Senior finance major Will Martel, a member of the Rams\u2019 basketball team from Fairhaven, N.J., and Erin Murphy, a senior finance major from Portland, Conn., put their heads together as part of the Ram Fund. <\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站 Photos by Michael Salerno photography.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 4, 2011 \u2013 What if you worked for a major investment house and you learned of 11 amateur financial analysts who developed a portfolio that outperformed Standard & Poor\u2019s 500 and two other S&P indices? At a minimum, you\u2019d probably want to interview them, but you\u2019d be smart to make them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}