Student Investment Management

About SIM

SIM Portfolio Methodology

 

Program Goals

The Student Investment Management (SIM) Program is built around three primary objectives:

  • Provide students with a unique, hands-on learning experience that complements their academic coursework.
  • Preserve and grow the long-term purchasing power of the SIM Portfolio while supporting periodic income distributions.
  • Maintain a well-diversified portfolio that seeks to outperform its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index, over the long term.

Class Structure

Approximately 35 undergraduate and graduate students participate in the SIM Program each semester. Every student plays an active role in managing the portfolio and contributes to the investment decision-making process.

Each student serves as a security analyst and is assigned a company currently held in the SIM Portfolio. Throughout the semester, the analyst is responsible for continuously monitoring the company's financial performance, industry developments, and investment outlook.

In addition, students are organized into sector teams that specialize in specific areas of the market. These teams conduct in-depth research, analyze industry trends, and present periodic updates that include market insights and investment recommendations.

During each class meeting, student analysts provide updates on their assigned companies, discuss material developments, evaluate their impact on valuation, and recommend whether the portfolio should buy, hold, or sell the position. Throughout the semester, each analyst also prepares a comprehensive research report and delivers a formal presentation to the class.

Faculty-led discussions complement the student presentations by covering topics such as portfolio management, capital market theory, security valuation, and investment analysis. These discussions connect academic concepts with current portfolio decisions, helping students understand how investment theory is applied in practice.

To ensure continuity from one semester to the next, each sector team documents the rationale behind every portfolio purchase and sale. These presentations are archived and shared with future SIM classes, creating a valuable record of past investment decisions and providing new analysts with important historical context.

Portfolio Guidelines

To promote prudent portfolio management and diversification, the SIM Portfolio follows several investment guidelines:

  • Investments are limited to publicly traded companies with a market capitalization of at least $1 billion.
  • No single common stock position may represent more than 5% of the portfolio's total market value.