By Kristie Schiefer
News Assignment Editor
Students in Money Management (SIMM) is putting the money in the hands of its members while they gain real-life experience.
SIMM is an investment club where more than $500,000 of real money is traded, including part of the university’s endowment. Run differently than similar programs at other schools, adviser Jim Mahar, associate professor of finance, doesn’t control the class or the club, according to James Tantalo, head of analytics.
“He just has veto power on trades, and he has never used that power, which speaks to the student’s dedication,” said Tantalo.
The Long Fund, the Energy Fund and the Microfund together comprise SIMM.
“The Long Fund is allowed to trade equities and has limited buying power for options,” Tantalo said. “The Energy Fund has all the tools of the market at its disposal. They can buy and sell equities, buy and sell options, short options, and buy futures and forwards. Basically anything you can do as a broker can be done by the Energy Fund.”
Just established this past year, the Microfund is different in that it is useful for lending small amounts of money (microloans) to those who cannot get loans from traditional banks like Community Bank or Chase, according to Tantalo.
“It keeps the traditional Franciscan values by helping local people out in the community,” said Joe Covley, junior finance major.
Tantalo agrees on the purpose of the Microfund.
“It’s more a fund for giving back to the community while encouraging entrepreneurship and giving people the chance to follow their dreams when they’ve got no other place to go,” he said.
Covley also said that SIMM has already given out one $500 microloan with Alabama University to a woman who needed a ramp to get up to code in Alabama. The fund should be fully established by the end of this year and ready to give out loans to the community by next school year.
Established in the early 2000s by Chris Kinslow, ’85, and his wife, SIMM aimed to give students a chance to experience the stock market and fund management before being exposed for an internship, according to Tantalo.
“Although there were programs at other schools, Mr. Kinslow wanted this program to be different,” he said. “He wanted the students to have full control of the class, the club and in overseeing the fund.”
Kinslow is part of a Board of Advisors that meets twice a year at the Semi-Annual Report and Annual Report.
“They are there to make sure we’re doing our job, and we’re doing it right,” Tantalo said. “But the students-orientated learning experience that we know as SIMM was started so that we as students could get a taste of the real world when it comes to the stock market.”
From the monitoring of the portfolio values to individual stock monitoring, students do everything.
“Adam Moehringer is the general manager, and looks over both the Energy Fund and Long Fund on a macro basis. We also have three portfolio managers, two for the Energy Fund and one for the Long Fund that run day-to-day operations. We look at 13 different sectors, each having students assigned to those particular sectors such as energy, technology, industrials and healthcare. They run the research and look at investing in new stocks in their sectors,” Tantalo said.
However, Tantalo said the most important job is voting.
“Unlike a lot of other schools, the students have to answer only to the other students, the stock pitches are voted on by the other students, and approved by the students,” he said.
Tantalo explained members learn things that junior finance majors don’t get exposure to and encouraged freshmen to join because someday they will work their way up to bigger roles.
Covley agrees that SIMM is the best finance experience a St. Bonaventure student can get in a classroom setting.
“The biggest benefit is you get real-life experience,” Covley said. “Employers look because you dealt with real money.”
Covley said they are trying to incorporate other majors.
“We are trying to not have it be a finance thing, we want to incorporate the whole school,” he said. “We want a marketing specialist and English majors to write.”
In the end, SIMM is like any other hedge fund or mutual fund and focuses on making money and beating the market, according to Tantalo.
While he said the students in SIMM have done that, the more important goal is to get students additional exposure to a subject that is very highly intellectual.
“The goal is to increase students’ chances to get a job interview or an internship interview. There are companies that now come back to Bonaventure looking for SIMM students to be the top selection for competitive internships,” Tantalo said. “It’s because of the way the program is run and how dedicated the students who are involved are to the club that we have these opportunities.”
