Stocks

Probably the best thing about the Johnson School is the Parker Center, which is absolutely unique amongst all the business schools in the US. It is an exact replica of a trading floor and has it all from a moving ticker displays to Bloomberg machines and millions of dollars worth of software on each computer. It is the home of the Cayuga Fund, a long, short market neutral hedge fund, run by 18 student portfolio managers, 2 quant’s, 1 trader and 1 person responsible for investor relationship. The fund runs about $13 Million worth of investor money and is up about 11% for the year. The sad thing about the Parker Center is that most people in school don't even know it exists, which sucks since this awesome resource is going wasted. The upside to that though is that one can pretty much squat there all day till you are evicted by a financial modeling class or two. Off late it has become my home away from home, and I find myself spending a lot of time there, mostly working on assignments, studying, chatting and occasionally even researching a stock or two.

Stocks and investing strategies have consumed all my free time off late. I find it a fascinating subject that keeps me on my toes with the underlying markets moving about like the sea under the decks of a ship. After going through various portfolio management and finance courses in the first year, when I look back at my investing strategies prior to business school, I literally cringe. Every time we speak about how irrational investors behave, it almost appears as if we are talking about my investing style. Apparently there is even a term for investors like me, "Cocktail Party Chatter". Well I am determined to change all of that and emerge from school a sophisticated investor that invests with the best of them. Having said that, I am going to put my money where my mouth is and put up stocks along with my predictions as and when I am done researching them on this blog. At the end of the school year, I am going to come back and tally my profits or losses. It should prove an interesting exercise.

Speaking about picking stocks, Cornell's annual stock pitch challenge is coming up shortly. We have a bunch of top business schools going head to head trying to impress a panel of portfolio managers drawn from some of the best shops in the business. It should be an interesting exercise to watch and participate. For those of you interested in more information, look up this website.