Cameron-Banc First Investment Portfolio
Overview of the program
BancFirst Cameron University Portfolio provides students with hands-on experience on how to develop, and apply effective company analysis to manage portfolio risk and return for both bond and stock portfolios. This program presents students with an opportunity to invest real money and to interact with people in the field of investment and portfolio management.
The student-managed investment portfolio is a two-semester program consisting of the Bond Analysis and Stock Analysis classes. The Bond Analysis class focuses on fixed income securities, and the Stock Analysis class covers equity securities and client portfolio management
The fixed income portfolio is currently funded by a line of credit of $1,000,000 from BancFirst (Bank). The equity portfolio is funded from profits that were generated from the fixed income portfolio and transferred to the Cameron University Foundation (Foundation). Students manage both these portfolios under the supervision of Dr. Mandal.
The Fixed Income Portfolio
The Management
The fixed income portfolio is managed by a Portfolio Management Board (board) and is led by the Chief Executive Officer and a Chief Investment Officer, who are assisted by the following committees:
- The Economics Committee monitors interest rates and the economic environment.
- The Security Tracking Committee reports new information on the stocks and bonds held in the fixed income and equity portfolios.
- The Performance Committee monitors the performance of the portfolios.
- The Public Relations and Multimedia Committee promotes the class and organizes the semester banquet in which a presentation is made to the Bank, the Foundation, and prominent community leaders. This committee is also maintains the web page and prepares the PowerPoint presentation for the banquet.
Learning Opportunities
Funding the portfolio using a bank loan/line of credit presented the students with many learning opportunities:
- Most student-managed funds use money donated for the purpose or funds allocated by university endowments. The use of borrowed funds by Cameron presents students with the challenge of earning at least the loan rate to breakeven.
- The change from a loan to a line of credit provided students with an additional decision variable - “to invest or not to invest."
The Equity Portfolio
The equity portfolio is managed by the Stock Analysis class. In addition to managing the portfolio of stocks and mutual funds, each student is required to do an individual project and a group project. The individual project involves security analysis which consists of the following sections:
- Company history
- A survey of the industry
- Economic analysis
- Financial analysis, and
- Conclusions and recommendations.
The knowledge and insight gained in this project is applied to selection of stocks for the equity portfolio. Students learn to analyze stocks and mutual funds using various sources of information such as annual reports, Value Line, Standard and Poor’s, Morningstar, and various Internet sources. At the end of this process, each student is required to present stocks to buy or sell based on his/her analysis. The students also participate in a client portfolio management group project involving a real client.
