Across from the door to the Van Houten Library is a giant stock ticker that hangs above a set of double doors. This little room is the Ray Cassetta Financial Analysis Laboratory, a base for Bloomberg Terminals—computers equipped with Bloomberg Professional software that can access real-time financial information.
Every Wednesday at four o’clock, NJIT’s Investment Fund gathers in this room to talk about how they’ll manage a mutual fund of roughly $50 thousand. Investment Fund is a group of economically savvy students led by Fund President and graduate student Milena Bajic. The Fund works closely with the Martin Tuchman school of Management.
However, before joining the Investment Fund, members must first spend at least one semester in the Investment Club. The Club meets every Friday during common hour at the Leir conference center on the third floor of the Tuchman School of Management. There, members learn about investing and how to use the Bloomberg Terminals.
Bajic said that the Bloomberg Terminals, which are free to use for any NJIT student, are “a really useful tool we have on campus and we know that a lot of students are not aware of it.”
Investment Club is also a good networking tool. Last year, Investment Club hosted guest speaker Marc Harris, Director of Research at the global investment banking advisory group Evercore. The Club tries to get at least one guest speaker every semester.
“Companies like to see this on resumes,” noted Sam Pierre, a senior Mathematics of Finance and Actuarial Science major and Investment Fund team leader and senior analyst.
After showing knowledge and aptitude in the Investment Club, members can move on to the Investment Fund. Here, members meet weekly and each must conduct a professional presentation on a stock they feel is worth investing in. At the end of the presentation, other Fund members question the validity of the presenter’s arguments and discuss if the stock is indeed a good investment. At the end of the semester, these stocks are brought to a vote by the Fund members and they invest into the stocks.
Members are given the chance to learn and grow from each other, bringing in ideas to the meetings and taking constructive feedback. “A lot of us are investing personally so we use a lot of these tips that we learn in the fund,” Bajic said.
The Investment Club and Fund are open to any and all students, regardless of major, and gives students the tools for financial success.
