Wiki Homepage

The Messiah College Investment Club welcomes you to our Wiki. Use the panel on the left to navigate.

Introduction

The purpose of this website is to facilitate investment club member collaboration through the sharing of information on a web-based platform. This Wiki also serves as a channel to inform the Messiah College campus community and the general public about the work of the investment club. This homepage contains fundamental information concerning our club's strategic mission, current activities, and future goals.  The Investment Club currently meets every Wednesday night at 7:00PM in Frey 241.  The meetings are open to all students and you don't need any prior investing knowledge to join the club.  If you are interested in joining our club email list please contact Jeff Rosser or Nate Weaver.

Current Updates

• CURRENT PORTFOLIO VALUE: $135,506 (last updated 11/18/2009)
• Although the portfolio has suffered severely in the past year considering the current financial crisis, in the past few months we have rebounded and the portfolio is currently outperforming the market. 

Mission

1. The primary mission of the messiah college investment club is to provide a “hands on” laboratory experience for students from all majors and academic disciplines.
2. The secondary mission of the invesmtent club is to create an income stream (a percentage of each year’s investment income) from which to provide funding for on campus, student-run organizations.

Overview

The Messiah College Investment Club enables students to invest real money in real stocks. We meet weekly on Wednesday nights at 7:00 PM during both the fall and spring semesters of the academic year. Our club is student led with oversight from a faculty advisor. Our investment portfolio is invested entirely in U.S. and large international stocks traded on the NYSE and NASDAQ stock exchanges. The stocks we choose to invest in are selected based on financial and non-financial criteria.

Financial Investment Criteria

Investment club members research and analyze financial information about specific companies to determine if they meet the necessary financial criteria. We look for mid to long term growth stocks that will be held for a minimum of one year. Other financial considerations are based on the quality of the firm’s financial statements, growth in earnings, cash flows, and analysts’ assessments of the firm’s future prospects. We seek to diversify our portfolio to include all ten economic sectors as defined by the Global Industrial Classification Standard (GICS). We also strive for diversification by investing in international and multinational companies. The risk of the portfolio is kept in check by limiting the initial investment in any security to less than $10,000.

Non-Financial Investment Criteria

The critical non-financial requirement is that the companies we invest in must operate “beyond the bottom line.” The investment club is fully dedicated to Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), yet we take SRI even further by practicing Biblically Responsible Investing (BRI). We analyze company operations regarding social issues, environmental issues, charitable giving, poverty, morality, ethics, and at the most basic level, legality. To aid us in this decision making process we utilize research from the Biblically Responsible Investing Institute database which is an expensive online information product which has been generously donated to us by our friends at Stewardship Partners. Finally, as the investment club of Messiah College we strive to embody the mission and values held by the college in our everyday investing decisions.

Future Goals

• Become an SGA chartered organization.
• Create a set structure for evaluating companies based on Biblically Responsible criteria.
• Create and distribute an annual report that details portfolio performance and investment club operations.
• Create a set structure for the distribution method of portfolio earnings.
• Create a Wiki to facilitate investment club member collaboration and community understanding.