The Alex. Brown Student Managed Investment Fund of Washington College has three primary objectives:
    • to augment the educational experience of the students
    • to preserve and maintain the real purchasing power of the fund
    • to achieve a higher total return than our benchmark Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index

The fund offers a unique environment for students to develop and utilize their investment skills by providing real-life investing experience. The students assume the role of investment analysts, a role that many of them plan to pursue in their imminent careers.

The investment philosophy that the Alex. Brown Student Managed Investment Fund operates under is that market efficiency is often imperfect in the short run. The class aims to identify inefficiencies in the market, and thereby design a portfolio utilizing the tools of fundamental analysis (both qualitative and quantitative), relative valuation and diversification as a means to manage risk. For the investment process, students employ a top-down approach, looking at the current environment of the market and analyzing sectors. Equity selection is then based on a bottom-up approach using multiple valuation methods.

During the semester, the course was divided into three sections. The introductory portion of the semester consists of recounting their skills learned earlier and discussing various valuation techniques. These techniques are then applied to sector analysis; each sector is compared to the market as a whole and its phase in the current market cycle is identified. The class then decides how to weight each sector. Finally, students analyze individual stocks and present their findings to the class; the class renders decisions by voting as a whole. Through these steps, the class aims to develop a value-oriented, growth-focused investment style and a time horizon of over one year and uses this outlook to allocate money to sectors that they believe have the potential to outperform and select undervalued companies within those sectors.

Alex. Brown Student Managed Investment Fund Board

Jim Price Former Managing Partner, Alex. Brown & Sons
Dr. H. Louis Stettler, III Senior Vice President for Finance & Management, Washington College	Peter van Dyke Former Manager, T. Rowe Price Spectrum Funds
Professor Scott Pearson Instructor of Business Management & Economics and Director of the Alex. Brown Student-Managed Investment Fund Program, Washington College	Professor Michael Harvey Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Business Management, Washington College