Student-Managed Investment Fund

Two students working at computers in Finance Lab

These students aren’t waiting to become traders on Wall Street, they’re investing now, using their own capital from the Student-Managed Investment Fund.

Students Making Real-World Investments

With assets of nearly $150,000, the Student-Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) allows students to use the financial strategies they learned in the classroom to make investments in the real world. Though the fund objective is to generate annual income and capital appreciation for the SMIF portfolio, the learning objective is for finance students to build skill sets that they can transfer to the real world.

Using Bloomberg Technology

Wall ticker clocks and monitor in the Finance Lab

Students carry out analytics in the School of Management Finance Lab, offering:

  • 12 Bloomberg terminals powered by Bloomberg Professional software – the “gold standard” for financial
  • a ticker board that provides live feeds of news, financial data and global trading as it's happening

FIN 463: Seminar in Portfolio Management

In order to engage in this project, students must be enrolled in FIN 463: Seminar in Portfolio Management, taught by Professor of Finance Abbas Kazemi. Once selected, the SMIF team, (working within the parameters of the fund), is given complete responsibility and autonomy, with Kazemi acting as advisor.

Outperforming Year after Year

Established in 2007 by a $100,000 donation from RIC alum Ken Weakly ’89, the RIC SMIF team and was one of the earliest among business schools. After the first three years, the fund:

  • has outperformed its tracking index every year
  • is currently valued at $147,000
  • proved the utility of practical, hands-on learning

RIC’s Student-Management Investment Fund (SMIF) is a smart investment in the future!

Rhode Island College entrance

Faculty Contact

Department of Economics and Finance

The Department of Economics and Finance focuses on how businesses, governments, institutions and even individuals make decisions about spending and policy.