Not only is the Investment Club a fairly new addition to the UMB club family that introduces students to the fast-paced world of investment on campus and prepares them for a future in the field, they’re also playing with big money.

Eden Cato, Vice President of the Investment Club, currently in its third semester at UMB, said that even though the club has been operational for a few successful semesters, students have never been allocated any real funds until this January, when UMass Boston’s endowment made a whopping $25,000 contribution available for ‘toying with.’

“Prior to the student management fund, we only had a partial portfolio, but this semester is the first time we have real money to deal with, so we have to be very conservative with it,” Cato explained.

According to Cato, the student management fund within the Investment Club at all four UMass campuses got the same quarter of a hundred thousand dollars as an initial investment to spend in buying, selling or trading stock on the SNP500 index, similar to the NASDAQ or the DOW.

“Each group focuses on two sectors [of the SNP500 index], and each week they present on their sectors and give investment ideas or suggestions to stocks that we should buy, sell or hold,” Cato said.

The fun part comes with a little friendly competition, as each campus’ club competes against the other three in trying to achieve the highest returns on stock, hoping to up the initial investment ante the next year as a prize.

“Amherst is our biggest competition, so hopefully well outperform them,” she said, before noting that the profits earned from investment go back into education. “All the profits that each campus makes will go to scholarships, mainly distributed to College of Management students.”

The student management fund in the Investment Club at UMB consists of five groups, many of which are full of finance, management and economics students who are earning invaluable experience by participating in the hands-on trading the club offers, Cato said.

“Usually people who are involved in the Investment Club do much better in interviews because you are not only referring to what you learned in classes, but you have real-life experience that you can relate to, so its multi-faceted,” Cato said. “It’s also a good way of networking, because when we do these tours, some students bring their resumes and they talk to people from different firms.”

Since school endowments are for not-for-profit organizations whose officials don’t pay students to conduct relevant investment work, Cato insisted that the students aren’t the only ones getting a good deal.

“[The student management funds] are a good opportunity to have analysts working for free and doing the Investment Clubs’ own advertising,” Cato said, adding that it’s also nice not to have to pay taxes on stocks, something an individual investor is obligated to do.