The Student Trading and Research fund reached a new high of $4 million on Wednesday.
The STAR fund is part of the university’s endowment and is completely run by students in a senior business class, providing them with firsthand experience in investing and financial management. The fund was established in the 1980s with an initial investment of $25,000 and officially joined the university endowment in 1999.
Over the last year, STAR has changed dramatically. On April 2, the stock market experienced its biggest dip since 2020, and the STAR fund fluctuated by $700,000 within the span of four hours. The fund started the year at $2.2 million and on in April, went as low as $1.7 million.
Dr. Jody Jones, faculty adviser of the STAR fund, said that it was research, patience and a two-year-old investment in AI that eventually led the fund to break the record of $4 million just months later.
“We have Oracle; we have Nvidia.” said Jones, associate professor of finance. “We’re very heavily invested in nuclear energy. The reason we are so heavily invested in nuclear energy is that when they have questions, we can call people across campus and get answers really fast.”
Although he is the adviser, Jones does not tell the students what to do; instead, he gives them things to think about, sits in the back and asks a few questions each class, letting them pitch ideas and discuss what they will do.
“I try to get them to think for themselves,” Jones said. “It’s a lot of money. Four million dollars is a lot of money. If you’re afraid that you’re going to lose it, you will. You need to think forward, and you need to be brave.”
Reed Tilly, STAR fund manager, said that the main question they ask every day is, “Why?”
“If we hold a company in the fund, we want to know why we hold that company,” said Tilly, junior accounting major from McGregor. “If we sell a company, we want to know why we are selling it. If we are going to buy a company, we want to know why.”
Tilly has only been in his role for two weeks, but as he plans ahead, he wants to make sure they are not trading on something that could change, like emotion, headlines or quick trends.
“If we only make one trade a semester, that’s totally alright with me as long as it is a trade based on truth and fact and research,” Tilly said.
Before they move on and start planning for the future, Jones hopes they stop and celebrate the success of hitting $4 million.
“Today for me is proud dad day,” Jones said. “It’s not because of anything that happened that I did, but it’s largely because of what people have done for the last 25 years.”
