The Student Trading and Research fund surpassed $5 million on Friday, marking a new milestone for the student-managed investment portfolio.

The STAR fund operates through the business class, Fin 439, where students manage a portion of the university’s endowment.

The fund began with an initial investment of $25,000 in the 1980s and later became part of the endowment in 1999. Since then, students have continued to build the portfolio by researching companies, making trades and passing down holdings from one class to the next. 

Each semester, students enroll in the course and select a fund manager from within the class. That student leads discussions, assigns research and helps guide the decision-making process, while all members contribute to researching current and potential investments. 

Students begin by reviewing existing holdings, which include stocks accumulated over decades. From there, they analyze performance, study market conditions and determine whether to buy, sell or hold positions.

Paul Roswell, junior finance major from Hurst, serves as the current fund manager and discussed the importance of the work being done in the STAR fund class.

“We’re essentially money managers, for a very small part of the endowment, which is like $900 million or something,” Roswell said. “So we’re now 5 million of that, which is awesome.”

Since the fund is part of the endowment, students are working with real institutional funds rather than simulated investments. While they have flexibility in managing the portfolio, certain trades require additional approval depending on size and scope. 

Tibby Brown, junior finance major from West Monroe, Louisiana, serves as the fund’s chief financial officer. In that role, Brown documents each transaction and compiles written reports explaining the reasoning behind trades.

“Every time we make a trade or sell something, I write up a one to two-page paper using all of the investment reasons,” Brown said.

The class also works toward long-term performance goals tied to overall market benchmarks. After meeting a three-year goal of outperforming the market, $500,000 was injected into the fund to invest from the endowment, increasing the amount students manage, compared to previous semesters.

“We really hit the ground running, as compared to a lot of other classes potentially in the past,” Brown said. “Because we had so much money that if we sat on it, it could very easily depreciate over the next few months, so we had to get that investment as fast as possible.”

Investment decisions are made through a structured process that includes research, presentations and class votes. Students develop pitches for potential investments, outlining financial data, market trends and projected outcomes before the class determines whether to move forward.

For certain proposals, especially those that fall outside typical investment parameters, students must complete additional research before executing trades.

One current project involves evaluating a newer company focused on AI data centers and energy infrastructure. Because the company is not in the S&P 500, students have expanded their research process to include more detailed analysis and modeling.

Dr. Jody Jones, associate professor of finance and faculty adviser, said students maintain primary responsibility for managing the fund.

“Our fund is completely student-run,” Jones said. “I usually sit in the back, and the fund manager runs class.”

Jones said students base decisions on research and long-term expectations rather than short-term market movement.

“We trade based on information and expectations, not based on noise,” Jones said.

As the fund surpasses $5 million, students continue to evaluate current holdings and develop new investment proposals, contributing to the portfolio’s ongoing growth.