November 21, 2003 Highlights
D.A.
Davidson & Co. Provides Finance Club with Golden Opportunity
Through a unique program developed by D.A. Davidson & Co.,
students in the Finance Club at Utah State University have the
opportunity to select and manage a real dollar investment portfolio.
The goal of this program is to provide students who have been
exposed to financial theory with a real world investment experience.
According to Alan Stephens, a finance professor and the head
of the Business Administration Department, the company’s
philosophy works.
"Our classes provide students with the technical knowledge
they need to succeed, but there’s no substitute for committing
money to the market," Stephens said. "Until our students
actually purchase stocks with someone else’s money, they
will never understand that level of responsibility."
D.A. Davidson is an investment firm based in Great Falls,
Mont. Several decades ago the firm's chairman, Ian B. Davidson,
who is impassioned about educational pursuits, envisioned developing
a program that would help students in the states his firm serves
gain real-world investment experience. The program started with
several universities in Montana and has grown to include 18
schools.
Utah State University became involved in Davidson's Student
Investment Fund three years ago, Stephens said. Each September
the company provides the participating universities with $50,000
to invest during a one-year period. At Utah State, members of
the Finance Club research individual companies and analyze current
economic conditions before making investment recommendations.
The students attempt to maximize their profit by applying investment
theories and current strategies to actual market transactions.
If a Student Investment Fund loses money, D.A. Davidson makes
up the deficit. When the funds make money, the firm splits the
profits with the participating universities. Rex Thornton, a
senior vice president and the manager of Davidson’s branch
office in Salt Lake City, joked that most of the firm's clients
would like to get that kind of a deal. During the recent bear
market, very few investors, student or otherwise, have wanted
to discuss their portfolios. This year, however, with bull market
rampaging on Wall Street, many of the schools participating
in the D.A. Davidson Challenge realized a profit, he said
Thornton was at Utah State recently to present the Business
Administration Department with the Finance Club's share of the
profit. The department will use the $3,104 to establish a scholarship.
Most of the participating schools elect to endow a scholarship
fund or use their proceeds to build their own portfolio account.
Utah State ranked in the top third of the schools participating
in last year's Challenge.
"Utah State’s students used a very realistic model
and ran a well-diversified portfolio," Thornton said.
The top schools were heavily invested in technology stocks.
The risk they took paid off in last year's market, but Thornton
pointed out that, over the long haul, diversifying typically
maximizes investment gains. Thornton said he believes the D.A.
Davidson program helps students become more intelligent investors.
Stephens said that last year's successful competition and
Thornton’s recent campus visit have kindled a lot of interest
in the current portfolio. Approximately 20 new finance club
members have entered this year’s challenge.
"The firm provides Utah State's finance students with
real world experience and helps them build their resumes,"
Stephens said. "They are learning about risk tolerance,
investment costs and theory versus practice. Being invested
in the market when it is fluctuating so dramatically has the
added benefit of providing students with first-hand experience
employing different investment strategies during various market
stages."
While he was on campus, Thornton also shared the benefit of
his firm’s long-range market analysis with professor Austin
Kwan's securities class. He outlined the pluses and minuses
Davidson’s analysts see acting on the financial markets
in the foreseeable future, and he discussed the benefit of owning
dividend paying stocks.
Class member John Webster said Thornton’s discussion
made him realize that most investors can earn a higher rate
of return from dividends than they can at today's low interest
rates.
Thornton also discussed the options open to students who earn
a finance degree, and he commented on the current employment
outlook. Thornton said this year's finance graduates will find
more opportunities available in their chosen fields.
Professor Kwan said he was pleased a financial expert recognized
the value of Utah State's program. "The students will reap
the benefit of Thornton’s discussion on the economy and
his investment ideas long into the future," Kwan said.
Micron
Technology Foundation Funds New Utah State Design Lab
 The
Utah State department of electrical and computer engineering
dedicated a new digital design laboratory thanks to the generosity
of the Micron Technology Foundation. Students throughout the
ECE department will use the Micron Digital Design Laboratory
for various classes and projects. Engineering Dean Scott Hinton,
ECE department head Tamal Bose, ECE students and representatives
from the Micron Technology Foundation were on hand to dedicate
the lab.
Thanksgiving
Without the Turkey?
It’s hard to imagine Americans sitting down to Thanksgiving
dinner without the turkey centerpiece.
But the broad-breasted Thanksgiving turkey in the grocery store
is not a creature with much genetic diversity, according to
Karen Mock, wildlife scientist at Utah State University. And
wild stocks, which serve as the reservoir for genetic diversity
in domesticated turkeys, may be at risk for inbreeding.
“Numerically, wild turkey numbers are looking great right
now,” Mock said. “It’s the long-term future
of these populations that we’re worried about.”
Wild turkeys, native only to North American, were eliminated
from up to 80 percent of their original range in the early 1900s
due to habitat loss and over-harvesting.
“The effort to reintroduce wild turkeys to their original
range and beyond is one of the great success stories in wildlife
management,” Mock said. But most of this success is due
to translocation from a limited number of source populations,
and these populations are themselves the source for further
translocations, she said. (Full
story)
utah
state today/archives/November
2003/archives
prior to Sept 2002/
Brought
to you by Utah State University Public Relations and Marketing
|