The FSU College of Business Student Investment Fund (SIF) is a student-driven, experiential fund designed to provide students with real world experience. The fund enriches student education through active participation in financial markets. The fund was established in 2007 thanks to generous donors who recognized the importance of giving students the skills needed to be successful in the highly competitive finance world. Student managers of the fund learn long-term trading strategies, derivatives usage, arbitrage concepts, behavioral finance, risk management and performance evaluation. The objectives of the fund are to:
- Provide students with real-world experience implementing investment selection and management principles
- Offer students the opportunity to attain application knowledge that reaches far beyond simple coursework
- Encourage students to acquire a deeper and more complex understanding of the concepts taught throughout their undergraduate and graduate studies
- Expose students to portfolio theory and several alternative investment strategies
- Engage in weekly roundtable discussions on a variety of financial topics and relate these discussions to the active management of investment capital
Frequently Asked Questions About the Fund
What is the objective of the Florida State Student Investment Fund?
The Student Investment Fund was created to train finance students how to actively manage an investment portfolio. Ideally, the SIF enriches student education through active participation in financial decision-making and financial markets.
What role do finance students have in managing the fund?
Students perform security research, pitch stocks, make buy/sell decisions and develop routine reports on fund performance. The student managers are fully responsible for the day-to-day management of the portfolio, thus gaining hands-on money management experience. They learn to deal with the uncertainty inherent in the process of estimating stock value and contrasting it to stock price. The process helps them develop their financial intuition and provides an arena for practical application of investment decisions.
What are the SIF’s benefits to Florida State finance students?
Managing the SIF provides students with real-world experience implementing investment selection and money management principles. Students are provided the opportunity to attain practical knowledge and experience that reaches far beyond typical coursework. Ultimately, the student fund managers acquire a deeper and more complex understanding of the concepts taught throughout their undergraduate and graduate finance studies.
What is the current portfolio composition?
In March 2024, Florida State University’s SIF held assets with a total market value of approximately $6.5 million. Approximately 90 percent of the fund is equity investments, and the remainder is invested in fixed income securities or cash. These percentages often change, however, as the specific asset allocation at any given time is an active investment choice made by the fund’s student managers.
How can I take part in managing the Florida State Student Investment Fund?
The Student Investment Fund is managed by both undergraduate and graduate students depending on the semester. In the fall and spring, the fund is managed by students in the Masters of Science in Finance (MSF) program. During the summer, undergraduate students in an elective Student Investment Fund course take over the fund management duties.
Student Investment Fund Board
The Student Investment Fund (SIF) Board serves to oversee the operations of the fund. The board, through its Audit Committee, implements an annual audit of the fund.
To learn more about the board, please contact Steve Perfect, associate professor of finance, at sperfect@business.fsu.edu.
Board Officers
Michael D. Hartline, Chair
Dean and Charles A. Bruning Professor, College of Business
Steve Perfect, Vice Chair
Associate Professor of Finance, College of Business
Don Autore, Treasurer & Secretary
Finance Department Chair and Dean L. Cash Professor of Finance, College of Business
Peter Jones (BS Accounting ’77), Audit Committee Chair
Past President, Franklin Templeton Distributors, Inc.
Board Members
Michael Williams
Associate Vice President for Finance and Administration, FSU
Diahann Lassus (BS Management ’76)
Founder and CEO, Lassus Consulting LLC
John Lusk (BS Accounting ’81)
Executive Vice President, Franklin Templeton Investments
Eric Muñoz (BS Finance ’00)
Senior Vice President, Alianza Wealth Management Group, Raymond James
Kyle Riva (BS Management ’77)
Owner, Alexander Investment
