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Amrhein Club Scores Again!

Photo courtesy Alex Yanko ’05

For the second time that it has attended, the Amrhein Investment Club took first place in the undergraduate division of Redefining Investment Strategy Education (RISE), a conference for student-managed investment groups at colleges and universities, April 1-3 at the University of Dayton, Ohio.

Moravian was one of eight colleges and universities from the United States and Canada to take top honors in the largest North American student portfolio competition. The last time the Amrhein Club beat many larger schools was two years ago.

“The symposium was a really great experience for all of us,” said club advisor Linda Ravelle, associate professor of economics and business. “Many schools manage their funds as part of an investments class and limit participation in fund management. Amrhein allows all Moravian students to participate. Our students came away from the symposium realizing how lucky they are to be able to have this experience.”

The conference brought together more than 900 students from more than 100 colleges and universities. Leaders of the investment community spoke about the market and the economy. Speakers included Michael Moskow, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Richard Bernstein, chief U.S. strategist for Merrill Lynch’s global securities research and economics group; and John Bogle, founder of the Philadelphia-based Vanguard Group, one of the world’s two largest mutual fund organizations.

About a third of the participants entered the portfolio competition, in which students displayed the results of their investments in various kinds of portfolio management. The top teams were determined by their portfolios’ 12-month risk-adjusted returns.

The club manages more than $1 million of the College’s endowment. Its assets are broken down into four funds, each directed by a student fund manager.

Moravian’s blend-style equity portfolio grew by a handsome 52 percent over the last year. The first-place winners were:

• University of New Brunswick, Canada. Hybrid portfolio, graduate division.
• University of Kansas. Hybrid portfolio, undergraduate division.
• Rice University, Texas. Blend-style equity portfolio, graduate division.
• Moravian College. Blend-style equity portfolio, undergraduate division.
• Stetson University, Florida. Fixed-income portfolio, undergraduate division.
• Purdue University. Growth-style equity portfolio, graduate division.
• University of Northern Colorado. Growth-style equity portfolio, undergraduate division.
• Concordia University, Canada. Value-style equity portfolio, undergraduate division.
• Stetson, Purdue, and Moravian were all winners at the 2002 conference.

Moravian’s fund managers include Todd James ’04, Nazareth, growth fund; Greg Rarick ’06, Drums, small cap fund; and Muhammed Bendjilali ’05, Algeria, income fund. They and club president Alex Yanko ’05, Bethlehem, attended the symposium. Samir Saba ’05, Sparta, N.J., who manages the balanced fund, could not attend and was represented by Marty Miller ’05, Bethlehem, who managed the balanced fund last year.

Linda explained that the growth fund was the winner of the blend-style portfolio category. (The definitions are set by financial reporting services.) Though Todd manages it this year, Kevin Centurrino ’04, Morris Plains, N.J., was its manager last year when it turned in its stellar performance.

The Amrhein Investment Fund was established in 1962 with a gift of $20,000 from Irving Amrhein, who intended the fund to be an investment laboratory where students could learn by managing a portfolio of stocks and bonds. Today, the Amrhein Investment Fund is one of the largest student-run funds in the country.