Carleton Students Gain Real-World Investing Experience

The Sprott Student Investment Fund gives finance students the opportunity to research companies, assess risk, and help manage a multimillion-dollar portfolio.

The Sprott Student Investment Fund gives finance students the opportunity to research companies, assess risk, and help manage a multimillion-dollar portfolio.

Many business students learn about investing through lectures, assignments, and market simulations. At Carleton University, a select group of students gets to apply those lessons while managing real money.

The Sprott Student Investment Fund is a student-led portfolio based at Carleton's Sprott School of Business. Established with university endowment funding, the fund has grown from $550,000 in invested capital to approximately $3.5 million.

For students such as finance major Morgan Combden, joining the fund provides an opportunity to develop skills that are difficult to gain in a traditional classroom.

Combden entered the program as a first-year intern and eventually became a portfolio manager. In that position, she helps examine how the fund is distributed across different industries, identifies possible risks, and considers how its holdings compare with major Canadian and American market indexes.

Learning how investment decisions are made

Students must complete a competitive application process before joining the fund. Those selected work together to research companies and decide whether an investment supports the portfolio's long-term goals.

The process involves much more than finding a company whose stock price appears likely to rise. Students investigate its business model, financial health, competitive position, and potential risks. They then present their findings to the rest of the team.

Other members question the research, test its assumptions, and look for information that may have been missed. A proposal must survive that scrutiny before the group will consider acting on it.

Because the students are responsible for university endowment money, their decisions also receive oversight from Carleton's investment committee and faculty adviser Howard Nemiroff, dean of the Sprott School of Business.

This structure introduces students to the responsibility and collaboration involved in professional investment management. It also teaches them to explain complicated financial information, respond to criticism, and make decisions based on evidence rather than excitement.

Starting small and thinking long term

The fund's student managers may research individual companies, but that does not mean new investors should immediately begin choosing stocks themselves.

Former members of the fund, including investment professionals Ben Felix, Gregory Poapst, and Chris Koutsikaloudis, emphasize the importance of diversification and long-term planning. For beginners, broadly diversified exchange-traded funds and index funds can offer a more accessible starting point than attempting to identify individual winning companies.

These funds spread an investment across many companies or assets. That reduces the consequences if one particular investment performs poorly.

Students who want to learn about investing can also begin without putting money at risk. Following financial news, comparing companies, monitoring a practice portfolio, and learning how different markets operate can all help build knowledge.

Most importantly, investing should not be treated as a shortcut to quick wealth. Markets rise and fall, and reacting impulsively to every change can interfere with a carefully considered plan. Understanding personal risk tolerance is an important part of choosing investments that can be maintained during difficult periods.

Preparing for careers in finance

The Sprott Student Investment Fund offers more than a lesson in how markets work. Participants gain experience with financial research, teamwork, presentations, critical thinking, and decision-making.

Those skills can prepare students for careers in investment management, banking, financial analysis, consulting, and other areas of business. They can also help students decide whether working in finance matches their interests before they graduate.

For high school students considering a business or finance degree, experiential opportunities such as student-managed funds can be an important factor when comparing universities. They show how a program can connect classroom learning with the responsibilities, challenges, and collaborative work students may encounter in their future careers.