Hylander Student Investment Fund Spotlight

Making Investments

ilseu — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 18:28:46 +0000

Making Investments ilseu Wed, 10/12/2022 - 11:28 More News Laurie McLaughlin October 11, 2022

Undergraduate finance student Bryan Reyes ’23 has started his senior year, and he’s actively immersed himself in academic opportunities that will prepare him for a career in wealth management. This includes his role as vice president of the Hylander Financial Group (HFG), a UCR student club open to all students of all disciplines and levels of financial expertise.

“Every time I go to a meeting, I’ve increased my financial knowledge and have the opportunity to network with like-minded individuals,” says Reyes of the HFG meetings. He’s also involved in the Hylander Student Investment Fund (HSIF), which was established with a $200,000 donation from an alumnus in 2019, and the money is managed by students.

“I have learned that the art of investing is not only to build a strong real-world portfolio, but to develop the skills to keep it growing,” says Reyes, who has also served as a research assistant with finance faculty. He’s working on certifications in SQL and Excel.

As for his involvement with HSIF: “The target asset allocation for the HSIF portfolio is 80% equity and 20% fixed income,” says Reyes. “By using and sticking to this strategy, we hope to outperform the benchmark.”

In 2021, they did just that: “Our benchmark was 70% of the Russell 3000 and 30% of the Bloomberg Barclays Aggregate Bond Index,” he reports. “For the fourth quarter of 2021, HSIF returned 6.59% while the benchmark returned 5.52%.”

Reyes looks forward to a profession that allows him to “give advice to people and companies on what to do with their money,” he says, and he has plans for a graduate education. “I have learned a lot, and I have improved my analytical, problem-solving and teamwork skills.”

Among the primary lessons he’s learned when it comes to investing, he says: “It’s very important to have the discipline to manage money with a solid plan—and the ability to control emotions.”

Smart Investing

ilseu — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 15:41:13 +0000

Smart Investing ilseu Mon, 06/21/2021 - 08:41 More News Laurie McLaughlin June 02, 2021

The March 2020 stock market sell-off was a challenging event for the Hylander Student Investment Fund (HSIF), says Sindy Fabrizio, a first-year Master of Finance student and student investor with the fund. “No one had any idea how long that decline would last, so those few weeks were scary and uncertain.

“Nonetheless, not every student can say they were able to manage a portfolio well through a market downturn, so 2020 was a very good learning experience for us.”

In their 2020 fourth quarter report, the fund’s student managers stated their target asset allocation was 80 percent equity and 20 percent fixed income, and they credit the portfolio’s outperformance in the quarter to this strategy. Their benchmark were 70 percent of the Russell 3000 and 30 percent of the Bloomberg Barclays Aggregate Bond Index.

For the 2020 calendar year, the HSIF portfolio returned 20.84 percent, while the benchmark returned 15.77 percent, reported the investors.

“At the beginning of the [fourth] quarter, … the team decided not to invest in the energy sector … due to the historical underperformance throughout the year. … Instead, the decision was made to overweight technology, consumer discretionary, health care, and communications sectors,” stated the report. The fund outperformed the market portfolio in the technology, consumer discretionary, and health care sectors.

“Given all the market rallies that occurred during the year, posting returns above the benchmark was a challenging thing to accomplish, but the team did this through research and collaboration,” says Fabrizio, who will graduate in fall 2021 and plans to work for an investment firm as an analyst in either the buy or sell side.

“We follow a growth and value investment strategy, with a long-term horizon,” she adds. “As market conditions change and the country continues its recovery, our investing strategy needs to be more flexible.

“For instance, lately we have seen value stocks outperform growth stocks. We’ve learned to be adaptable by looking at value companies but sticking to fundamental quality research.”

What Fabrizio finds most interesting is that “no matter how much investors try to predict the market’s next moves, in the end, in an ‘efficient market,’ returns are unpredictable,” says. “All we can do as investors is know our investments well and analyze in detail our risk-reward trade-off.”

Hylander Student Investment Fund

ilseu — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 02:16:30 +0000

Hylander Student Investment Fund ilseu Thu, 04/01/2021 - 19:16 More News October 04, 2019

The Hylander Financial Group (HFG), a club founded in 2014 by UCR finance students, has been evaluating stocks for potential purchases to create investment portfolios. Last year they participated in the annual CFA Society of Orange County competition, and regularly bring financial experts to speak and mentor its members.

Inspired by HFG’s success and depth of knowledge of trading securities, a UCR alumnus has established the Hylander Student Investment Fund (HSIF), with a founding gift of $200,000.

Until now, HFG students were managing mock portfolios. The resources from the Fund will give HFG members the chance to delve into the real world of finance, with the aim of growing the fund through profitable investments.

The Hylander Student Investment Fund will be supervised by a faculty advisor and an advisory board comprised of financial professionals and officers of the UCR Foundation.

Ryan Whyte, Jean Helwege, Arjun Oza

Jean Helwege, Full Professor in Finance, mentors the students as they implement knowledge learned through finance courses in the UCR School of Business and A. Gary Anderson School of Management (AGSM) programs. AGSM offers finance courses to students pursuing its Master of Finance degree as well as through its full time and professional MBA programs.

Professor Helwege meets regularly with the HFG members to advise on executing trades. On Monday evenings the HSIF members present to the group and pitch stocks they have analyzed as best investments.

The work that students in HFG have done thus far has already proven profitable on paper, reaching returns as high as 40 percent from investments in the stocks of Square, Lululemon, and Dunkin Brands.

Zachary Enes, a student in the Master of Finance program and a long-time member of the club, said that in the past 11 months the club’s paper portfolio has seen its value go up about 20 percent, beating their benchmark of 20 percent fixed income and 80 percent equities.

“We work really well together,” he said, describing the club as a collaborative effort.

Bolstering students’ career prospects in finance upon graduation is another advantage of membership in HFG. Ryan Whyte, a senior business major with a concentration in finance, is the club president this year, along with Arjun Oza, the vice-president.

Ryan says his experience in HFG helped him to land an internship in Orange County this summer. “I definitely built a very strong foundation of skills like valuation and being able to talk at a high level on the public market and trends in equities, which is pretty important for any career in finance.”

Over 200 students are concentrating in Finance or are in the Masters of Finance at the School of Business. “The requirements to qualify for membership are steep, but students with a passion for finance and its real world application now have a second to none opportunity being part of the Hylander Financial Group,” says Helwege.

The UCR School of Business and Hylander Financial Group extends its gratitude for the generous support of the Hylander Student Investment Fund’s founding donor, and look forward to working with the HSIF advisory group in the coming year.