UO student investors beating the market
By Andrew SegalEUGENE, Ore. - With the close of another tough day on Wall Street -- the Dow fell below 9,000 points for the first time since 2003 -- it seems even the pros don't know what to do. Maybe they should head back to school. After all, it's not easy to beat the market six years running. But some University of Oregon students have done just that -- and their investments are weathering the storm as the market heads downward. Seniors Milad Sedeh and Bryce Stadick help run the University of Oregon Investment Group, and manage nearly $1 million in real money. "We take our jobs very seriously," Sedeh said. With stocks on the decline, that job is harder. But the group is keeping its losses to a minimum, and is doing better than the broader market. "We're beating our benchmarks," said Sedeh, who is the group's Director of Operations. The big question, of course, is how to invest in a bear market. First key is doing your research. "We don't make purchases lightly," Sedeh said. "We have a lot of checks on our valuation method, and when we buy a company we believe in it." The group likes companies with diverse revenue sources and that have a lot of cash on hand, so they don't need to access the credit market. UOIG also invests in more resilient segments of the economy. "For our portfolio, we are overweight in health care," said Stadick, who is a portfolio manager with the group. "Health care is traditionally a safe haven. People will always need health services, prescriptions." Other sectors the guys are bullish on include agriculture and utilities. And the group believes in taking a long-term focus among all the negativity. "There are good companies out there that are just getting beat up because of market conditions," Sedeh said. "So you've got to find those companies. The market's going to come back, it's not going to be this way forever. One way to look at it is there are a lot of companies that are on sale right now." Sedeh and Stadick should know; if there's one thing college students specialize in, it's finding a bargain. |
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