Meetings of the Caltech Student Investment Fund are open to all members of the Caltech community, including Undergrads, Graduate Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and JPL personnel. During the academic year, general Fund meetings are held weekly on Wednesdays from 5-6 PM in conference room 312 in the Cahill Center for Astronomy. Additional meetings focusing on quantitative finance are held on Mondays from 5-6 PM in the same room. Anyone is welcome to come and participate in meetings, regardless of prior attendance or experience. Dinner/refreshments are provided due to conflicts with undergraduate dinners.
All members of the Caltech community are considered to be members of the Student Investment Fund, and as such can propose any change to the Fund's portfolio (in accordance with the Fund's bylaws) at the weekly meetings. However, only members of the Board of Directors are allowed to vote on proposals made. In order to become a Director, one must either attend six meetings in a single year, or have a proposal passed by the Board.
If you want to learn more about the Student Investment Fund, please feel free to come to one of our meetings or subscribe to our general email list, which includes information about general SIF activities, meeting reminders, and portfolio proposals. You can also subscribe to our general discussion chat, which tends to focus on changes in the market and various pieces of news. These links only work to those on the Caltech network, so if they don't work please feel free to contact us, and we will add you to our mailing list.
The Caltech Student Investment Fund was originally founded in 1978, as part of a generous gift from J. Stanley Johnson and & Mary W. Johnson. The endowment, consisting of 2,500 shares of H&R Block Stock, valued at the time at $0.75/share, was unique in the fact that it was to be invested by the Caltech student body. In their initial letter outlining the terms and conditions for the student-managed fund specified the following mission for the fund:
“The Fund shall be a separately invested endowment fund with the primary purpose of providing a learning experience for students in investment management with the expectation that, through the operation of this Fund, they may gain increased understanding of the free enterprise system as it functions in the American economy today.”In following with this goal, the Caltech Student Investment Fund has invested and managed its portfolio under the direction of the student body and the greater Caltech community.
In addition to providing a learning experience for Caltech students, the Student Investment fund was also established with the goal of giving back and supporting the greater Caltech community. This initially took the form of projects, recommended annually by the student body and approved by the Administration, that would be funded by a withdrawal of up to 4% of the market value of the Fund's portfolio. Over the years this has lead to the current annual Disbursement program, where clubs and Caltech organizations may apply for disbursements to satisfy one-time capital expenditures. These requests, if they are deemed beneficial to the Caltech community as a whole, are approved directly by the Fund's student Board of Directors.
