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How would you describe your group?
Meliora Capital is UR’s new investing club. We were recently Students’ Association approved, and what we are is a group of students who are really passionate about investing. We have designated analysts and those analysts work in teams, which are headed up by analyst directors, who present regular research findings to our invested partners. I think it gives people a real chance to dip their feet in investing at an age where many people aren’t even thinking about that area.
Would you say this group is relevant to the college experience?
Once you’re out in the real world, when you have a job, you make money. You can put that money in a bank account, but in reality what most people are going to do is they’re going to entrust it to a money manager. That’s going to be an ongoing process throughout the rest of your lives.
By starting in college, people actually get a chance to understand that process. A lot of people assume that investing is either some sort of magical process that only some people are able to do, or they assume that it’s some sort of weird esoteric gambling, and, in reality, it’s neither.
In addition to that, we have a lot of financial economics majors who are interested in pursuing careers in corporate finance and investment banking, and this is a really good springboard for them. It makes UR students just so much more powerful as applicants to these positions, and I think that really strengthens our campus experience.
Are there any requirements you have for prospective members, and if so, what are they?
There are the obvious requirements — we hope that you’re ready to learn, we hope that you’re enthusiastic, that you take an interest in financial markets and taking control of your own finances. We strongly encourage everyone who joins Meliora Capital to become an analyst, where they’ll receive training from more experienced club members in how to do these evaluation techniques and how to do a lot of the assessment that goes behind choosing investment strategy.
Beyond that, there is the other obvious requirement: as an investment club, the capital that we invest comes from the capital that our members contribute, so our members all have put in $500 at the time of joining. That money is theirs and they can take it out at any point. We pool our resources and our effort into doing this research so that all of us can reap the rewards of our collective study of financial markets.
Do you have any upcoming events or projects?
We have a lot of alumni of our club who have gone on to careers in finance on Wall Street, and every once in a while we try to bring some of them back just to do general lectures and seminars for the entire undergraduate population.
Is there anything else you’d like the campus community to know about your group?
We’re a fairly new organization — we’ve only really existed for three years, and only for two years have we been an active organization on campus. We’re really looking to grow, to bring people onto the Meliora Capital team. We want more analysts, we want people who are excited about learning about finance, people who are excited about taking control of their own finances and even people who are thinking about careers in finance down the road.
Even after college, we’re hoping that Meliora Capital alumni will be watching out for each other. They’ll stay in networks, in a group of people who are connected and communicating about opportunities and trends to build an association of people interested in finance and investing here at the UR.
Ford is a member of
the class of 2013.
