Finlandia business students form investment laboratory

There’s a new investment club on the Finlandia campus. In the fall of 2021, a group of accounting students formed the Finlandia Multi-Variate Screening and Portfolio Construction Data Analytics Lab, or as it is more commonly known, the Finlandia Investment Lab (FIL).  According to founding member Anders Saarela, “While I was working in the [Finlandia] business office this summer as an accountant work study student, [accounting professor] Laura Sieders asked if I would be interested in forming an investment club for the 2021-2022 school year. I was very interested, and after discussing the idea with fellow accounting students Michael Stuber and Joseph Watson, we collectively decided that it would be a great opportunity for us to take the reins and begin the formation of the club.”

The timing was perfect. Joe Dancy, a lecturer at Southern Methodist University and investment expert who recently relocated to the area, had contacted the International School of Business to inquire about the interest in forming such a club. He has since become a key advisor to the FIL.

According to Dancy, the main goal of the FIL is to provide long term strategies to:

1. Generate excess returns for those entering the workforce and provide knowledge for those managing assets or retirement funds.
2. Provide tools and applied hands-on experience to address social wealth and income inequality issues prevalent in our economic system.
3. Tie accounting principles to investment decisions.
4. Provide strategies relating to portfolio construction rewards and risks.

Dancy added that “The students started four months ago with a hypothetical $60,000 portfolio and that it is now worth $66,768. This is a relatively significant 11% gain in a short period of time, although we are long-term investors and returns will fluctuate.”

Saarela concluded by stating that “The FIL is available to any and all Finlandia students who are interested – not only business majors. We would also like to mention that interested Finlandia faculty are also invited to join and participate.”

The club meets every Thursday at noon in the Maki Library computer lab.  For more information, contact Laura Sieders at laura.sieders@finlandia.edu.

Article provided by Finlandia University International School of Business.

Related Articles & Links

Investment Lab offers new opportunities for FinnU students
International School of Business
Larua Sieders