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| |  M.A.
Wright Fund
What's Happening with the Fund
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Class update for the week of April 22, 2002:
 | The Wright Fund Board Meeting
was held at Herring Hall, Room 124 on Thursday, April 25. Terry
Ledbetter, the Fund's outgoing CIO, arranged and delivered an excellent
presentation to the board members, Jones School Dean Whitaker, faculty
adviser Bala Dharan, adjunct professors Steve Russo and Rocky McAshan, and
the rest of the Wright Fund student analysts. |
In addition to reviewing performance results, Terry spoke of recent changes
to the way the Fund is managed, which have proven very effective in terms of
class efficiency and benchmarking to the S&P 500 Index. Examples
include silent ballots for buy/sell/hold recommendations, and a reduction of
the Fund's cash position as a percent of the total fund value. This
reduction in the cash position, which was achieved by a change in the way
sector weightings were calculated, also caused most all of the sectors to be
under-weighted with respect to their S&P target weights.
Consequently, analysts were faced with the daunting task of finding good
"buys" for the Fund this semester during a period of economic
uncertainty. As shown by the summary table below, diligence by this
semester's analysts combined with solid leadership yielded positive results
for the period:
| |
5 Month* |
1 Year* |
3 Year* |
5 Year* |
| M.A. Wright Fund |
2.0% |
-9.8% |
0.4% |
6.1% |
| S&P 500 Index |
-4.4% |
-9.0% |
-3.1% |
9.6% |
*Periods ending April 17, 2002
Click here to view the full PowerPoint
presentation made to the Board.
| Interviews for prospective student analysts for the Fall 2002 semester
were held Thursday, April 18. New analysts will be notified soon
via email as to the outcome of their applications to the class. |
| Current analysts are required to complete professor evaluations on
or before the end of business May 3. Evaluation forms will be
placed in student mailboxes, and completed forms are to be returned to
Kathy Spradling. For more details, refer to Jin Mok's email dated
April 26. |
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Wright Fund Overview
The M.A. Wright Fund was started in 1995 by a generous
donation by Mrs. M.A. Wright. Its purpose was to give students a chance for
real-world experience of portfolio management and to provide a revenue stream
for Jones school scholarships. The fund is student-run and separated into analyst groups by S&P industry
sectors. Ideally, each analyst group is comprised of both 1st and 2nd semester
students to provide ongoing continuity.
Fund Highlights
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The Fund uses the S&P 500 as its benchmark, and
evaluates the performance of each sector relative to the S&P 500 Index.
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Analysts (students) present buy/sell/hold
recommendations for their sector or informative portfolio management
lectures at least twice a semester. |
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Analysts use fundamental valuation techniques such as
discounted cash flow models, dividend discount models, multiples
comparisons, etc. |
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The Fund will pay out its first scholarships this year
from its revenues (or losses). |
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Click here to get the latest free version of:
Wright Fund t-shirts are on sale now!
Sport one for only $10.
Contact Terry Ledbetter.
Link
to S&P Sector Data
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