STUDENTS RUN $10M FUND

For two University of Wisconsin-Madison Business School students it’s time to get real. Real money, that is.

Mike Collet and J. Reed Newkirk are managing a $10 million U.S. intermediate bond portfolio for the university system’s $280 million trust fund, four months before graduation.

“We’ve been putting in between 50 to 60 hours a week,” Mr. Collet says. “It’s been pretty stressful.”

The Applied Security Analysis program has been operating at the school since 1970, but had focused on two stock funds that have grown to $1.5 million.

The portfolio’s mix is 70% government bonds and 30% corporates. The students’ goal is to have a return of 7% to 9% annually, or 70 basis points above the Lehman Intermediate Government Corporate index.

Both student managers plan to seek jobs in the bond business.

Crain News Service