Who we are.
Fordham University's Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) is a student-run, multi-strategy global investment fund. The SMIF program consists of two consecutive one-semester academic courses (FNBU 4462-Fall and FNBU 4463-Spring).
Each class is a three-credit Finance elective, and the second semester also satisfies the Global Investments requirement for finance majors. Over two consecutive semesters, students actively manage a $2.0 million global balanced portfolio consisting of securities representing the major asset classes of equities, bonds, FX, and hard assets, including commodities and real estate. This real-world investing experience is a demanding yet rewarding experience for many students, most of whom graduate and go on to successful careers across the financial services industry.
How it works.
SMIF members are required to enroll in a two-semester class. A new cohort of analysts is enrolled each semester. Analysts cover one of eleven equity sectors, fixed-income, foreign exchange, emerging markets, or real estate. In their second semester, analysts graduate to portfolio managers (PMs) of their respective sectors and are admitted into the Investment Committee (IC), which is responsible for all SMIF investment decisions. Members are eligible to take on additional responsibilities as PMs that range from chief economist to alternatives analyst.
During their time in the fund, each student will have the opportunity to pitch two securities within their sector and may have limited opportunities to pitch investment ideas outside of their sector. Members are provided with an array of opportunities and resources to further their personal and professional development. Students go through a rigorous orientation process that covers technical and fundamental analysis.
James Russell Kelly - Advisor and Instructor for SMIF
James Russell Kelly, the director of the Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis, is a senior lecturer in finance at the Gabelli School of Business, where he teaches courses in value investing. He is also the instructor of Fordham University’s Student Managed Investment Fund, a two-semester academic program. In this program, Gabelli School of Business undergraduates invest $2.0 million of Fordham’s endowment in a global balanced fund consisting of all the major asset classes.
Professor Kelly has more than 30 years of experience in the international capital markets, including senior-level positions in international securities sales and trading at Merrill Lynch, where he was vice president of institutional sales; Deutsche Bank Securities, as senior vice president and manager of the international fixed-income sales and trading department; and Auerbach Grayson & Co., as executive vice president of equity emerging markets. While at Deutsche Bank, he also served as marketing director of Deutsche Bank Research, the bank’s macroeconomic research institute. He has been teaching finance at Fordham continuously since 2002.
Professor Kelly holds a BA in economics from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Columbia Business School.