The Duquesne Micro-Cap Fund (DMCF) will officially launch in fall 2016 thanks to the generosity of several donors, led by alumnus Jack Glover (B’88) of Incline Equity. The DMCF will be student-run and offer a hands-on learning experience in small company investing (firms in the “micro-cap” category have a market capitalization between $50-$300 million). Students will operate the fund out of the Investment Center and have $150,000 to start with, giving them the opportunity to invest real money in exciting small companies.
“As I’ve been increasing my level of engagement with the university, there’s a tremendous amount of effort and emphasis on really preparing students as they matriculate into the real world,” says Jack.
Jack, as well as the other donors, wanted to create the DMCF in part because of the valued relationship they maintained over the years with Assistant Professor of Finance Vashishta Bhaskar. “We wanted to give students the ability to experience the same level of learning because it was one of the most transformative learning experiences during my time at Duquesne,” he says.
“It’s one thing to learn the theory, but there is a big difference between theory and practice. This will give students a foundation of the actual management of capital, and potential employers will look favorably upon this experience,” says Robert Erwin, Managing Director of Babson Capital Management.
In 1987, Vashishta designed a futures trading class in which students traded commodities in a real-world setting. At the time, the micro-cap fund did not exist. However, he and the students invested some of their own money and everyone was assigned a commodity.
Jack recalls, “That was my first real exposure to fundamental analysis. One of the best experiences I had at Duquesne was when we invested real money. That was a very powerful experience for me. I use the skills I learned at Duquesne every single day.”
Vashishta’s approach to teaching emphasizes learning by doing. “It’s a continuous learning experience, and all my classes are geared around managing money in the classroom,” he says.
The DMCF offers a distinctive learning opportunity. “They will learn through experience, they will make mistakes, but they will learn from those mistakes. Investing and analyzing—it’s like a board game,” he continues. “The students will learn how to recognize and seize opportunities to earn abnormal returns and manage real money in a space where inefficiencies exist.”
As the faculty advisor for the DMCF, Vashishta plans to publicize the fund’s results across the financial planning community and post them in a public forum so others can study the outcomes and learn from students’ experiences.
Duquesne Micro-Cap Fund Supporters
