STAR (Student Trading and Research)

Be a part of a team that manages over $250,000 of ACU's endowment.

In the 1980’s, former ACU professor and Board of Trustee member, Don Drennan, conceived of a student managed investment fund. He and Mrs. Drennan made a $25,000 donation to ACU to provide the money for such a fund. By 1999, the $25,000 had grown to $50,000 but this amount was managed as a part of ACU’s overall endowment funds.

In fall of 1999, Dr. Jonathan Stewart, Dr. Terry Pope and Dr. Jack Griggs selected a group of students to assume management of these funds. The professors decided that the students needed at least $100,000 to manage. The three professors, along with ACU trustee Randy Nicholson, added an additional $61,000 of their own money to be invested by the students. This was in addition to the ACU money. To accommodate both the ACU money and the money of the professors and Mr. Nicholson, the fund was originally organized as a limited liability corporation. The legal groundwork was done, policies and procedures were written. The students decided to call their fund STAR, an acronym for Student Trading and Research. In June 2000, the fund made its first stock purchase. The fund has always enjoyed strong leadership and participation from the student managers.

Each complete year from 2001 to 2004, the STAR fund outperformed the S&P 500 index which serves as a benchmark for the fund. This success is in no small part a reflection of past presidents. Past presidents include Matt Cave, Allison Bradfield, Luke Alverson, Micah Foster, Tim Davidson, Casey Miles, and Mark Rich. Twice during these years, STAR paid a distribution to the members of the L.L.P. The ACU portion of this distribution was used for scholarships for COBA students.

During January of 2005, Jack Rich, Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for ACU was instrumental in the restructuring of the fund. The STAR L.L.P. was dissolved and the outside investors’ funds were returned to them. An additional contribution was made by the ACU endowment, bringing the total fund value to $260,000. During 2005, STAR maintained its record of outperforming the broad market.  In 2005, the STAR fund return was 5.66% as compared to the S&P 500 return of 4.91%.

To view STAR's article in the ACU News, click here.

Faculty sponsors:

Dr. Terry Pope
Professor of Finance
terry.pope@coba.acu.edu

Dr. Jonathan Stewart
Professor of Finance
jonathan.stewart@coba.acu.edu