Goa Institute of Management (GIM) has established an investment portfolio called the Student-run Investment Fund (“Vinidhan“) in order to provide students with an educational experience in an institutional setting. The Fund provides students with a hands-on-training in equity valuation and portfolio management with guidance from industry experts, and supervision by the finance faculty.

Mr. Murugan M and his MBA classmate Mr. Arish Qureshi knew the challenges ahead when they conceptualized the idea of Vinidhan. Mr. Deepak KS, current fund manager, remembers all the initial analysis of Security Analysis classes, plotting and planning for all the possible market outcomes. Prof. Amiya Sahu, the faculty advisor of Vinidhan, says “the team research companies and decide which stocks to buy and sell, using a chunk of cash that usually comes from GIM students and alumni. The idea is to let students experience first-hand what it’s like to play the market and learn from their mistakes”.

The latest quarterly report by the Vinidhan team claims that the fund has outperformed the benchmarks, namely the Nifty 50 index and Sensex 30. As of 30th September 2015, the fund has given returns of 21.69% since its inception as compared to negative returns from both the benchmark indices. “The beauty about this activity is that students really feel the pleasure and pain of running money,” said Prof. Manas Mayur, faculty in the Finance area of Goa Institute of Management.

Mr. Deepak KS and his team believes in investing in a diverse portfolio for which the investment decisions are made through thorough research in the form of fundamental analysis and relative valuations among others. The discussions and the process of decision-making makes for a stimulating experience for the members. “Our institute is equipped with all the latest databases and software. Our research has been considerably improved with the introduction of the finance lab with Thomson Reuters terminals” says Mr. Gaurav Nolakha and Sunil Khale, the fundamental and technical head of the fund.

Currently, it is a value-based investment fund primarily in large and mid-cap stocks. In the future, we will be looking to grow into more asset classes, in particular, debt and derivatives so as to support the theoretical learnings that happen in the classrooms. Going forward, the members are committed to the vision of making Vinidhan a successful and well-managed fund a reality through hard work, peer learning and ethical trading practices.