Tonight I went to the first finance club of winter term. I was nervous going at first because I didn’t know anyone else in the club. I looked up where the meeting was being held at 5:50, 10 minutes before it started at 6. It turns out the meeting was in Austin Hall, a business building right next to my dorm I had always wanted to check out! I walked over and up to the second floor. The hall was still buzzing with people, I think there may have been a career development event happening because most of the students were wearing business attire. I was excited to see what I could learn about investing.
Austin 274 where the meeting was held was a medium sized classroom with horizontal rows of tables pointed towards the white boards and projectors. There were maybe 25 guys and 2 girls in the the club. The club officers all introduced themselves and gave a short intro for the club advisor who lives in L.A. but teaches classes online, and will travel back to Corvallis occasionally.
We skyped the club advisor for the rest of the meeting. He originally majored in molecular biology, but ended getting a job in the investing industry and double majored in finance. He worked in Honolulu and Hong Kong, and it sounds like he has had hard jobs and been very dedicated to get where he is. He said a misconception about the finance industry is that everyone is like the Wolf on Wall Street and parties and does drugs. He said it’s actually a very nerdy profession.
Markets and investing seem very interesting me. The club advisor said passive investments are good ways for busy students, and also recommended the book Corporate Finance by Ross, Westerfield, and Jaffe. I may try to read it and see what I can learn. When he was in college he did day trading for fun and that is how he got involved in the industry.
Looking forward with the club, they have a game called Investopedia. The rules are going to be explained next week and I am excited to participate. I think I am the only engineering major, which has never been the case for me at a club before. Hopefully that means I will meet lots of new types of people. There is also a poker night because apparently traders play a lot of poker. I won’t be surprised if I get painfully outplayed because I have to admit I am unexperienced at poker. I can tell already that this club is going to be a great learning experience for me.
