Product

Dylan Pham

Hedge Fund Management

9 January 2023

Introduction and Statement of Purpose

For my product this year studying hedge fund management, I am planning on creating my own investment portfolio using my own money as well as MarketSim.  I would like to use my own money because I want to create my own investment portfolio anyway and because I would like to develop my own investment strategy.  However, I would also like to utilize MarketSim as a tool in order to display an investment portfolio with large spending power similar to how I would handle an investor’s money.  In addition to my investment portfolio, I would like to accommodate it with a paper on why I invested in particular stocks, ETFs, bonds, etc.  I would also like to include reports on each investment from Charles Schwab, Morningstar, and other sources of information.

As this is my first experience with investing, I would like to record what resources I used, what investments I made, and the reasons behind these investments.  Hopefully, through creating this product, I will be able to develop my own investment style and become more acquainted with terms and concepts in relation to investing.

Review of Skills and Research

         Although much of my research pertained to hedge funds and their structure, my product will concern what hedge fund managers actually do: manage money and investments.  Although I will not have the capital or tools to invest as hedge funds do, I will be investing with my own money and simulated money.  My research and interviews indicated the importance of researching and keeping up with trends, so for a large portion of my product, I will be recording trends and keeping up with new developments that will accommodate my investment decisions.  Charles Schwab also offers a short selling option which I would like to explore for the purpose of explaining a very useful tool that hedge funds use.  I will also need to touch up on my terminology which includes terms like “call-options, put-options, bids, asks, short-selling, ETFs, bonds, etc.

Methodology

• Create account with Charles Schwab and start portfolio and keep up with MarketSim portfolio

• Meet with Mentor and go over product details

• Diversify portfolio more; look into ETFs, Bonds, CDs

• Explore but don’t use options and shorting on Charles Schwab

• Collect research and sources for portfolio

• Create paper listing reasons for investment decisions; also maybe finish presentation to go along with my beginner’s investing journey

Materials

• Laptop

• iPhone

• Charles Schwab App and Website w/ Account

• News Articles (Yahoo Finance, Morningstar, Argus, etc.)

• MarketSim

Conclusions

 Through creating this product, I believe that I will discover what investment style best suits me as well as what type of investments work in today’s market.  I hope to become more acquainted with using Charles Schwab’s interface as well as the terminology associated with investing.  I would also like to explore the feature of selling short because that is essentially what many hedge funds do to make money.  In the end, I hope to be able to differentiate between ETFs, bonds, stocks, etc.  Most importantly, I wish to find the research resources that work well for me and my investing.  I believe that my product which details my first experience with investing will help others start out with their entrepreneurial ventures.

Calendar/Timeline  

11 January 2023 - Create an account with Charles Schwab and start a portfolio and keep up with MarketSim portfolio

25 January 2023 - Meet with Mentor and go over product details

24 February 2023 - Diversify portfolio more; look into ETFs, Bonds

17 March 2023 - Don’t use, but explore options and shorting

7 April 2023 - Collect research and sources for portfolio

14 April 2023 - Finish compiling resources and reasons for investment and finish presentation to accompany the product