The College of Business (COB) Student Investment Fund (SIF) program was launched in the Fall 2010 semester based on the $250,000 investment fund allocated to the COB by University Enterprises Incorporated (UEI).
In SIF, we have 11 different groups as it is divided by the stock sectors, and 3~4 people in a group mainly focus on that specific sector. The group that I was in charge of was the energy sector.
2020 was a rough year for the stock market, especially the energy sector. On April 20, the U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate crude, dropped to the historical low of minus $40 a barrel. During that time, we mainly focused on buying the oil companies that have relatively healthy and strong financial conditions and continued to purchase renewable energy companies. SIF focuses more on long-term investment. Therefore, we believe that solar energy will be the dominant source of energy in the future.
About The Energy Sector Portfolio
Our sector began with a total portfolio value of $30,571.20 on January 22, 2020, holding 185 shares of XLE, 100 shares of XOM, 85 shares of VLO, and 100 shares of MPC. Our first action was to sell off the underperforming XOM; we sold all 100 shares of XOM. Since then, we have purchased 60 shares of COP, 800 shares of SOI, and 135 shares of ENPH.
Despite the S&P 500’s total return of -11.80%, semester-to-date, our sector has far outperformed all benchmarks, providing a positive return of 4.59%, as of 5/8/2020, for our Fund.
***Disclaimer: All investments involve some degree of risk; The data is for reference only.