In February 2014, an anonymous Parker parent who works in the investment world donated $10,000 to help start up a new club called Investment Club. Since then, the club has made long-term investments in stocks and have nearly doubled their principle, having $17,829 in the account as of April 18th, 2019.

The club, which meets every Thursday during U-Lunch, consists mostly of sophomores and juniors, with the head of the club being senior Ashley O’Toole. There is a learning and educational aspect of the club that faculty sponsor Kevin Conlon instills in the members. “What we try to encourage is the notion of long term investing,” Conlon said, “…and a big lesson to be learned in Investment Club is that you want to encourage good savings and investing habits.”

During the club meetings, students often share a pitch about a certain stock they believe the club should invest in that they prepare at home. They discuss the pros and cons of the stock, the stats, and the growth rates of the stock. “For every stock, there is an argument for and an argument against,” sophomore Matthew Garchik said. “You can’t just look at what the experts are saying, you have to look at why, and you have to take that information and make your own conclusions.”

Sophomore Noah Keim agreed with Garchik, emphasizing that knowledge of the stock market is essential. “No stock is a completely original idea,” Keim said. “To find it you have to go through the stock market and we will always look at expert analysis before we buy anything.”

Each pitch is open to critique from the rest of the club as well as questions. Once the pitch process is complete, the members vote on whether it is a good idea to invest in the stock, and if so, they also discuss whether that moment is the right time to buy it or a later date. “I try and really look at the stock from different angles that maybe the person who did the pitch didn’t think of,” Keim said.

In years past, Keim noticed that the club wasn’t as serious as it could have been and he wanted to change that. “Garchik, Ashley, and I really tried to change the attitude of the club this year into trying to make as much as we can and teach as many people about investing as we can,” Keim said. “Last year the club wasn’t as serious and there were a lot more joke pitches, and this year we really try to keep it to real pitches that are viable. Before we had bought companies just because people liked them.”

Before this year the club was very reluctant to sell for fear of losing possible gains. “This year we are putting more of an emphasis on selling and buying,” Garchik said, “rather than just acquiring stocks and holding them.”

Dating all the way back to 2014, the club has current investments in 15-20 stocks that the students have pitched, according to Conlon. Outside of the Thursday U-Lunch meetings is where most of the researching to find stocks to pitch occurs. “Outside of the club, I’m always on the lookout for interesting articles and interesting videos about investing,” Keim said. “Keeping up to date about the stock market is something I didn’t do as much as I do now that I’m the Vice President.”

The club has shifted its focus this year and it has really shown through the increase in total money they have in their investments. At this time, the club has flirted with the $18,000 line but Garchik wants the number to be steadily above that by the end of the year. At their lowest point early this year, the portfolio was down to around $13,000 so they have made about a $5,000 profit through investments since then.

In regards to what the club will eventually do with the money, Conlon has the goal of liquidating the money and putting it towards a scholarship fund. “Ultimately the money is dedicated to a scholarship fund,” Conlon said, “but we haven’t talked about ever liquidating it.”

Between Garchik and Keim, a real effort been in the evolution to become something more serious than before. “The main difference between this year’s club and last year’s club is this year we are more serious and more focused on investing,” Keim said.