Coinciding with the end of the semester and finals week, the CIS University Finance and Investment Club, (FIC), held their final meeting to close out its successful inaugural “season” and lay the groundwork for the upcoming fall ’24 investing season.
The Club’s coordinator, Professor Ricardo Estellés, utilized this meeting to review all the books, activities, and guests that contributed to this season’s activities in the classroom.
Accordingly, he began the session by recalling how the group took its first steps exploring compound interest, analyzing the incredible effects that this practice can generate in savings through constancy in the long term.
Before an attentive audience, Professor Estellés reviewed, one by one, the full content of the different topics that were addressed during the entire semester, as well as those that laid the very foundations for this initiation into the exciting world of finance, savings, and investment.
– Essential authors and publications: At CIS University we believe that training does not end once the class finishes, so reading is essential to complete and reinforce the content taught in class.
Morgan Housel’s “The Psychology of Money”, Michael Batnick’s “Big Mistakes”, Peter Thiel’s “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future “, “The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution”, by Gregory Zuckerman are all must-read books with a deep focus on investment and finances.
– Types of Investment: According to Estelles, “it is necessary to differentiate what is and what is not an investment. There are different types of assets, for example luxury goods, which may seem to be an investment but actually become unprofitable liabilities, beyond the occasional satisfaction associated with being able to buy them”.
One of the FIC meetings was held precisely to define and classify the most recurrent types of assets, how they behave in the medium and long term, and what their expected profitability is: real estate, financial assets, commodities, corporate investments, company shares, public debt, and finally cryptocurrencies.
– Real estate investment model: As a result of this distinction between assets, one of the most common investments among Spanish families is the acquisition of real estate. To optimize this process and be able to forecast future profitability, Club members learned how to create a dynamic table from scratch, with a model of investment and return calculation.
– Active versus passive income, advantages and disadvantages: As discussed during another one of the sessions, in the investment world the debate between passive and active management has become a hot topic in recent years. It is important for the student and future investor to know the differences between both models, as well as their advantages and disadvantages, especially the cost of commissions for the investor.
– History and profitability of passive indexing: Precisely because active and passive income have been explored previously, our next important historical finance figure that we analyzed, John Bogle, was included while reviewing this topic. He was the inventor of passive indexing – and known in the finance space as “the king of passive investment.”
Naturally, the Club was not exclusively focused on master classes, but there was enough time to welcome prestigious speakers who gave us the great gift of their time and knowledge:
– Rodrigo Cobos, from Nogal Capital: Who explained the principles of value investing through his “always focused on the long term” strategy while avoiding short term strategies as much as possible because they are generally unproductive.
– Carlos Gónzález, from Cobas Asset Management: The Director of Investor Relations, Marketing and Communication, gave CIS University students a master class on how a management fund works, as well as information in terms of the professional profiles sought by hiring managers in the sector, and elaborated on his organization’s investment philosophy.
Let’s remember that Cobas is the management that was founded by Francisco Paramés, aka “the Spanish Warren Buffett,” a nickname resulting from his focus on value investing and his ability to identify opportunities in the market. We are therefore talking about one of the most iconic and relevant companies within the Spanish financial environment.
The meeting between the members of the FIC concluded with the selection of club organizational positions, which were ratified by Ricardo Estellés in his role as President, as well as CIS student, Sebastián Mander, as Vice-president, plus all other members of the Club.
In the words of deputy member and frequent collaborator, Professor Gabriel Ferrer: “Excuse the easy pun, but I think there is no doubt that we have all had a prosperous semester of great interest to everyone involved.”
The Investment and Finance Club will resume its activity with renewed strength and new ideas in the fall, after a well-deserved summer vacation.
