Sellinger Applied Portfolio Fund

Students working in the SELL

The student-managed Sellinger Applied Portfolio Fund at Loyola University Maryland, also known as the “SAP Fund,” was established to provide students with actual portfolio management experience. Students are exposed to the various aspects of the portfolio management process, including asset valuation, diversification, portfolio optimization, asset selection, risk management, performance evaluation, and rebalancing. Each year, the University may provide the SAP Fund with up to $500,000 to invest. These funds are a component of the University’s endowment. All investments within the SAP Fund are liquidated annually at the end of the course.

Students have access to the Bloomberg ProfessionalS&P Capital IQ, and Morningstar Direct platform for research, and classes are conducted in the SELL—the trading floor located in the Sellinger School of Business and Management.

Investment Policy

Background and Learning Objectives

The student-managed Sellinger Applied Portfolio Fund, also known as the “SAP Fund,” was established to provide students with actual portfolio management experience exposure, including asset valuation, constraint setting asset allocation, asset selection, risk management, and performance evaluation. Each year, the University may provide the SAP Fund with up to $500,000 to invest. These funds are a component of the University’s endowment. All investments within the SAP Fund are liquidated annually at the end of the course

Investment Philosophy

  • Allowable investments include:
    • U.S. exchange listed stocks, including ADRs.
      • Unleveraged ETFs, including stock index ETFs and Commodity ETFs
      • Only investment grade securities.
    • Unallowable investments include “sin” stocks, e.g., manufacturers of cigarettes, alcohol, firearms, or companies engaged in gambling activities. Moral and social considerations must be taken into consideration throughout the investment process, with emphasis on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops principles of investments.

Investment Strategies

  • The primary investment strategy is to select stocks that are undervalued and will outperform their industry and the S&P 500 index over the course of the investment period
  • Diversification across sectors will be a key part of the investment strategy, although given market conditions in a particular time period, certain sectors may be significantly under-weighted and others over-weighted. Asset allocation targets include:
    • Not more than 10% will be invested in any one stock
    • Not more than 20% will be invested in a single sector
    • Not more than 25% will be invested in a single index
  • There will ordinarily be three types of investment strategies within the SAP Fund
    • A growth investment strategy
    • A value investment strategy
    • A dividend strategy
  • Depending on economic conditions during a given period, the SAP Fund may be more heavily weighted towards one or two of these investment strategies. The primary objective is to work towards a mix that includes:
    • 40% Value
    • 40% Growth
    • 20% Dividend
  • Rebalancing Criteria
    • The fund will be monitored and periodically rebalanced to ensure that the targets as specified in Investment Strategies, to ensure diversification, will be adhered to
    • Rebalancing may be necessary after re-evaluating positions in securities that have significantly underperformed and/or those that have significantly over performed resulting in these securities becoming temporarily overvalued
  • Proxy voting will be in agreement with company recommendations

Research Sources and Process

  • The primary research database will be the Reuters Eikon platform which is available to the students in the SELL
  • Additional research sources may include:
    • Company announcements
    • Global markets & foreign exchange
    • Inflation / unemployment / housing statistics
    • Consumer confidence
    • Interest rates and Federal Reserve announcements
    • Political news
  • Fundamental analysis / use of ratios and valuation models, to include debt ratios, ROA, ROE, P/E, PEG, current & quick ratios.

Oversight and Process

Investment Committee of Board

  • Approve annual allocation to SAP Fund;
  • Monitor performance of SAP Fund on a monthly basis as part of the University’s endowment; and
  • May invite faculty and students to attend Investment Committee meetings to discuss SAP Fund

Faculty

  • Provide oversight and direction to students;
  • Submit buy and sell requests to Associate Vice President for Finance for approval and to Director of Investment and Treasury Services for processing; and
  • Submit semester end reports detailing Fund performance to Department Chair, Associate Vice President for Finance, Director of Investment and Treasury Services

Students

  • Perform research and rebalancing within portfolio
  • Prepare buy and sell requests for approval by faculty

Office of Business and Finance

  • Associate vice president for finance approves all buy and sell requests;
  • Director of investment and treasury services works with investment custodian to process all buy and sell requests; and
  • Ensure all investments within the SAP Fund are liquidated annually

Investment Custodian and Investment Consultant

  • Process all buy and sell requests
  • Provide quarterly Fund performance report

Portfolios

Academic Year 22-23

Portfolios Student Fund managers 
Spring 2023 Download Bios
Fall 2022 Download Bios
Spring 2022 Download Bios

Past Porfolios

2013-2021

Semester Portfolio Downloads Student Fund Manager Profiles
 2021 Fall Portfolio Student Managers
 2021 Summer Portfolio  Student Managers
2021 Spring Portfolio Student Managers
2020 Fall Portfolio  Student Managers
2020 Summer Portfolio Student Managers
2020 Spring Portfolio
Student Managers
2019 Fall Portfolio Student Managers
2019 Summer Portfolio Student Managers
2019 Spring Portfolio Student Managers
2018 Summer Portfolio Student Managers
2018 Spring Portfolio Student Managers
2017 Fall Portfolio Student Managers
2017 Summer Portfolio Student Managers
2017 Spring Portfolio Student Managers
2016 Fall Portfolio Student Managers
2016 Spring Portfolio Student Managers
2014 Fall Portfolio Student Managers
2014 Spring Portfolio Student Managers
2013 Fall Portfolio Student Managers 
2013 Spring Portfolio