“Bloomberg already provided students with Bloomberg Certification in the use of the Bloomberg terminal.  Now Bloomberg has strengthed its commitment to students achievement through the BAT,” said James and Dolores Trethewey APMP Professor Dean Johnson. “The BAT allows Bloomberg to bring prospective employers together with skilled investment students.”

Over thirty five thousand people around the world have completed this proctored exam, specifically designed for people who are interested in working with investments. The 165-question exam covers topics ranging from financial statement analysis to portfolio management, ethics, and logic in a three-hour period.

Brent Halonen, a 2011-2012 member of the Applied Portfolio Management Program achieved a notable accomplishment by placing among the top 525 (1.5%) test takers. “The BAT is was a good opportunity to show the world what we learned in school in a unbiased environment,” said Brent. “I think my results reflect the strength of APMP and the educational opportunity that it represents.”

Congratulations to Brent and the rest of the test takers.

Dean Johnson

April 3, 2012—

Dean Johnson, the James and Delores Trethewey Associate Professor in Michigan Technological University’s School of Business and Economics, has been named Professor of the Year by the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan (PCSUM). Johnson shares the honor with professors from Michigan State, Saginaw Valley State and Wayne State Universities. 

 “Dean Johnson has demonstrated his outstanding teaching ability over the years to many students through the Applied Portfolio Management Program, which he designed and directs,” said Darrell Radson, dean of the School of Business and Economics. “We are very proud that his abilities have also been recognized by higher education leaders and professors across our state.”

The four Michigan Professors of the Year were judged on student learning, interactions with graduates, experiential learning, academic advising, undergraduate research opportunities, and scholarship on teaching and learning.

“It is great to be recognized with this honor, especially since it is presented for teaching and guiding students,” Johnson said. “I know that our Applied Portfolio Management Program (APMP) also had a lot to do with it, and a lot of people have helped me with APMP over the years.”

In the APMP, students invest real money in the stock market. Their portfolio now totals more than $1.3 million. They have won the RISE (Redefining Investment Strategy Education) national investment competition three times.

In nominating Johnson, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Max Seel was effusive over the business professor’s record of advising, teaching, scholarship and devotion to his students.

“Johnson,” he said, “has a genuine concern and compassion for each individual student.” His devotion to his students was revealed when he began the APMP program, Seel said.

“APMP was the result of a single, new, untenured professor who took the risk to expend enormous amounts of time to secure the required resources necessary,” Seel said, noting that Johnson had “established an Advisory Board of investment professionals” and “secured the physical space, furniture, computers to house the program; acquired the actual money for the students to manage; built relationships with guest speakers; located internships; and many other necessary, ongoing activities.”

The APMP students are now housed in the new LSGI Trading Room, with Bloomberg trading platform, thanks to Johnson’s leadership and alumnus Joe Dancy.

Johnson has previously won the Michigan Tech Distinguished Teaching Award twice–only the third professor in the history of the University so honored. He is a member of the Michigan Tech Teaching Academy (which recognizes teaching excellence), and has been honored with the James and Delores Trethewey APMP Professorship. 

Johnson himself once said, “When I walk into the classroom, I have an hour to make a difference in the lives of those students. . . . I try to find out where they’re from and what career goals they have. Once you develop a personal relationship, it becomes much easier to push, push, push them to learn and study because they realize I truly have their best interest at heart.”

Michigan Technological University (www.mtu.edu) is a leading public research university developing new technologies and preparing students to create the future for a prosperous and sustainable world. Michigan Tech offers more than 130 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in engineering; forest resources; computing; technology; business; economics; natural, physical and environmental sciences; arts; humanities; and social sciences.

APMP students hard at work.

The School of Business and Economics awards annual scholarships to students who participate in the Applied Portfolio Management Program (APMP).  The scholarships are made possible by generous donors who have setup funds to recognize specific skill sets and characteristics in the recipients.  Each scholarship is awarded in the Spring of the academic year. We are very grateful to the generous donors that provide excellent opportunities to stand-out APMP students at Michigan Tech.

2012 Scholarship Recipients

Clarence Fisher APMP Scholarship – Jessie Patrick

Chester Reault APMP Scholarship – Todd Storm

Norb Verville APMP Scholarship – Mike Harri

Joe Dancy LSGI Scholarship – Dan Eskola

Hugh Makens APMP Scholarship – Pat Carroll

Jeff Call Memorial APMP Scholarship – Rachael Ristau

Scholarship Descriptions

The Clarence Fisher, Chester Rheault, and Norb Verville APMP scholarships recognize the impact these three former Advisory Board members had in founding APMP.  Recipients of these scholarships this year were: Jesse Patrick, Todd Storm, and Mike Harri, respectively.

As an APMP Board member from origination through today, the Hugh Makens APMP scholarship honors Hugh’s continual support of the students and the program.  Pat Carroll is the 2012 recipient.

Dan Eskola was the recipient of the LSGI Fund Scholarship, also known as the Joe Dancy LSGI Scholarship.  This scholarship is awarded to the student who displays excellent academic achievement, expresses an interest in finance or applied mathematics, and demonstrates high moral and ethical characteristics.  The LSGI Fund is a hedge fund managed by Joe Dancy, a Michigan Tech alumnus from Dallas, TX.

Finally, the Jeff Call Memorial Scholarship was given to Rachael Ristau.  Jeff Call, a 2002 graduate of the School and the APMP, passed away unexpectedly in 2006.  To honor Jeff’s contributions to the School and the APMP Advisory Board, together with Jeff’s parents, the groups established the Jeff Call Memorial Scholarship.  It is awarded annually to the senior who demonstrates the highest degree of commitment to APMP—a commitment Jeff displayed every day during his time at Michigan Tech.

James (Jim) Trethewey cites Tech's unique culture as one reason for the generosity he and his wife, Dee, display toward the University.

James and Dolores Trethewey have established a new endowed professorship in Michigan Technological University’s School of Business and Economics.

With a $1.16 million gift commitment, the couple is underwriting the James and Dolores Trethewey APMP Professorship. The inaugural recipient is Associate Professor Dean Johnson, founding director of the Applied Portfolio Management Program.

The gift supports the hands-on, real-life investment program that Johnson launched in 1998 with the Tretheweys’ backing. Finance students manage an investment portfolio of approximately $1.2 million with funds provided by a number of donors through the Michigan Tech Fund.

“This is a great and unexpected honor,” Johnson said. “I already owe them so much. Jim and Dee’s support from the first day I proposed the APMP was key to its starting. And, they have also entrusted APMP students with managing their scholarship funds for years.”

Mr. Trethewey graduated from Michigan Tech in 1967 with a BS in Business Administration. He spent most of his professional career at Cleveland-Cliffs, now Cliffs Natural Resources, retiring in 2007 as senior vice president for business development. The family devised the professorship to promote the APMP, he said, but there are many reasons for their support of Michigan Tech.

“Do you give because of the great administration and leadership exemplified by [University President] Glenn and Gail Mroz, who seem to give every waking moment to Tech?” Trethewey asked. “Or because deans like Darrell Radson and Gene Klippel before him built successful new programs? Or do you give because you have professors like Dean Johnson who have a dream and a vision and the fortitude to carry them out? Or, do you give because you have great students who bring these programs to national prominence?

“Or, is it the Tech culture, which is unique: hard work, ethics, creativity and intellect, all rolled into one? There’s an aura about Michigan Tech. It’s a special place.”

All those things matter, he said, but the impetus behind the Tretheweys’ giving can be summarized by two questions: 1. Did Michigan Tech improve your career and add to the standard of living of your entire family? 2. Do you have the desire and capability to give?

“The answer to both is a resounding yes,” said Trethewey. “Which leaves us with three more questions: How, when and how much?”

“When” is relatively easy. Tech is included in the Tretheweys’ estate plan, but they are also providing substantial annual cash gifts to support the APMP. “We wanted to see the fruits of our labors,” he explained.

“How” and “how much” are a little more complicated. “It’s like going into Walmart for a quart of milk and later coming out with $200 of packages,” he said. “We haven’t quite got our arms around our giving. I think we’re still mulling it around in the aisles of Walmart.”

Johnson is thrilled that the Tretheweys have pulled the APMP off the shelf. “It gives us a permanent source of funding,” he said. “I’d been scratching my chin, wondering how we were going to pay for student travel, with the stock market way down.”

APMP students travel for national investment competitions and, as top finishers, were once invited to open the New York Stock Exchange. Among their other destinations, they also visit the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and attend Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Neb.

“And we also give them scholarships,” Johnson said. “To fund all this has been a struggle, but now to have Dee and Jim recognize that need and meet it is just amazing.

“It’s also very humbling to have somebody recognize my dream and give it such incredible support,” Johnson added. “I’ve just been doing what I thought was the right thing to do: educate students.”

For the Tretheweys, that’s what their gift is all about. “When you pass through the halls of Michigan Tech, you come out with a first-class ticket to anywhere you want to go,” Trethewey said. “The route and the destination are up to the individual. And special programs like the APMP are examples of the tremendous role universities play in our society. We all have an obligation to help them.”

Trethewey is a member of the Michigan Tech Fund Board of Trustees, the Academy of Business and Economics, the APMP Advisory Board, and the School’s National Advisory Board.

Written by Marcia Goodrich, senior writer for University Marketing and Communciations.

This article was originally published on Michigan Tech News.

APMP, mostly comprised of finance majors, is the School’s long-time success story: winning three national competitions in just over a decade while allowing students to invest more than $1 million of real money in the stock market.

For Joe Dancy, the choice was easy.

“The unique thing about APMP is that the students have more responsibilities and decision-making than other similar programs,” he said. “They go to the national competitions and do so well against many other teams. The students are making all the decisions, and I love the diversity. We’ve had students from different countries, female members, and there have been volleyball, hockey, basketball, and football players.”

One such football player this year is Pat Carroll, wide receiver for the Huskies.

“The room is awesome,” he says. “We are lucky to have this place and get this great experience.”

Carroll transferred from Purdue because they didn’t have an APMP program. Besides being at the dedication, he had been busy prepping for his first Advisory Board meeting with Dancy and others later Thursday night.

“We have to pitch our idea,” he says. “We have to say why they should trust us with this money to manage, just like real life. We have to justify our strategy.” (“It was a little nerve-racking,” Carroll said the next day. “But we did pretty well and received a whole bunch of great criticism from the board members.”)

So, what’s new with the new room?

“The addition of Bloomberg TV gives our students the same advantages as industry professionals,” says Dean Johnson, associate professor of finance and the founder and advisor to APMP. “We are the only educational institution in the UP with these improved trading capabilities. In addition to investing, students can also use its job line. It is a job-matching feature on a private line.”

Johnson said the students also appreciate the bright, window-walled room, which features more space, privacy and elbow room.

Student Anne Dancy (Joe and Vickey’s daughter and APMP member) especially appreciates the increase in space.

“We’ll be able to do more teamwork and use all our resources to become even more successful,” she said.

By Dennis Walikainen, senior editor. Posted in Tech Today on October 10, 2011.

Joe Dancy featured with the 2010-2011 Applied Portfolio Management Program students

Joe Dancy, an avid supporter of Michigan Tech and the Applied Portfolio Management Program, has been featured in the Wall Street Journal discussing the benefits of teaching and establishing relationships.

His message, focused on getting involved, is important:

There are plenty of opportunities in high schools, community colleges and universities for advisers to become involved in academia. Working with a school at any level says to clients and other parties: “People are interested in hearing what I have to say.” It’s also a great opportunity to hear feedback on your work. You find out whether the issues you’re addressing are engaging and whether or not you’re able to effectively communicate them. And advisers are not limited to addressing business programs. You could speak to the members of a math department or law school or you could coach a stock market team.

Thanks Joe, for all of your support and many words of wisdom!

Read the full article here.

Annette Felton, 2011 LSGI Fund Scholarship Recipient

We are pleased to announce that Michigan Technological University senior Annette Felton is the 2011 LSGI Scholarship award winner. The scholarship is awarded to a student who displays excellent academic achievement, expresses an interest in finance or applied mathematics, and demonstrates high moral and ethical characteristics.

Ms. Felton is from Chesterton, Indiana, and attended Michigan Technological University because of its unique Applied Portfolio Management Program (APMP). The undergraduate APMP students actively manage, under guidance, $1.5 million of the school’s endowment fund.

This unique program is comprised of Michigan Tech finance students from various countries around the globe. Historical returns of the student managed APMP portfolio have exceeded the S&P 500 index. While the program is small (14 students this year), graduates of the program are
working across the globe for various financial institutions, money management firms, and hedge funds.

From a statistical standpoint, the students in the program have provided the portfolio with positive ‘alpha’ (excess returns) for the level of risk they have incurred. The students’ portfolio is managed as an ‘enhanced index’ portfolio, split between student selected exchange traded
funds, stocks, and bonds. This year, students have also developed strategies to effectively trade options which has enhanced the learning experience.

APMP students were recently interviewed by a local television station on the impact of global unrest on investment strategy and the markets, and were interviewed live by Bloomberg radio at the recent University of Dayton investment symposium.

Annette is the co-founder and Vice President of the MTU Finance Club and is an active member of the Dean’s Student Advisory Council. Last year as part of the APMP team she attended the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting in Omaha and met Warren Buffett and Charles Munger. Graduating in Finance with a minor in International Business and the German language, she has an interest in foreign currency and cash management. She has been offered a position as a financial analyst from the global mining powerhouse ArcelorMittal.

In her free time she enjoys backpacking, volunteering at the humane society, water sports, and traveling both domestically and abroad. We are proud to have Annette Felton as the 2011 recipient of the LSGI Scholarship.

To learn more about the LSGI Fund, please visit their website.

This year RISE drew over 1,500 students, faculty and professionals from around the world to gather for insights on economic trends, market opportunities and developments in the investment world during the three-day forum.

Michigan Tech sent 11 APMP students to Ohio. Students representing Michigan Tech this year included Jacob Carlson,  Zhouli Yuan, Gengyang Pan, Jacob Vehring, Mengjiao Zhou, Wei He, Yihong Yao, Simin Chen, Annette Felton, Nathan Johnson,  and Jessica Pakonen.

From the RISE website: In the 10-year history of R.I.S.E., the forum has attracted nearly 13,000 total participants from the financial industry and colleges and universities from around the globe. Known as the largest student investment conference in the world, each year R.I.S.E. extends an invitation to business professionals to share in the first day of this two and one-half day event.  And for good reason.  The keynote panelists and speakers, who are the best and the brightest from Wall Street, corporate America, the financial media, and the international community, hold equal appeal for students, professors and practitioners alike.

About APMP

The Applied Portfolio Management Program, a course within Michigan Tech’s School of Business and Economics, manages over $1.2 million in the equity and fixed income markets. The fund is supported by donations from alumni and friends, and investment revenues support student travel and scholarships. Established in 1998, APMP has placed first at the Redefining Investment Strategy Education (RISE) forum three times since the competition began.

Republished from TV6 News.

HOUGHTON — Buy?  Sell?  Do nothing at all?

The stock market, at times, can seem like a bit of gamble, especially when events around the world rattle markets.  It’s certainly been an interesting few months for students participating in Michigan Tech’s Applied Portfolio Management Program (APMP).

Each year the group oversees the investment of a $1.3 million university endowment fund.  And this year they’ve seen a lot of activity in the market.

“We are down since March 11th when the earthquake happened, but we expect that to come back quickly,” says senior Jacob Carlson.  “Right now is actually one of the best opportunities to earn money.  There’s a lot of potential.”

The students say they’ve hedged their risk by holding a diversified portfolio.  They’ve got about 35 securities and are always considering new investments.  In fact, they’ve been eyeing a few Japanese companies for several months and say the disaster’s financial impact isn’t all bad.

“Japan has kind of become a pretty big opportunity for investors that are looking for something that’s slow right now and will increase in the future,” Carlson says.

Edward Jones financial adviser Bob Nelson agrees that global thinking is a great way to survive inevitable sell-offs.  He encourages his clients to stay calm, pointing out that uncertainty is sometimes worse than actual bad news.

“Be careful of what the crowds do because they’re typically wrong,” says Nelson.  “The answer is don’t guess on any one play, be diversified.”

Nelson also cautions people to pay attention to the decline of the U.S. dollar.

He says his firm recommends people invest 30 percent of their portfolio in non-U.S. holdings.

Other tips include:  talk to a friend or adviser who can be objective about your money, and consider all aspects of a company (long-term performance, dividends, etc.) before deciding to buy or sell.

In This Issue

The spring 2011 publication features the growth of the Applied Portfolio Management Program over the last 13 years, research on gender inequalities in academia, three alums who are leaving their mark on their companies and Michigan Tech, and much, much more. Read Impact now!

Please take a look and let us know what you think by filling out our contact form or emailing business@mtu.edu.