"We're in a very volatile market these days," he says.

Mark G. Heiman '00, who says he plans to withdraw his money from the Charles River Fund, says the recent losses can be attributed to a case of "too many chiefs and not enough Indians."

"There were lots of positive ideas, but impossible to act on all of them," he says.

To provide some comparison, the S&P 500 Index, a commonly used benchmark of stock performance, has increased by 18 percent since the beginning of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has increased by 10 percent.

Wilkis encourages students of all interests, not just future investment bankers, to join student-run funds.

"Harvard students have a lot of knowledge, which should lead to market knowledge," she says.

A Romance Studies concentrator, she says shehas been interested in investing for a long time,having grown up in an investment-conscious family,with ticker-tape strewn around the house andBloomberg financial reports playing on TV.

While Wilkis will start a job with MerrillLynch next fall, not everyone is looking to investas a career, however, which "lend[s] a diversityto the group that is valuable in picking stocks,"she says.

Neiladri Sinhababu '01, a philosophyconcentrator and member of the World fund, joinedthe fund after his dad told him to "learnsomething practical."

"I want to be able to ward off starvation if acareer in philosophy doesn't work out," Sinhababusays.

The groups have no official ties to the campusthrough other student organizations or the Dean ofStudents' Office, which will not recognizefor-profit student organizations. They havesimilar origins, started several years ago bystudents who went into business.

Three members of the class of 1996 started theCharles River Fund in 1995. Wilkis says their goalwas to introduce students to the challenges andrewards of personal investing, not explicitlymoney making. All three founders later joinedMorgan Stanley, where one, Andrew Earls '96,remains as an associate.

The established network of fund alumni givesmembers a distinct advantage in the recruitingprocess, Wilkis says.

"Nearly every person I interviewed with knewabout the fund or had been part of it," she says.

The Cambridge World Fund is newer, startedabout three years ago with roughly 20 members. Ithas tripled in size over the last year.

Present members say the funds fill a gap leftby Harvard's liberal-arts education.

Soudavar, who took two years off to work for aninvestment bank, says he became interested inrunning the fund because there is a void on campusfor those interested in the practice, not just thestudy, of investing.

"[The Harvard Investment Association] does agreat job bringing in speakers. We try to applyour knowledge," he says.

Past member of both funds and current GoldmanSachs associate Kris Thiessen '98 says, "The fundsare the only place on campus where you can sitdown with a bunch of other students and say 'doesthis stock make sense for this price!"

"Harvard is too much about theory and notenough about practice," Soudavar says. "Managingthe fund is an opportunity to learn aboutaccounting, market psychology, and valuation. Theweekly meetings recreate scenes like the morningmeetings one might witness in the equitiesdivision of an investment bank."  --Saadi Soudavar '0