Michael Orlando Economist Economic Advisors (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)
GEM lecturer Michael J. Orlando, PhD, who is also an Economic Advisors Principal Consultant and Adjunct Professor of Finance at Tulane University, recently participated in an Economic roundtable hosted by the Denver Post.
Orlando was one of four local experts who discussed themes investors should be watching in the months ahead. He enjoyed being a part of this great panel and found the other participants’ comments quite insightful.
“I think we generally agreed that the economic recovery would continue at a sluggish pace for the foreseeable future,” Orlando said. “And, we all identified risks associated with sluggishness in overseas markets. I was probably the least concerned with inflationary risks. One panelist cautioned against reaching for returns in long-term, high-yield credit markets, but suggested that shorter-term instruments were worth the risk. I thought that was very useful guidance.”
Orlando began his career with Shell Oil Company providing reservoir engineering and economic evaluation expertise for oil and gas exploration and development projects in the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. Orlando’s research spans a range of topics in applied microeconomics. He has published work on corporate governance, financial regulatory policy, the economics of payments networks, the geography and industrial demography of innovation, and energy and environmental policy. He is also a practiced teacher and has developed courses in economics, finance, and energy business strategy. Furthermore, he has co-authored a textbook on money and banking.
Below is a portion of the Denver Post article that features Orlando. Read more: Economics experts: Watch interest rates, and stick with equities – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_23169279/economics-experts-watch-interest-rates-and-stick-equities#ixzz2U2giebEN.
Economics experts: Watch interest rates, and stick with equities
After racing higher in the first quarter, U.S. stock markets turned volatile in April, raising concerns that a spring slump, if not something worse, might take hold for the fourth year in a row. The Denver Post assembled a panel of four local experts last week to discuss some themes investors should be watching in the months ahead. They were Charlie Farrell, CEO of Northstar Investment Advisors; Sandy Rufenacht, chief investment officer of Three Peaks Capital; Michael Orlando, an economist with Economic Advisors; and Michelle Gibley, director of international research with Charles Schwab.
The roundtable was open to the public, and some audience questions are included. Below is an edited version of the discussion.
The Post: I want to get your thoughts on where things are headed. Are we at a turning point, or do stocks have more time to run?
Farrell: It’s been a nice year already, so if you just ended it right here, that would be a pretty good return. You’re most likely not going to predict a turning point. Stick with the fundamentals in your portfolio. I think the environment is OK, and you should expect some OK markets.
Rufenacht: The fixed-income markets have had a lot of the upside wrung out of them. The money flows, frankly, have to go somewhere, and it’s in equity markets. I think it ends up being a pretty good environment, given that corporation after corporation is pretty healthy.
Orlando: I’m the dismal scientist, so I’ll always say the most negative thing. I don’t know what we can expect out of equities in the current environment when fundamentals are this soft. They’ll probably continue to plug along. When you look at what has done well very recently, it has been noncyclical stocks. In an expansion, you would expect people, investors, to throw their money into cyclicals to really get some leverage as the economy takes off. They’re not going for the stuff that would traditionally grow — that’s because they don’t expect it to really grow.
Gibley: In the near term, a pullback for stocks seems somewhat likely because the market is near a record high right now and yet the economic data coming in is a little soft. People were thinking maybe this will be the fourth straight year we’ve had another soft patch. But some factors this year mitigate. The first is that the housing recovery is really in a lot better place. A year ago, everybody was getting concerned about Greece and a breakup of the euro, and now people aren’t really talking about that. Thirdly, and this might sound a little funny, the political rancor in Washington is actually a little bit less than it was. Stocks have the ability to participate when economic growth reaccelerates, which we believe will happen.
The Post: Gold prices cratered earlier in April, and commodities softened. What do you think is driving that?
Gibley: Gold is kind of tricky to value because there aren’t any cash flows associated with it. China is roughly about 40 percent of demand for most commodities, so if China is slowing, it really has a big impact. Another thing that’s hurt prices for commodities overall is the increase in the dollar.
Orlando: In some respect, this is a concession by speculators on inflation. They are finally conceding some ground. There’s been a lot of rancor over monetary policy — that we’ve kept it too low, that we’re going to see inflation blow up. It’s just not happening.
Rufenacht: Gold is not being used as the inflation hedge that it’s typically used for.Farrell: It just illustrates the market is very trigger-happy, so with the slightest little adjustment in perception, we can see prices change really quickly. Just don’t overreact, OK?
GEM’s Gems May 2013 – Ryan Lunsford
If you have an appreciation for the GEM Speaker Series, you may want to thank this month’s featured “Gem.” Ryan Lunsford, along with a couple of his classmates from Cohort 1, helped with the creation of the speaker series events after discovering the impressive talents and achievements of his fellow students.
“When Cohort 1 first met for our weekend in Denver, it didn’t take long for us to realize that we really had a stacked group,” said Lunsford, Project Manager of Enterprise Products.
“There were quite a few of my fellow students who had already achieved some great things in their careers in the energy industry. That said, we decided to create a forum for some of those individuals to share their experiences, and the GEM Speaker Series was born.”
Today, the speaker series has grown to include distinguished leaders who hail from industry, the private sector, and government. It has also helped enhance the GEM Program’s curriculum and presence in the community.
Lunsford, 36, who lives in Houston, is still very much connected to the GEM Program and its alumni. Two years ago, he hosted a dinner with some of the GEM graduates who reside in Houston, and they jokingly called it the “Inaugural Meeting of the GEM Alumni – Houston Chapter.” This April, the group along with Cathy Steffek, Director of External Relations at the GEM Program, arranged a GEM barbecue.
“This time the group’s size had more than doubled, so we had to move the party outside,” Lunsford said. “There were even some students and alumni in attendance who were Houston natives or had never lived in Colorado — a testament to the growing reach of the GEM Program.”
Briefly describe your current role and responsibilities.
I manage different types of engineering and construction projects as my company expands its midstream asset portfolio, from natural gas treating facilities and compressor stations to NGL fractionation facilities and even the pipelines that transport these products from the wellhead to the downstream markets. It’s rewarding because I’m able to work with the project from “cradle to grave,” starting with our internal business development team when we develop the project scope and economic justification. Once the project is funded, I work with our internal engineering teams and external engineering consulting firms to ensure the design will satisfy not only the business need, but also comply with company and industry standards for safety and operability. With the design in hand, my team works to bid the project, select construction firms, and manage the construction effort until the asset is complete and ready to operate. Along the way, I’m responsible for keeping the project on budget and on-time.
How has the GEM Program benefited you and your company? Have you been promoted since you began the program?
When I started the GEM Program I was working with an engineering consulting firm in Lakewood, Colorado in a project engineering role. Halfway through the GEM Program, I accepted an offer to begin working with Enterprise Products in Houston in project management.
The GEM program has provided me with a broader understanding of how the energy industry is integrated from the wellhead to the consumer. Most of the customers that I work with are producers. The knowledge I’ve gained from the GEM program has allowed me to better understand their needs, so that we can align our efforts to make both parties more successful. Further, learning about how commodity prices affect the industry globally has helped me to better contribute to the commercial decisions that we make locally when selecting which projects we will fund and build.
What were some of your favorite things to do during cohort weekends?
Four days of intense immersion during each cohort period all but forced my classmates and me to get to know each other; however, the friendships that I developed with these folks will last a lifetime. My favorite aspect of the cohort weekends was finding ways to decompress with my classmates after class. I’m sure that downtown Denver didn’t know quite what to make of us, but we sure had a good time at the ballpark, the bowling alley, or for that matter, wherever we ended up.
Please share a story about GEM that will entertain other students.
It was fun to keep up with my classmates’ lives outside of GEM – when life got in the way of group work, we’d always cover for each other. My wife and I were married in Hawaii during the fifth quarter of my coursework, and I took my computer along for the trip so that I didn’t “drop the ball” for my team members. Though my bride-to-be understood when I snuck away to check on our research report during the first couple of days, my team members were less than impressed when they received e-mails with suggestions for our deliverable. I recall a response to my e-mail that read, “Ryan, you need to close your computer and get yourself married. Stop e-mailing us!” I took their advice and forgot about group work for the rest of the week.
Why did you choose the GEM Program at CU Denver?
I set a goal to earn a Master’s degree in business to supplement my undergraduate engineering degree, as I am equally interested in the management and financial aspects of energy as I am in the technical side of the business. Before finding the GEM Program, I visited several universities with respected MBA programs, but I had difficulty developing a vision for how their curriculum would integrate into the oil & gas industry. When I was tipped off that the GEM Program was being developed to focus on the energy industry I immediately knew it was the right fit.
Twenty-three students will soon receive their certificates from the first Lifecycle of Oil and Natural Gas Certificate program offered by the Global Energy Management Program (GEM) at CU Denver in partnership with the Denver Petroleum Club (DPC).
“I think the most important benefits were to those with limited knowledge of the industry and to those who are in the industry, but only familiar with their own areas of work or expertise,” said John Turner, Executive Director of the GEM Program. “It gave a great overview of the entire industry, explaining the entire process from geology, exploration, etc., all the way through to the final product. The instructors were well prepared and presented well and clearly.”
The course is designed to educate professionals within the energy industry and on the periphery about the complete lifecycle of oil and natural gas resources. Topics included land accessibility, drilling, upstream marketing, and risk management.
“There was a wide range of people who enrolled in the course,” Turner said. “I met lawyers, industry professionals who wanted to expand their knowledge, and people who want to get into the industry. The course was perfect for all of those groups.”
The goal of the course is to provide a high level of understanding of the multiple processes, technologies, and components used by geologists and engineers to find and produce fossil fuels. Along the way, the course aims to provide a basic understanding of land administration, financing, marketing, and governmental and public relations.
In order to receive the certificate, students had to complete five courses that were held at the University of Colorado Denver Business School. The classes were from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday nights. The class included an energy exploration activity in which students apply their knowledge of the different aspects of the industry. Students complete their course by attending a field tour of an active drilling rig.
The certificate program fee is $1,500 per student. DPC members receive a $250 discount.
GEM’s Gems May 2013 – Joel Poppert
Joel Poppert
This month the Global Energy Management Program is honoring Joel Poppert as one of our GEM’s Gems.
For the past eight months, Poppert has worked with Senator Gail Schwartz (District 5) and a group of clean energy stakeholders to develop the framework for a Renewable Thermal Standard for the State of Colorado. In April, Sen. Gail Schwartz introduced Senate Bill 272 titled the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Jobs Act, a proposal credited to the efforts of Sen. Schwartz and her team.
“Leslie Baer, a GEM alumnus, was one of the key members of this team,” said Poppert, a member of Cohort 7 who is scheduled to graduate in June. “I really had a great time working with her on this.”
After decades of going unnoticed by the Colorado Legislature, thermal renewables such as solar thermal and geothermal heat pumps were finally discussed as viable options in front of the Senate Energy Committee, Poppert said.
“Although our bill didn’t pass this year, we have developed a network of key stakeholders, built relationships with the appropriate legislators, and got commitments from the Investor Owned Utilities to work with us in the off season to further develop our concepts into a bill that will have a better chance of passing in 2014,” he said. “I believe both Leslie and I have acquired a unique set of skills in policy development, lobbying and networking that we will carry into our professional lives for years to come.”
Poppert, 32, is the President of Colorado Geo Energy and Heat Pump Association, Executive Vice President and Co-Founder of Alpine Geothermal Drilling, and Co-Founder and Principal of Sun Tzu Energy, LLC.
Briefly describe your current role and responsibilities.
My primary role with Alpine Geothermal Drilling is business development, marketing and sales, client relations, estimating, accounting, and budget management. However I do many other things as the company demands; when you are an entrepreneur you wear whatever hat is necessary to meet the objective! There have been days in the past where I was pulling levers on the drill rig in the morning and in a suit in the afternoon meeting with legislators!
As the president of the Colorado Geo Energy and Heat Pump Association (CoGEHPA) I lead a board of directors towards our goals to further develop the geothermal heat pump industry. Much of my time over the past 8 months has been focused on policy at the state capital, which has been one of the most interesting experiences of my life! Additionally I have been working with the board to develop the framework for a Rocky Mountain Geothermal Heat Pump Association.
Sun Tzu Energy, LLC is really the result of a culmination of the activities I have been engaged in over the years in the renewable energy industry, my extensive network, and a combination of the tools I have acquired from the GEM program. My business partner, who has more than 25 years of experience as a successful finance professional and myself have built the framework to launch a company that develops and owns geothermal heat exchanger assets and sells the energy back to the building owner at a hedged rate over time. It is a similar model as we see in Solar at the moment, however geothermal has its own set of complexities that need to be worked through. At the moment my partner and I are currently in the R&D stages of the company, but hope to be going mainstream by the summer of 2014!
How has the GEM program benefited you and your company? Have you been promoted since you began the program?
Before I entered the program I had a cloud of information and ideas swirling around in my head. The GEM program has allowed me to constructively formulate those ideas into business plans, which I have full intention of acting on as I move forward with my career. Additionally, the network of people I have developed relationships with both internal and external through the GEM program has provided me a lifetime of resources to leverage in the energy industry.
What are some of your favorite things to do during cohort weekends?
This is easy; I enjoy hanging out and catching up with our cohort. Over the past two years our cohort has developed incredible relationships with one another that I am fairly confident will last a lifetime. Being that I am in renewable energy, I enjoy healthy debates with the conventional energy folks!
What are some of the things that you never forget to bring to cohort weekends?
I tend to forget everything when I am rushing out the door at 6 a.m. in the morning; however, I never forget to bring my computer and my wallet. It is usually necessary for all of us to make desperate attempts during breaks to keep up with urgent issues that arise during class at our respective companies. Additionally without your wallet you are “that guy” who everyone has to buy beers for after class!
Please share a story about GEM that will entertain other students.
Ha ha, my cohort would prefer that I keep many of our stories to myself. However, let’s just say some of my classmates have some pretty great dancing skills, and Canadians apparently believe in the power of three wolves and one moon!
Why did you choose the GEM program at CU Denver?
Well as my passion for the energy industry grew as an entrepreneur over the years I found myself asking a lot of questions that I couldn’t quite find complete answers for. Additionally I seemed to lack some key business tools necessary for me to take my career to the next level and build the foundation for some start up ideas that were bouncing around in my head. I decided about three years ago that I wanted to go back to school, at the time I was entertaining a sustainability MPA program at Columbia University in New York. However about two years ago a friend of mine that worked for the University of Colorado introduced me to the GEM program. It really was perfect; I needed a graduate level business education, didn’t want to leave Denver, and was 100 percent certain that I wanted to focus my career on energy.
Has GEM changed your perspective? If so, how so?
GEM has really modified my perspective on energy, although my motivations are still in clean energy, I have a great affinity for how complex energy is in general. Before I started the program I really had no interest in conventional energy, but now I understand that if all energy professionals can work together towards a common goal to maximize the efficient use of all energy resources, the global economy will become more sustainable! Also, I am sure that my classmates have a pretty great perspective on geothermal after many hours of me talking about it whether they like it or not!
Global Energy Management student Femi Bamgbose loved “every minute” of the special topics course he participated in with several of his classmates earlier this month in Washington, DC.
“The thing I enjoyed most is the exposure to many different perspectives within the energy industry,” said the Senior Engineering Tech at Brookhaven National Laboratory. “Getting to see and meet the behind the scene people who contribute their very best to the growth and development of the industry … All of these experiences will remain with me forever.”
The two-day course was led by GEM instructor Herb Rubenstein and Sarah Loughran, GEM’s Associate Director of Programs and Stakeholder Relations. Eleven GEM students had the opportunity to meet with energy officials from government, nonprofit, and international sectors.
Bamgbose was fascinated by the different kinds of solar panels displayed at the Department of Energy. He and his classmates visited with officials from Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Technologies and learned about the clean energy race, energy security, and economic security. Also, they learned of the importance for government and private entities to invest in energy research and development, and they discussed the policies behind the energy industry and how to access capital.
Additionally, the group of students discovered how the American Council for Energy Efficiency Economy helps drive both the economy and nation to be more energy efficient and less dependent on foreign oil.
Department of Energy
“The pipelines transporters are well represented in Washington, DC,” Bamgbose said. “Pipelines are more secured than any other form of transporting liquids from point to point. The American Petroleum Institute is very solid in Washington, D.C. They promote the petroleum industry’s interest and help educate the public about the importance of producing here at home in a safe and environmentally responsible manner because we have the resources in abundance which in turn helps secure energy in the United States. The Nuclear Energy Institute is strong and solid. It is important that the United States sell its nuclear technology to other countries rather than let other countries with poor record of transparency do that.”
“Everything I heard opened me up to another level of understanding and interest in the energy industry,” Bamgbose said. “The energy industry is very dynamic in many ways. Every energy expert in different fields of energy brought different information and knowledge to the conversation. All the different sources of energy are very important. They all help us reduce our reliance on foreign sources.”
Mark Reynolds, a Minerals Revenue Specialist at U.S. Department of the Interior, enjoyed the collaboration with the different cohorts, new connections with colleagues, and “synergy that only DC can provide.”
“The greatest thing I learned is that my rose colored glasses of a small energy world have been removed,” Reynolds said who is a member of Cohort 9. “I am grateful that the GEM program is giving me a great opportunity to connect with so many people who are shaping energy policy and developing energy regulations and objectives.”
GEM student Brian Carroll, a member of Cohort 8, learned the most from the Department of Energy and its role in the stewardship of the nation’s nuclear arsenal. He also enjoyed meeting with officials from the Nuclear Energy Institute, World Bank, and Association of Oil Pipe Lines.
“Inadvertently, I think the thing I enjoyed the most was the opportunity to meet members of the other cohorts,” said Brian Carroll, who is a Property Manager at Park Plaza Properties, LLC.
GEM student Eric Van Orden, a member of Cohort 7 and executive director of the Energy Efficiency Business Coalition, said the trip was highly relevant to his professional work.
Department of Energy
“I made some great connections with the presenting organizations and, of course, my GEM classmates,” Van Orden said. “Plus, I learned a lot about national policy for energy. Mainly that energy policy is decided locally at the state level, for now. I learned about a pending ‘race to the top’ type policy for energy, similar to the Race to the Top for education.”
He was also able to make professional contacts from Washington, DC.
“The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy was very relevant to my day-to-day business,” Van Orden said. “I made a professional connection that will be very useful for my efforts when I come back to work in Colorado.”
GEM offers this special topics course twice a year, GEMM 6690. The next course will take place in London from Sunday, Sep. 29 to Friday, Oct. 4. For more information contact Sarah Loughran, GEM’s Associate Director of Programs and Stakeholder Relations.
GEM’s Gems April 2013 – Oscar G. Ngaiza
Oscar G. Ngaiza
The Global Energy Management program would like to honor alumnus Oscar G. Ngaiza this month as one of GEM’s Gems. Ngaiza, 52, was a member of Cohort 2 and the first student to travel from a non-North American location to take part in classes over cohort weekends in Denver. Ngaiza currently serves as the Large Projects Manager at Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd.
Briefly describe your current role and responsibilities.
I am in charge of managing the portfolio of large capital projects in the refinery and I report to the General Manager and Chief Operating Officer. We recently commissioned a 9.2 MW captive power plant at a cost of $17 million. The most strategically important project in the refinery is the Refinery Upgrade Project. The objectives of this project are to increase yields of high value products (gasoline, diesel, and kerosene), lower sulfur content in diesel and reduce the cost of utilities (electricity, water and steam). The total estimated project cost is currently $1.16 billion. A final investment decision to proceed has not yet been made, pending the outcome of an ongoing Bankability Study.
How has the GEM program benefited you and your company? Have you been promoted since you began the program?
I took this position with the company just before completing the GEM program in October of 2010. I graduated from GEM in December 2010. The things I learned in the program, particularly leadership skills, financial analysis and human resource management, have found direct application in my work. I manage a team of engineers from different disciplines and oversee the work of consultants and contractors. Because I am accountable for the project budget and schedule I am involved in procurement and contracting, planning and scheduling, etc. The courses in finance, law, HR legal, etc., offered by the GEM Program have all found application in my work.
What were some of your favorite things to do during cohort weekends?
I enjoyed taking long walks in downtown Denver when the weather was good. Members of my cohort also once went to a comedy club, which was fun.
What are some of the things that you never forgot to bring to cohort weekends?
I never left my laptop behind when coming to cohort weekends. Since at the time I lived in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) and my family lived in Nairobi Kenya, I used Skype extensively to stay in touch with them. That continued during the cohort weekends in Denver.
Please share a story about GEM that will entertain other students.
I don’t really have an entertaining story to share. The only thing I can think of is that I was a novelty in Cohort 2 because I would travel from so far away to attend the cohort weekends. One of my flights was 12 hours on Qatar Airways from Doha to Chicago. I would then have to connect to Denver and attend class the next morning (jet lag notwithstanding). I understand that in later cohorts, international students have become commonplace.
Why did you choose the GEM program at CU Denver?
I chose the GEM program at CU Denver because I was looking to do a Masters in Business that was specific to the energy industry. I found the GEM program online and the curriculum fitted my needs perfectly. At that time (2009) the only other similar program was the one offered at University of Dundee in the UK (Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy). However that program struck me as being more “academic” than I was interested in. After working in Industry for over 20 years, I was looking for a Master’s Program that would be directly applicable to my area of interest, which is the energy industry in East Africa.
Has GEM changed your perspective? If so, how so?
GEM has not so much changed my perspective as enlightened me and exposed me to the many options for accessing various data on energy (IEA EIA, etc). It also gave me a heightened awareness of how business decisions such as investing in renewable energy sources are influenced by government policy and how those policies may ultimately determine the type of fuels that will be dominant in the future. I also have more appreciation of how technology development plays a major role in determining which sources of energy will become accessible for humanity’s use on a large scale and at what pace those changes occur.
Teams of GEM students pooled their collective knowledge of the energy sector as they recently competed in the CME Group Commodity Trading Challenge. It was the first time CU Denver Business School has participated in this event.
The students had an opportunity to trade commodities in real time and learned first-hand the trading techniques used for crude oil, gold, and corn futures. Although they didn’t trade with real money, they were still able to trade on a professional trading platform provided by Denver-based CQG Inc.
Ben Kahn, team leader of team GEM VIII, said the rules of the challenge forced teams to use some technical trading methods.
Ben Kahn
“We wanted to try to use our knowledge of the global market for oil,” Kahn said. “In order to keep things simple and since we had a certain amount of knowledge about crude we decided to only trade the oil contract. From a high level our strategy involved over laying our analysis of the macro supply and demand factors on the short term momentum studies we looked at also taking into account the news that was driving the market that day.”
The team set up a rotation so that two people were responsible for trading each day. Kahn and teammates Michael Hutson, Jennifer Livermore, Laura Doze, and Ian Jaeger would spend the several hours of the day trading, and the team communicated through e-mail during the week.
The challenge was “super addicting,” Kahn said.
“If someone gave me the chance to trade for a living I would jump at the chance,” he said. “My big takeaways were the experience of working with the team to make investment decisions and using some of the more in depth features of CGQ that I hadn’t had the chance to use before.”
Kahn also saw how risky the challenge could be. The teams competed against 320-teams in the international competition, and only the top 33 teams could advance to the final round.
“Going into the second to last day we had an outside chance of making the top 10 percent,” he said. “We bet big and the trade went against us, it was a little disappointing, but that’s nature of trading with high amounts of leverage in a volatile market. I think considering the experience level of our team relative to the competition our results were solid.”
Ian Jaeger
Ian Jaeger found one of the biggest challenges was balancing school and work along with this new trading experiment.
The primary round of the competition lasted about two weeks and the teams were required to make at least five round trip trades per day every day except Sunday. The training round was a similar two week session, according to Jaeger.
“It was a really interesting experience” Jaeger said. “I’m not a gambler by nature, but the trading, once you were into it, was pretty addictive. The CQG trading platform is PC based, and the days I was on deck to trade, I had worked a way to remote-desktop my PC to my iPad so that I could keep a constant eye on it while away from my desk.”
Each team started with $100,000 in virtual money.
“(The money) allowed us to trade about 13-15 contracts at a time,” he said. “The first few days while we were still feeling the system out we were only trading one or two contracts at a time, which didn’t gain or lose much money. Money is made on the movement of the price, in that for each contract of 1,000 barrels of oil, a one cent move would make or lose $10.”
It took Jaeger a little bit of getting used to, but soon the system began to click.
“Something really interesting happened,” he said. “I disconnected the number from a value. That is, I didn’t think of it as dollars anymore, it was simply a number and I had to play the change up or down regardless of what it was. All of a sudden, it was much easier to trade 15 contracts at once, gain or lose a couple thousand ‘points’ either way and you just move on and make more trades. For me this was a startling revelation because all of a sudden, the Wall Street Crash becomes very clear. You literally CAN’T think of it as money in order to be successful, which is why it seems so easy for the folks on Wall Street to be able to walk away from these billion dollar losses without blinking. It’s actually a surreal experience, and one that many people still can’t comprehend.”
Will Ellison
GEM student Will Ellison competed on the GEM VII team alongside Jeremy Hancyk (team lead), Brandon Blevins, William Cannon and Michael Lantz.
His team divided up the products and contracts and assigned team members to corn, gold, and oil. Each member provided background information and monitored events that would affect trading.
Both GEM teams also appreciated the assistance they received from their advisor Michael Orlando. The GEM professor is an Economic Advisors Principal Consultant and Adjunct Professor of Finance at Tulane University.
“Dr. Orlando was a wonderful help in reining us and a lot of our initial strategies in keeping us realistic,” Ellision said. “He basically provided the voice of reason and was realistic in what we could and could not do.”
Ellison gained a new level of respect for commodity and day traders through this experience.
“I believe we all learned how difficult trading can be, especially in the short term,” he said. “I think we were humbled by the fact we felt we had sound strategies but the government and media and various other groups or market directions have far more control and influence than you think. The biggest thing we learned is that on these short term contracts, you have to be willing to adjust on the fly.”
