Joey Solitro, a senior at UCF, holds the proud title of “competition winner” for the Motley Fool Campus Challenge. His brains, work ethic, and love for finance all contributed into the win for UCF. Going out with a bang, UCF nearly tripled the score of other competiting schools such as Louisiana State, Notre Dame, and Texas. Go knights!
A/S/L? All jokes aside, let’s cover the basics. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Name, major, hometown?
Joseph Solitro, but I go by Joey. I am a finance major at UCF and I was born in Orlando, FL. I’ve lived in Longwood, FL since 2003.
Describe yourself in three words.
Ambitious. Dynamic. Passionate.
What is the Young Investors Club? Describe some of your duties within the club.
The University of Central Florida Young Investors Club’s mission is to teach about investing and improve members’ understanding of the market. We teach investment strategies, break down economic news, provide analyst reports, and answer any questions members have. We make sure our meetings never feel like you are sitting in a classroom, because we believe people learn better when they are engaged. I am the Chief Investment Officer of the club and will be in charge of overseeing the brokerage account we intend to open this summer. I also provide research and analysis in some of the meetings to show what I am currently looking at or buying that week.
Explain the Motley Fool Campus Challenge. What made you want to participate?
The Motley Fool’s Campus Challenge is a competition amongst various university investing clubs. In the competition, we wrote articles about publicly traded companies based on our own analysis, but in a storytelling format. For instance, I wrote about Wells Fargo and explained what they do, discussed earnings from last year, projections for this year, strengths going forward, and why I believe it is a great investment to make today. If the articles were thorough and written well, they would then be syndicated to Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, MSN Money, Daily Finance, and several other websites.
Were you surprised when you received news that you won the challenge? What do you plan on doing with the $5,000 prize?
I was not surprised when I heard that I won because there was an active scoreboard keeping track of the schools. It started off close, but then I began firing on all cylinders and gained a 175 point lead. I was surprised at how well I ended up performing, because there were some notable schools involved, such as Texas, LSU, and Georgetown, and I was the only writer for UCF. Check out the final scoreboard here.
With the $5,000 grand prize, our club plans on opening a brokerage account to trade the funds and show what we are capable of. We have some of the most knowledgable analysts and an incredible group of officers, which will make for the perfect team to grow our account. Hopefully this will lead to UCF providing further funding.
Do you have any other involvement on campus?
The Young Investors Club is currently the only organization I am apart of at UCF. I am interested in being involved in more, such as writing financial articles for the school paper or having a segment on the school news, so I plan on proposing those plans this summer. I am always open to joining new clubs, especially if I feel I have something to offer.
Do you have any advice to current and/or future UCF students that want to be more involved?
I believe all students at UCF should come to at least one of our meetings. We want to educate and assist as many people as we can, because investing is not as scary as it seems. It’s also a great way to interact with fellow students and share ideas. Investing is something we all need to do for our future, so now is the best time to start learning. I offer my services to all members, so if the group setting scares someone, they can come to me directly.
What’s your dream job? Name some of your future plans and goals.
My dream job would be publishing articles or providing information based on the financial analysis of stocks. Writing for the Motley Fool helped me realize that I have a passion for the companies I follow and there are a lot of people up there who appreciate what I do. Currently, I have had 42 articles syndicated across some of the most popular financial websites in the world and they have been viewed over 105,000 times. I would love to obtain a position with the Motley Fool, but I am always open to other companies who are involved in this kind of work.
When you’re not busy with school, what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I am actively watching my investment account and CNBC from 7:00 a.m. until about 10:00 p.m. I am always doing research and analysis for my articles, as I have continued writing for the Motley Fool. I also do my schoolwork and make a trip to the gym, so it makes for some hectic days. The weekends usually consist of more research and is when I really buckle down and write the majority of my articles. I truly love investing, so I am always working even when the market is closed.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I’d like to add that you are never too young or too old to learn about investing. There is plenty of information out there to get you started. I am here to help anyone who wants to learn, see how I go about my research and analysis, or learn how I make final decisions on my personal investments, even if you do not go to UCF. Please feel free to email me questions or comments at solitro11@yahoo.com and please read my articles at beta.fool.com/JoeySolitro1.