By Zach Taylor, University Relations Student Writer
Following a lengthy application and interview process, four UTC Finance students were selected to participate in a four-week summer internship with Galtere, Ltd., a commodities-focused hedge fund, in New York City.
Left to right: Mohammed Ali, Jazmine Logan, Maria Pecora-Omana, Harshil Patel
Maria Pecora-Omana, Jazmine Logan, Mohammed Ali, and Harshil Patel were exposed to live trading and intensive research, and had access to the knowledge and advice of Wall Street professionals.
Kurt Spero, the COO of Galtere, Ltd., oversaw the interns’ work and progress, assigning research projects and scheduling speakers for them on a daily basis, and even arranging a tour of the Federal Reserve Bank of new York, home to 25% of the world’s gold. During their free time after the nine hour work days at Galtere, Ltd., the interns were able to explore the city, taking in all the sights and sounds of one of the most diverse places in the world.
The internship was made possible through Galtere, Ltd’s Founder, Chief Investment Officer and Managing Principal, Renée Haugerud. Haugerud and her husband, UTC alumnus and former Mocs football player, John H. Murphy, established the Galtere Institute: Finance for the Future Initiative at UTC’s College of Business in 2009.
The institute features ten Bloomberg Professional Service Terminals, a live stock ticker, and access to CNN market feeds, as well as an emphasis on understanding the neuroscience of trading and investing in behavioral finance, which allow students to experience real world trading scenarios in order to become “Wall Street ready.”
Read excerpts from the UTC students’ weekly reports, detailing their NYC internships at Galtere, Ltd.
Jazmine Logan, Finance major – Week One
A lot of what we do day-in and day-out is LEARN. We had a speaker from Barclay’s come speak to us about Foreign Exchange and her role within the company. At only 26, she travels to London and Singapore to work with clients. I felt smarter and more enlightened within the first few days of this internship than I did reading one of my college textbooks front to back.
Mohammed Ali, Finance major – Week Two
As we were all in the conference room, we all had the pleasure of having Ms. Haugerud come up to speak to us. After hearing about her and reading about her so much, it was almost an unreal feeling knowing she actually had time out of her busy schedule to come by Galtere to see us before she was airing on live television. She was appearing on CNBC Fast Money.
We all had the pleasure of meeting her husband John Murphy. Mr. Murphy is the definition of Mocs maniac. He has so much spirit for our University, it is inspiring to know and see with our own eyes how he promotes our school going around the world, to helping our students one by one.
Maria Pecora-Omana, Finance Major – Week Three
All of the speakers were very eager to meet with us and answer our questions, which are a lot of questions when you have eleven interns in the same room; but we are not just asking questions at Galtere, we are also answering them. On Tuesday and Thursday we had surprise research assignments on global financial subjects, each team had to answer a question on a specific subject, which gave us a more in-depth perspective on the assigned markets. As you can see, all we do is learn, learn, and then learn some more!
Harshil Patel, Finance Major – Week Four
On Tuesday, Marianne Fichtel and Kurt explained us on the formats of allocation sheets (P&L) and taught us on the principles of presenting the themes. They gave us insights into how the client could evaluate the presentations and what should we do and what not. Also, they gave us much other valuable advice. They made sure that we kept learning and got the best experience from this internship. Tuesday was also the last day to close down the trades and record profit or loss.
Overall, it was a summer well spent. This was an unforgettable experience. Ms. Renée Haugerud once told me that to work at Galtere, one of the requirements is that you have to be a nice person, and indeed everyone at Galtere is nice. Thank you so much, Galtere!
For more information regarding the Galtere Institute: Finance for the Future Initiative, please contact the College of Business at (423) 425-4313.
