This fall the Finance Honors Seminar will again make three trips to New York City, the first to confer with analysts at Morgan Stanley and the next two to present the results of their credit analysis to Morgan Stanley and the Capital Group. The Seminar has been run each year since spring 2003, and Dr. James Gatti, the course instructor, is proud of the performance the class. “Their hard work, initiative, and professionalism are on a par with the best of those in the training programs run by the major investment banks. The honors students have done great work on very difficult assignments. I continue to be very impressed by the work of the teams, and my reaction has been reinforced each year by the very complimentary reaction of the professionals. Now that they are graduating they get to do more of the same, except that on their next project they will be getting paid.”

While the problem of assessing credit risk is not new, it is far too frequently overshadowed by the much more glamorous equity markets. This seminar was designed to correct that deficiency by focusing on the problem of bond valuation with a special emphasis on the evaluation of credit risk. Students work in one to two teams of three or four and each team completes two major bond analyses – one of a marginal investment-grade credit and the other of a high-yield instrument. The first presentation is made to Morgan Stanley analysts in mid-semester where Steve Penwell, UVM ’84, organizes the visit and acts as host. The second is to the Capital Group at the end of the semester where David Daigle, UVM ’89 does the honors. During the two presentations the students present and defend their work while analysts from both firms grill them about their assumptions and analyses. Prof. Gatti and the School of Business feel indebted to both Steve and David. “The students and I are extremely grateful for enormous generosity of both alumni. Without their participation, the seminar would have been just another course.”