Brandeis Capital Management, a campus club, won $3,000 and snagged second place last spring in the Michigan Interactive Investment Competition called the SimuMarket Challenge. Over 140 universities participated in the two-month online competition. Each school received 1 million virtual dollars to invest. The Brandeis group finished ahead of students from the University of Missouri-Columbia and Rutgers University and behind only the University of Michigan, whose team orchestrated the event.

"The skill we had in the competition wasn't just luck," the club's co-president, Alex Sharp '07, said. "It was that we knew how to manipulate the market."

The club's strategy of investing in stock from a small, lesser-known company proved successful because even when the stock value was decreasing, the team made a profit, Sharp said.

Matthew Galinko '07, the club's co-president, said participants in these competitions typically take more risks than with real investments, but Sharp said their group used their knowledge of the market to succeed.

Though they haven't received their cash prize yet, Sharp said they're considering using the money to subscribe to investment publications, host in-house investment competitions for Brandeis students, or bring speakers on economics to campus.

He said the club will definitely participate in the competition next year.

They've come a long way since Sharp and Galinko, both economics majors, revived the deteriorating club, formally the Brandeis University Investment Club, in their junior year.

"While there are a lot of economics and finance classes here, even at the graduate level, there are no real equity research or investment management courses," Sharp said. "Our club helps to fill that void."

Sharp also said students are interested in learning about investing in stocks, and his club teaches how to successfully invest and train for a career in the field.

The Brandeis University Investment Club, founded in 1998 by a Brandeis alumnus who now works in Goldman Sachs, a top investment bank, seeks to give its members real-life investing experience by managing a portion of the University's endowment funds.

The club's portfolio is currently worth around $15,000, Sharp said, and has increased 5 percent in the last three months.