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Parents: William Suleiman and Kathy Suleiman
Hometown: Kearney, Neb.
Interests: Playing the alto saxophone, jazz music, reading, distance biking in the summer and volunteering with the American Red Cross and speech-debate team at Kearney High School.
Most memorable investing moment: “The day I got into Berkshire (B shares) at $2,380.”
Influences: Jim Cramer; Warren Buffett; Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase; and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In many ways, Mark Suleiman is a typical student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
He goes to class, studies, hangs out with friends and, for a time, waffled between studying medicine or economics. After some deliberation, Suleiman, now a junior, chose economics, and over the past year has put to work his passion for investing and finance.
Last January, as the Dow Jones industrial average continued its recession-induced plunge to 6,594, Suleiman took his entire personal savings of $11,000 and invested in shares of Ford Motor Co., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Kearney-based fashion retailer The Buckle, General Motors and, for a short time, Microsoft.
“A lot of people said, ‘You just can't do this ... no matter what you try, you're going to fail because the markets are just tanking,'” Suleiman said. “I guess everybody lost that sense of confidence, so I took it upon myself to challenge the status quo.”
But by the first week of May 2009, just four months after getting into the market, Suleiman's investments had doubled.
The success prompted him to take his money and to start an investment club with friends and fellow students. Before last week's broad market selloff, the club's holdings were valued around $30,000.
Suleiman's success shows that he is more than just the college student most people see him as, said Jenna Gibson, a 20-year-old journalism and French double major who entrusted Suleiman with some of her money.
“It seems to me he is kind of two different people sometimes: a college student, but also doing all these professional things,” Gibson said. “It's almost like he's got two different things going on in his life. There are two different personas he could have at any time.”
Most times, it's the professional side of Suleiman that comes through.
“On a typical Thursday, Friday or Saturday night, I'm the guy who's sitting in the dorm, not because I'm a social recluse. I'm the guy looking at annual reports and figuring out a strategy for the next week,” he said.
The investment club Suleiman heads, which at times has as many as 30 members, is called the Shark Fund, for its aggressive investing strategy with lots of high-risk moves, he said.
The aggressiveness comes, in part, from Suleiman's admiration of Jim Cramer, the former hedge fund manager, author and host of the CNBC TV show “Mad Money.”
The Shark Fund currently is invested in Berkshire Hathaway B shares, The Buckle, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, and the maker of BlackBerry smart phones, Research in Motion.
Other, riskier positions include popular online movie rental service Netflix and Ford, both of which have been profitable for the club, and Citigroup, a recipient of the federal bank bailout funds, which has taken a bite out of the fund's profits, Suleiman said.
Russ Kaplan of Kaplan Investments in Omaha said it's hard to analyze Suleiman's talents for picking good stocks over such a short time period, but Kaplan respects many of the club's moves.
“He's got a lot of good, solid companies, many of which we have in our own portfolio,” Kaplan said. “It sounds like he's using some value approach, kind of like I do.
“I think he's well on the way to maybe becoming an investment professional, if that's what he's interested in.”
Since most of the fund's investors are college students, pulling out cash to finance spring break trips or to buy textbooks is common. It's a practice Suleiman understands but isn't fond of.
“I am not a fan of the revolving door, but I understand people have their own priorities. At the end of the day, my priority is to make money and take care of the fund.”
Gibson has earned $70 on her initial $200 investment, which she put into the Shark Fund last spring, near the beginning of Suleiman's venture.
She's pleased with the 35 percent return. It certainly is more than what she would have earned in a regular bank savings account, Gibson said.
According to rules outlined by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding investment clubs, Suleiman isn't required to register with any federal regulatory agency to invest money for his club. Investment clubs must register with the SEC if they have more than 100 members or if they invest in securities, neither of which apply to the Shark Fund.
However, Suleiman said, every trade of the fund is documented thoroughly and transparently.
That openness is an example of how he tries to reflect an inspirational figure: Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett. Suleiman's admiration for Buffett is demonstrated in memos to investors and editorials that Suleiman has written for student newspapers at UNL and the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where he attended for a short time last year while still deciding on a field of study.
“Everyone has a fundamental right to know where their money is at all times,” Suleiman said. “People need to know what you're doing, and if you're a great trader you should man up and tell them.”
The future of the fund is up in the air. Though Suleiman wants to find a career where he can apply his love for trading, he said the fund will likely fold after he graduates from college next year.
“Warren Buffett has got my dream job,” Suleiman said. “I admire those who own their own company. If I had it my way, I'd own a lot of companies.”
Contact the writer:
444-1414, ross.boettcher@owh.com
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