New investors club teaches students how to make money

Over 30 students gathered in a lecture room in Algonquin College’s C building on Oct. 4, where they heard Moe Thomas, a business management and entrepreneurship student, introducing how the financial system works.

At the first meeting of the college’s investors club, the session provided the audience with some basic knowledge about the foreign exchange market, cryptocurrency, stock market and investment in start-up companies.

“It’s a new way to invest,” said computer programming student Artem Fetissov.

Having already invested in the foreign exchange market before, Fetissov said that the session gave him more insight into the market based on experience he has.

“I’ve learned some new stuff about the market and how the system works,” said Fetissov. “They teach you how to make money.”

The club was founded this semester by Thomas and his friend Ross Palfrey. They are both students in the business management and entrepreneurship program. Seeing students swarmed them with questions filled them with optimistic feelings.

“Only two people left after the session,” said Thomas. “Most of them stayed and they were very interested in our club. It smells like success to me.”

According to Palfrey, the idea to build the investors club came from his professor of the entrepreneurship class, who suggested that somebody in the class should start an investors club to challenge themselves.

“The first thing that popped out of my head was, ‘Why isn’t it me’,” said Palfrey.

His professor helped him to promote the club in the class to get some of Palfrey’s classmates to participate in the club.

After being told by Palfrey about the idea of forming the new club, Thomas joined as a co-founder of the club. He helped more students outside of his program to pay attention to the club.

“Moe really took this (club) to another level,” said Palfrey. “I couldn’t have gotten the session we have today and the words spread out fast without his help.”

Seneca College graduate Joshua Baril is Thomas’ partner and one of the hosts of the session. He explained what the new club has to offer students.

“Here, we train students to give them the skill sets needed for investing in different financial markets,” he said. “We help people to measure their capability and teach them how to organize their resources for investment.”

Moe and Palfrey said that the club is an extra step to refine their skills in business and entrepreneurship besides studying in class, and it helps them to share their knowlegde with students from other programs.

“By doing this club, we are also hoping to inspire others who are not inside of our program to also consider the option of entrepreneurship,” said Palfrey.

They aim to help participants understand not only what they are investing, but also why they are investing.

“We have an educational platform where you can learn and teach yourself,” said Thomas about the online financial courses that the club provides.

The educational system focuses on imparting different level of financial skills, starting from the foundation, which include the concept of various financial markets, to technical analysis. In addition, students are taught how to predict the fluctuation of the markets, as well as how to reach an expert level where learners would be taught to trade with skills of professional investors.

Even for some participants who have zero experience in financial investment, Palfrey said they are encouraged to join the club. Because it would be more convenient to teach them from the very beginning.

He hopes that members of the new club could bring their friends to the club so more people can learn about the skills to invest in financial markets.

“People who are interested in investing can work with me and Moe for free,” said Palfrey. “We can give people investing tips and stock tips, but we will not give them financial advice because that’s illegal.”

Thomas and Palfrey were also planning schedules for bi-weekly and monthly seminars of the club. In the next session, they are going to invite participants to look into some basic investing strategies.

“We are going to make sure everyone is on the same page,” said Thomas. “We are going to make sure everyone’s benefiting from the program.”