Throughout its 10-year history, the Nittany Lion Fund has operated in two different buildings with its headquarters in two different trading rooms. It has weathered a dramatic economic recession. Hundreds of Penn State Smeal College of Business students have served as fund managers.
And one thing has remained constant — J. Randall Woolridge.
Woolridge is a professor of finance, the Goldman Sachs and Co. and Frank P. Smeal Endowed University Fellow, and the president of the Nittany Lion Fund.
His students often mumbled under their breath when he was questioning their investments as fund managers and struggled to meet his lofty expectations. But now as thriving alumni, they sing his praises.
They also remember some of his favorite sayings, so much so that at the end of each year, they have glasses made with their favorite sayings of that semester engraved on them. Several of those “Woolridgeisms” still leave them scratching their heads:
· “If you keep this performance up, I’m going to give you a window seat.”
· “You’re on your way to Allentown.”
· “Know your numbers!”
· “Don’t buy yesterday’s winners.”
· “You don’t understand risk.
· “You missed the boat.”
· “You couldn’t ski down that chart.”
· “You have to eat what you kill.”
· “Don’t mistake motion for movement!”
That last one is his most famous. It left some students wondering what, exactly, he meant.
“I’m not entirely sure what it means,” said Jim Regan, a 2011 graduate who is global TMT analyst at Surveyor Capital (Citadel LLC). “I mean, don’t the two words literally define each other? I’m fairly certain he’s getting at the tendency of students to throw out a lot of ideas but mismanage on the execution phase, but I think every student has a different interpretation as to whether ‘motion’ or ‘movement’ is the one Dr. Woolridge wants.”
Other students thought they had that figured out, but it didn’t matter under Woolridge’s exacting standards.
“It’s applicable to every role/situation,” said Emily Zheng, an investment banking analyst with Goldman Sachs, “though no matter how much movement you thought you were making, he’d never be happy about it!”