The thought of losing $455 in a day would be pretty detrimental for most Weber State University students, but for Clayton Killpack that’s just another day at the office.

Killpack is president of the Wildcat Investors Club. The club helps students gain real world experience of trading and working with the Stock Market.

Killpack and the club manage a stock portfolio that includes Berkshire Hathaway, Apple, Ford, IBM, Anthem and others; it’s worth about $60,000. This amount is double what they initially began with years ago.

The club does not receive any of the returns on their decisions. The money they gain goes back into their initial account. The club allows the members to feel the stress and pressure of the real market without losing their own money.

Wildcat Investors Club has 10 active members that come from a mix of different majors. The club is open to any student that is interested in investing.

Professor Yuhong Fan is the advisor for the club and has been for eight years now. Fan said that number the one tip she gives to the students is to diversify their portfolio and avoid too many stocks from one sector.

As the advisor, Fan said she is hands-on but lets all of the decisions on stocks be made solely by the students.

“The club is student-oriented,” Fan said. “I participate in some things like meetings but I really just advise the club in decision making.”

Ysabella Catchillar is a medical lab science major and is minoring in entrepreneurship. Catchillar said that even though she is not a finance major, investing is something good to know how to do and she said the club allows her to gain and build real world experience.

In addition to gaining real world experience the club members are also given the opportunity to attend special events. Many of these events are conferences that allow club members to interact with currents investors and get tips and advice from them.

The biggest, or highest profile, of these events is the annual shareholder meeting for multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway which is run by Warren Buffet and held in Omaha, Nebraska.

“Our goal is to not only have fun but to build and gain that real word experience that our club members will be able use in the real world,” Killpack said.

For students interested in the Wildcat Investors Club, they can visit the Goddard School of Business list of clubs and organizations website here. Students can also contact the club advisor, Fan, at 801-626-6483.