Senior Awarded Kantner Foundation Business Scholarship

Senior Dean Silvers, nominated for a Pathfinder Award in the Business category, was recognized by The Kantner Foundation with a $3,000 scholarship during the annual awards ceremony.

Silvers was one of four seniors recognized by the foundation established in 1987 by real estate developer and investor Woodrow A. Kantner. The Foundation recognizes outstanding high school students who have demonstrated an understanding and commitment to entrepreneurship.

Silvers spent the summer of 2019 working with the Vice President of the local Ameriprise Financial branch, where he studied the career path of a financial advisor. During the internship, Silvers created a unique investment strategy.

It was based around the JHEQX JP Morgan hedged equity fund, and the reason we chose this specific fund is because it has a collar, meaning that during a certain quarter of the market, it can only increase or decrease by a certain amount (in this case, it could go up by 5.5% and go down by 5% each quarter). So what we realized is that if the fund went down during the quarter, after the decrease, we can invest money into the fund, and we will have more room for upside and less room for downside, therefore, making it less risky for our investors,” said Silvers.

Silvers said once they discovered this strategy his job was to calculate the best threshold to enter the market. “To see whether we should wait until the fund decreased by 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5%, 3%, etc. In order to determine that perfect entry point, I went back to the inception of the fund in December of 2013, marked when the S&P 500 decreased by the breach's amount each quarter, and then calculated the fund's final value at the end of the quarter.”

Silvers said he and his mentor have found a way to navigate almost any kind of market with a simple investment strategy.

“After this, we created a flyer to share with our investors, and I am fortunate enough to be in the process of making a new flyer in 2020,” said Silvers.

Silvers was one of 16 Benjamin seniors nominated for Pathfinder awards.


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A premier PK3 - Grade 12 independent, coeducational day school with campuses in North Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens. Since 1960, The Benjamin School has provided a challenging college preparatory education to a diverse student body in a structured, nurturing community environment.
 
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