With stock charts resembling Libe Slope and the broader economy suffering just as badly, you’d think that those in the financial world spends their days moping around. Well, the Cornell Investment Club was all smiles this past Sunday when I sat in on their executive board meeting.

The CIC, which hit campus in 1997 and now boasts more than 100 members, manages its own mutual fund — one that has outperformed the S&P 500, the NASDAQ and the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the past year. The Investment Clubbers are not all about the money, though. In addition to all the functions that your average mutual fund managers carry out, the executives and general members of the CIC teach each other about investing, behavioral finance, Wall Street jobs and more.

Brian Clapp ’09, financial analyst for the CIC, described an Investing 101 class that he taught to other club members, as well as other classes on finance basics. Wayne Taylor ’09, president of the CIC, stressed that the club has no entrance requirements and that leaders of the club welcome newcomers of all experience levels. The teaching aspect of the club serves as a support system for those students who join simply to learn about investing.

“I didn’t feel comfortable investing on my own,” said Erik Blomain ’09, current tech & health analyst for the Investment Club. Blomain, like many new CIC members, was most interested in the opportunity to learn from the club.

“I guess I’m a success story,” he added with a smile.

While those wrapped up in the investing world are known for their long hours, the members of the Cornell Investment Club still find time to have fun. At the general member meeting Monday, the night after the e-board meeting, the CIC told an auditorium packed with investment enthusiasts that it is planning a poker night, guest speaker appearances from JP Morgan and Credit Suisse, a visit to Putnam Investments in Boston and a stock pitch competition, among other things.

At Monday night’s meeting, I — along with over 100 current and potential members of the CIC — got to see firsthand how the Investment Club pitches stocks. A stock pitch is when someone who has been following and researching a certain company presents a thesis on why to buy a certain stock (or sell it, if it is already in the mutual fund’s portfolio). Taylor and Clapp discussed a telecommunications company based in Mexico that they thought would have a relatively steady rise in stock price over the next couple of years. It was amazing to see how much the two of them knew about the company, Mexico and South America in general, the telecommunications industry and the business and investing worlds. After a lengthy pitch, the two CIC executives were grilled by the audience, with a range of questions from what went into the duo’s research to the meaning of certain words or numbers.

The most fun and intriguing part of Monday’s general member meeting came when it was time to vote on the stock. The way the Cornell Investment Club works is that all members are allowed — but not obligated — to buy shares of the CIC mutual fund. Anyone with any money in the fund is granted a vote, regardless of how much they have contributed. After the pitch, the number of voting members is tallied, and then the number of votes for each side — buy or don’t buy — is counted.

Ultimately, the majority voted to buy the stock and include it in the CIC mutual fund portfolio. Mission accomplished!

While Taylor might site “the prospect of making money without working for it” as one of the things that initially interested him in the club, don’t let the CIC lead you to believe that they don’t work hard for the money.

When it comes to making decisions that affect the mutual fund, the CIC takes itself pretty seriously, but business as usual for the Investment Club also includes meeting people, learning and having fun. A good way to invest your time, I’d say.