Jim Porter, chief executive officer of New Century Capital Management in Chicago and a University of Arkansas alumnus, recently led the first “Trading University” at the Walton College.
During Porter’s week-long instructional visit April 16-20, sponsored by the Department of Finance and the Garrison Financial Institute at Walton College, approximately 425 students were introduced to advanced training in the application of technical and fundamental analysis and implementation of advanced trading strategies using stocks, exchange-traded funds, futures and options on the state-of-the-art TD Ameritrade Thinkorswim trading platform.
Porter conducted trading sessions with students in the Global Financial Markets Trading Center in Willard J. Walker Hall at the Walton College. Topics covered included chart construction, trends, screens, moving averages and crosses, Japanese candlesticks, advanced Japanese candlesticks and patterns, money flow, moving average convergence-divergence, average directional index, directional movement indicators, Ichimoku, breakout patterns, confirmation techniques and automation of trading analysis using TD Ameritrade’s Thinkorswim “ThinkScript.”
Porter also taught students how to perform a deeper analysis of securities they hold in three award-winning student managed investment funds at the Walton College – the MBA/MACC Shollmier Fund, the senior-level Portfolio Management Class’s Rebsamen Trust, and the graduate and undergraduate David Carter Adams Energy Sector Fund.
On April 17, Porter and students met with representatives from Phillips 66 who were visiting Walton to lead mock interviews for students interested in working in finance, accounting or trading in the energy industry. Students currently hold common shares in Phillips 66 and units in Phillips 66 Partners Master Limited Partnership in several student managed investment fund portfolios.
On April 18, Porter and students met with USAF (Ret.) Lt. Col. Nolan Pennington, who
flew many missions in the Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird” long-range surveillance and reconnaissance
aircraft. Shown the complexity of the aircraft’s cockpit, some of the class participants
commented that it reminded them of trading and investing on the TD Ameritrade Thinkorswim
platform.
Porter graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1963 with a bachelor’s degree in physics and from the University of Iowa in 1966 with a master’s degree in astronomy. He served as an astrophysicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and then as a scientist at the CIA until 1969.
After joining the securities industry, Porter served as a member of the Midwest (now Chicago) Stock Exchange, Pacific Stock Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Board Options Exchange and Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He was also a principal and chief executive officer of First Options of Chicago Inc. He later formed two companies of his own – New Century Investment Research and Management Inc. and New Century Capital Management LLC.
