Advising the Student Managed Fund participants are, from left, back row, Ravi Jain, Frank Andrews, Didier Bertola and Warren Isabelle. Front row, from left, Steven Freund from the College of Management, Steven Rogers and John Kattar.

The UMass Lowell students who are managing $25,000 in investments are holding their own, despite unusually challenging stock market conditions.

The Student Managed Fund is a real-life investment competition between students at the Amherst, Dartmouth and Lowell campuses, funded by $25,000 from the UMass Foundation. At UMass Lowell, a group of students in the College of Management are acting as fund managers with the help of faculty and staff here, as well as alums who are prominent Boston money managers, Warren Isabelle ’78 and John Kattar ’82.

Since the Student Managed Fund project started Jan. 1, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has swung from around 13,000 down to the 11,700 range and back up again over 12,000. The Fed has cut interest rates repeatedly, the once-mighty Wall Street firm Bear Stearns was sold for pennies on the dollar and economic growth has been flat.

“It’s an emotional and volatile market,” says Kattar, managing director of investments for Eastern Investment Advisors.

“When a position goes against you, re-examine the reasons why you initially bought the stock and make sure they are still valid,” says Isabelle, principal of Ironwood Investment Management LLC. “That’s what we have basically been telling the students. That’s Investing 101.”

So far, market surprises haven’t changed the group’s approach, according to Asst. Prof. Ravi Jain, the faculty director of the fund. Frank Andrews, director of undergraduate programs for the College of Management, and Steven Rogers, a major gifts officer with University Advancement are also lending their expertise to the student team, which consists of David Ball, Minhai He, Evan Huff, Jared Jordan, Michael Krieger, Brian Lesniak, Eleni Liakakis, Mike McCarthy, Amy Osgood, Jessica Silva and Scott Wilson.

“We are following a simple strategy that is not affected by short-term market movements. In any case, we don’t have any exposure to financial or real-estate business,” says Jain.

Both Isabelle and Kattar say they’re steering away from giving the team advice about specific sectors or stocks unless asked.

 “Sometimes they will make mistakes and they’ll learn from those mistakes. That’s part of the process,” says Kattar.

“You don’t get to be a good investor by everyone telling you what to invest in,” says Isabelle.

The students have invested in a variety of sectors, including aerospace, health care, transportation and consumer goods. As of mid-semester, the fund was up 6 percent while the S&P 500, a key index of stocks, was down more than 5 percent for a difference in performance of about 11 percent.

“They are doing much better than I am this year,” Isabelle says. “They’ve done extraordinarily well in a strange market.”

The campuses will compare performance in June, and the fund will continue. Jain says students will be chosen to continue to manage the investments over the summer and, in the fall, the program will go from an extracurricular activity to a regular course in the College of Management.