Episode 74 | A Conversation with Sofia Cruz on Experiential Learning in Finance

In Episode 74 of “Market News with Rodney Lake,” Professor Lake, director of the GW Investment Institute, welcomes GW School of Business student and Stock and Portfolio Management Club (SPMC) President Sofia Cruz for a conversation on experiential learning in finance at GW. The episode explores Sofia’s leadership role in the student-run club and how it engages members through market discussions, stock pitches, a growing analyst fund, and her podcast, Midnight Markets. They also discuss their outlook on AI and tech leaders such as Oracle, Google, and Claude/Anthropic. Sofia shares her enthusiasm for the GWSB community and emphasizes curiosity, adaptability, and growth for students preparing for careers in finance.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:41 SPMC and Midnight Markets Podcast
• 10:55 The Look Ahead
• 14:36 AI
• 19:47 Conclusion

Transcript

Thank you for joining Market News with Rodney Lake. This is a regular program for the GW Investment Institute where we talk about timely market topics. I'm Rodney Lake, the director of the GW Investment Institute. Let's get started.
Welcome back to Market News with Rodney Lake. I'm your host, Rodney Lake. Today is a very special episode. We have a very special guest today, Sofia Cruz, who's a GW School of Business student. And as a reminder, this is a GW Investment Institute School of Business episode of Market News with Rodney Lake. And we're going to welcome Sofia Cruz.
Welcome, Sofia.
Thank you for having me.
Sofia, please introduce yourself a little bit further. You’re GW, George Washington University School of Business, which is the best school at GW. Not not to say that the other schools aren’t good
Yeah...
But this is the best school. School of Business student. But maybe give us a little bit more about you..
Of course. Well, I'm Sofia Cruz, and I was raised in a family of business owners, so that led me to study finance. I've always been really curious about how companies raise capital, how companies are able to grow. And so that's what led me to study findings, and especially here in GW, because it's in Washington DC. And you have like policy and also business.
So you're studying finance.
Yeah,
which I'm also partial to is the favorite major. What have you thought about your finance classes so far and what's been maybe the most interesting part of your finance coursework?
Yeah. Well, my favorite finance classes have been like capital markets classes I've taken. I think that's one of my best classes ever. And also financial derivatives. It's been a really demanding course, but it's a really nice class. Like you learn a lot.
Excellent. Well, thanks. Thanks for sharing that. One of the reasons that we wanted to have you as a guest. So thank you very much. You host your own podcast, Midnight Markets podcast, and I was a guest on your podcast.
Thank you so much for hosting me. So and your part, that's part of the stock and portfolio management club here at GW.
Could you maybe talk about the Stock and Portfolio Management Club and your podcast a little bit?
Course. Yeah. So as you said Midnight Markets is part of SPMC, the stock and portfolio management club here at GW. Well SPMC as a whole is a club run by students and we have three different divisions. We have our general body division which is our members, our general body meetings. And we have the fund which is our investment fund with some analysts from the business school as well.
These are people who are really interested about the markets and do their pitches on what stocks to trade or. Yeah, and we also have minute markets, which is how we reach out to our members and people even outside of business school. And that’s where I had you as a guest on my podcast. And also like we talk about the markets and it's a good time in this community.
We also have our physical newspaper and our daily newsletter. Yes.
Excellent. And let's back up maybe to the Stock and Portfolio Management club first. Okay. So what types of students are attending these meetings and who is it open to?
Of course. So SPMC is a unique club because everybody from even if it's outside the school of business, you're able to join. And if you have this shared interest and passion for the market, like you're able to go in-depth into it because we have people who are so passionate about it in our general body meetings, too. Yeah.
And how often do you meet.
It's biweekly.
Oh, excellent.
Every other month.
how do people find that about this? Is it the newsletter? Is it the podcast? Is it all the above? Something else
That's a great question. Well, as soon as the club began, which was not so long ago, like some two years and a half ago, I became a member actually, and it was through Engage. But originally people have been telling me lately like, oh, I found out through Instagram, I found out through TikTok that there's a club who talks about stocks and like how to invest.
And I'm just so happy that we are able to reach more people now that we have, like social media and other platforms.
Excellent. For those people who have maybe not attended a meeting, what's a typical meeting look like from start to finish?
So if you've never been a member, maybe because you didn't have time or maybe you didn't know about SPMC. We start by like saying who we are. Like, if you're not familiar, and then we proceed to talk about markets. We talk about a market update, which I really enjoy, because it's an opportunity for everybody in the room to say, like what they think about the news and like what stocks they're looking at and why they think that stock them do good or bad.
And it's just like everybody stays up to date. Like even if you're like not so familiar with like let's say fundamentals and things like you're still able to learn even in that little market discussion at the beginning because like, you're listening to what your friends are thinking about, like, oh, do you actually think Netflix stock is going to go up or down and things like that actually also interesting.
But then we proceed to like our general topic. Sometimes we talk about let's say, polymarket and things like, like new things,
Things that are happening now.
Things that are happening now. What new ways to invest like let's say alternative assets like double caution, poly market,new alternative that you can like profit from. And then we talk we have like several different topics. One of the most interesting lessons like how like politics even affect finance or like how companies are doing. Yes. That's like really just and then we proceed to have like our fun time when we like that, it's like really good for the members to like, make friends, build friendships.
And like, you're able to like, play this game where, like, you're asked, like what you learned through the meeting.
Yeah,
I attended one meeting. I saw that you ran a Kahoot at the end, meeting. And I think that's a lot of fun and a great way to engage the people and the students that are there. So maybe also talk a little bit about the type of, you know, companies that, that the group is currently following.
Yeah. So, as a whole, as you have our general body, as I said, everybody's able to join, but we have our analyst fund where it is a little bit more selective. We have our application process and, our base of analysts currently, we have been going through a lot of different alternatives for investing currently. So, lately we look through our penny stocks like we we have had really interesting pitches, actually.
I'm going to shout out to some of the best analysts like Lucas Bouchard, Viraj Shah. These are people who have like, amazing pitches. And like, I remember in the top of my head, I mean, like, we had like unrealized gains as soon as we got to the trade because, like, these are really interesting, whether it's like penny stocks or like corporations or.
Yeah, it's been a lot and it's like really interesting.
Excellent. Yeah. So again, if students are trying to figure this out, they go to the Instagram, to the, to the podcast to find out about how they can sign up for these meetings.
Yes, exactly. So you actually do not have to sign up for the meetings, like, okay, everybody's welcome to join me. But, if you want to be part of the fund, you're able to apply. And actually, yes, we do have applications open and you're able to join through the LinkedIn on our Instagram. Through the Linktree through our Instagram. Yeah.
Excellent. All right. So now maybe, let's go back to the podcast. So the Midnight Markets podcast, which you are the host. And again I was a guest at one. So I'm very appreciative of that opportunity. Thank you very much. I had a lot of fun. So thank you. Could you talk a little bit about the podcast for the people who maybe don't know about the podcast and the types of guests that you have on and the things that you talk about.
Of course. Yeah. So the podcast is Midnight markets and I do Midnight Markets in two different segments, kind of like you as well because we have like our guest episodes and also like market discussion. Right. I host our guests and I've had really amazing guests from a business school outside the business school and like, yes, I had, some semesters ago when it was so interesting.
Like, that's when I started like, oh my goodness. Like getting your perspective of like what companies the portfolio group was investing on and like, why, which is really interesting. And I learned a lot from you. And also I've learned a lot from professors here in the business school. Professors, professor Arthur Wilson.
Nice.
He worked at the Chicago Stock Exchange and like getting how we like started with options is just that they became a thing here in America. Like, that's so interesting. And also like professor in order how he like he was a risk, officer for Freddie Mac and like so many interesting things like, that I never thought, like I would learn from, like, these amazing professors, and, like, it's all been like a learning curve in the podcast as well, because, like, I get my guests and like, they also have so much to share, like their experience as well.
And like what companies are looking at, what trends do they look at and it's been like, it's really fun.
And from the podcast, can you maybe talk a little bit about some of the highlights, things that you've learned and I think things that maybe you think are very useful for your audience, that maybe they wouldn't have uncovered without the podcast.
Of course. Yes. There's been a lot. I feel like every time I get a guest, I learn so much, but I remember, Mr. Greg Wong,
he said to really, like, not be scared of change, like anything in your life and your career or whether, like, you're learning, and I and I took that with me because whether it's like I'm studying for, like, a specific class or whether I'm doing a new project or I'm taking on a new challenge, like I'm able to.
Yes, he said, like, don't be able to try new things.
Right.
So what about like a new study method? What about like yeah. So like that's really interesting.
And
no, that's important. And and we had Mr. Greg Wong in our class recently. So shout out to Mr. Wong who's on the advisory board for the Investment Institute. And I I agree with that. And I think it's really important for students also, maybe we can do a public service announcement here to everybody is that, you know, don't be afraid to try new things and experiment and obviously not be afraid to fail at those things and move on very quickly.
And I think that's an important lesson in life. And, and that's, that's hard to know, especially as a young person that, okay, it's okay to try these new things, right? Whether it's a new study method or or taking a new class like, oh, this is really not in my what I think is a core strength, but I'm interested in this, you know, not being afraid to take those classes saying, signing up for a club.
So maybe you're not, you know, don't have a big background in the stock market, but, you know, join the stock and portfolio management club, that's the opportunity to learn, maybe, you know, start watching a podcast. Maybe. What are some other things that you've talked about on the podcast that maybe not just including the guests, but some just topics that you thought were
very
So, actually, we had a Bloomberg economist coming into our podcast, one of these eight, and her name's Estelle. And she talked about how like for forecasting, they're able to forecast for their clients at Bloomberg going through alternative metrics like that. You go through the ADP jobs report like, and if, let's say we weren't getting like the Bureau of Labor Statistics or wasn't like sharing what they were getting from their surveys, we were able to like go through the ADP.
Like it's really interesting because those are real numbers. And like they actually like forecast. Like if you're able to read them properly, like what the market's going to do next, whether for like fed cuts or. Yeah.
Excellent. And now that we're we're closing in on the end of the year here. We're recording this mid December 2025. What's the 2026 look like for the podcast and for the stock and portfolio management club?
Yes over 2026. Oh my god this year went by so fast. So we have so much to do next year because we are actually partnering with the Investment Institute.
We're very excited about this.
I’m excited about that. But also like our analyst fund, like we want to grow our base of analysts and also our members to like, keep that count, keep constant members. And, of course, our newspaper, like our newspaper right now is like priority. Leah and Kabir, these are people who are like, working so hard for, like, getting this newspaper out and in different locations in the business school and dining locations everywhere.
Yes.
So you've got an old school in the newspaper, maybe mention a little bit about that. What was the idea behind that? So many people now are very focused on digital and everything online, but you guys talk the other way and went a little bit old school. What was the reason?
The reason is because we had like our newsletter. Like on your email, you get it. You're able to get your personal site like a personalized email, only what's happening in the market then like inputs for people who are currently trading. But we said, what about if we have like a newspaper that you're able to grab whenever you go to class or your dining hall and you can like, read what's happening in the markets, like with inputs from students.
And that was like, okay, that's it. Because also like you get it physically for me actually, like I'm one of the like old school people who prefers like physical instead of like a digital. Even if it's the news, like, yes, sometimes I prefer reading like a newspaper, like, I know I ordered it and I know like the future is coming soon and the future we in the future.
But we do have like our newsletter as well. But having that, it's just like it reminds you like how important it is to like see you physically things.
it's a little bit of an old school throwback. Yeah. Well very nice. Well, thanks. Thanks for sharing that. One of the things that I did want to highlight, what you mentioned already is the partnership for the Investment Institute and Stock and Portfolio Management Club. So in the spring semester, we'll have our portfolio group. So, let everybody know now, hey, join the portfolio group.
And we're going to partner with Stock and Portfolio Management Club to help us run that this year. So we're super excited about that. And we appreciate that this opportunity to work closely with you and the team there. And maybe, one of the things that you could mention too, is, you know, as we kind of think about the stock market and stocks in general, are there any specific companies or ideas?
You know, AI has been such a big topic in when I was on your episode, we talked about Nvidia quite a lot. Yeah. Are there any particular companies, that you're excited about as we think about, you know, in addition to this partnership in 2026, we also need we're always thinking about companies in AI. What kind of companies are you thinking about right now?
And the club is thinking about?
So the club for our analysts fund. We have like several, different companies that we invest in. We have from AP Materials to, companies like Robinhood and also penny stocks, like so many, several. But, me personally speaking, well, I've been thinking a lot about AI and like how important it is in our lives. And, lately, if you've been following the news, you've been able to see that Oracle is not performing so well.
But when a company is not performing so well, you know, like they have like an immense market share, like it's good to have trust in them because also like their leadership is able to, grow from the up and down the path. Yeah. So me personally, I'm following Oracle, but you said AI and I think AI is so interesting because now let's say Google like their, their Gemini version.
Do you use Gemini?
Actually I use to be ChatGPT loyal fan and user, but I realize that you're able to upload videos in Gemini and get like a video analyzed in like sometimes I'm like in class and we got. Wait, let me see. What does this like specifically mean on Gemini and like you're able to like see oh my gosh like this is the perspective okay.
That's like better.
Yeah I think Gemini three is a huge upgrade from 2.5. And at GW, a lot of our enterprise services are through Google. So having access and having 3.0 built right in I think is super useful. So I, I use Gemini, I use all the models, maybe not all the models, but I use, Gemini, I use Grok 4.1.
I use Claude, I use DeepSeek. Just a little bit, and ChatGPT 5.1, of course. But I'm trying to use all the models to try to figure out, like, which one is better at, at which activity. And I think Gemini, though, has been such a big advancement. And I think as far as remember, this is, entertainment and educational purposes only.
But I think Google, Alphabet's the parent company, as many people know. It's, you know, I think an important distinction that they have this vertical integration going. So they, they control, the chips on the TPU side, the tensor processing units, and that they've done, from years ago. Now they're on their seventh generation called Ironwood. And I think it's a really important distinction between them.
And another provider like ChatGPT is, as an example, who rely on other parties and other chips to deliver that. And obviously that can affect their margins. That certainly affects their their capital expenditures. And so any views on how do you think I will evolve from here? Do you think all these productivity gains that that people keep talking about?
I mean, you're you're a user of these things. You're a student. Do you think these productivity gains are going to come through or do you think really right now it's just more hype about, yes, these productivity gains are coming. For example, you know, you hear in business that, oh yes, we're actually hiring less people now. You know, we're not we're not firing people.
But when somebody leaves we're not replacing that. So let's say we had ten workers, and two people left. Now we're down to eight workers, and we're using AI to be more productive. That's what the business says. Or the owners of the business or the managers of the business. But if you ask the workers, they say, actually, we're just eight people working harder.
And maybe we have some small benefit from AI. Obviously, this is an exaggeration, to make an example here, but what views do you have on is AI actually making people more productive right now or is it still to come?
So is AI making people more productive. I think people like everybody in the workforce right now, currently, we're able to see how like important it is to like, use AI. Well, I currently I'm an intern at AARP. I you're able to really see like you're able to use like a Copilot or platforms that we've allowed,
right. But integrating AI into your daily life, I think is important to, like, help you, like, stay organized, but also like, you need to think straight through what you're doing.
Like you need to also think for yourself. Right. But talking about, like the workforce of companies, like how they're going to like, go by their margins. I think that companies like you see Klarna, like their entire workforce is mostly AI, right? But these are companies that actually, like, are going through and through a lot of trouble. Like if you see like Klarna, it's going through a lot of trouble.
But you also see companies that are also growing along with AI, let's say Disney. They had this, new contract with OpenAI,
right,
where they're able to
where Sora is able to have like rides on character from, from the Disney World, which is so interesting because nowadays, like, what's going to happen to these jobs, the people who did the animations, what's going to happen to the people who did the sound effects?
What's going to happen to people who were running all these systems? Like you're also thinking about them, right? But the margins for Disney would technically look better in the long term.
Right? So it's it's
both of like, it's like a double sword. Like. Right. Yes.
So on the AI front, let's stick with that for one moment. What are you most optimistic about AI. Oh, are there particular areas that you think are really interesting? And as business people, investors and analysts we should be paying attention to?
Yes. So actually there's Claude AI for coding for coding. I'm sorry.
Yeah. No worries. And,
So Claude AI like, is, good for coding, and, like, I've seen a lot of companies who say, like, oh, we rely on Claude for having, like, our code to make it. And like, all our systems running, and actually, like, the parent company, is actually going through a lot of struggle right now because they just had, like, system fall down as of yesterday.
But you've seen like, you see, like a lot of these companies, like they're all relying on different several different companies and especially like also the chip providers like whether we talk about Nvidia and now Google's like Alphabet. They're joining in because they're also going to be working with the TPUs you previously mentioned. Right. It's so interesting. And like how many new companies are growing out of this.
Yeah, there's certainly a lot going on. Now also okay, we're as we're moving to wrap up here this episode, I want to say thanks first, but, before we wrap, you're a school of Business student. What do you, excited about for your studies here at GW? And what are you looking forward to? For 2026 and beyond?
I guess, what I've liked so far at GW I really like the community. Like, I really like the people I'm able to work with at the Stock and Portfolio management club. The support we get as well from the School of Business like, and I, I really this year I learned a lot about like the people I'm able to work with.
Whether it's the social media team for us SMPC Jayden, Sofia Mian, Maya. These are people who are so aware of like what's happening in finance, but also like how can we relate this to people and grab their attention through social media. Maddie, write in the newsletter. So many new members that I've joined along the way.
I am so glad to be working with them. Viraj Shah, and also Caden Taber, like people who are so passionate about the markets but also so dedicated to building this community, with people who, like, also care about the markets. Right. So I'm really I'm really glad that I'm able to work with them. And also, I learned a lot through, previous mentors within the club as well, people who have worked so closely like making sure that the club grows along.
I remember, like, Joshua Hanft, and like, people who have been so passionate about it, like, that's like a lot of inspiration for me. That's what I've learned here so far. I like to give my best, and what I'm looking forward for 2026 is, a lot of growth, like a lot of learning and just be part of, as SPMC and like being the president and also like working with the Investment Institute.
Like such an excitement for me. And in the long term, I really want to go into investment banking.
Excellent.
But if investment banking doesn't work, I can also try skydiving.
Professional sky diver. Yeah?
Excellent.
Yeah.
I think that's a fantastic place to end on. I'm sure you're going to be a fantastic investment banker in skydiving, possibly a hobby. You could also go into asset management. Well, I want to say thank you, Sofia, for joining us on this episode of Market News with Rodney Lake. Very much appreciated.
We thank you and hope you'll come back at some point in the future. 
And we look forward
working with you in the Stock and Portfolio management Club this spring. Thank you very much.
Of course.
That's a wrap for this episode of Market News with Rodney Lake. We'll see you back on the next episode. Thank you.