Seeking to capitalize on the growing influence of “macro events” in the global financial market, two University of North Carolina Wilmington students announced Thursday the creation of its first hedge fund, according to a news release. 

Called Lumina Investments LLC, the group formed in 2011 by Elliot Carol, Marcus Varsano and Ryan Mahoney. 

Carol and Varsano are students in UNCW’s Cameron School of Business.

Mahoney is a finance student at East Carolina University in Greenville.

Lumina’s new fund will invest directly and indirectly into markets affected by international political and economic volatility using equities, commodities, fixed-income and currency trading, the release stated.

“Globalization has increased correlation and volatility among international financial markets,” Carol, who serves as chairman and principal managing partner of Lumina Investments, said in the news release. “We believe there is upside investment opportunity through a strategy founded on understanding international developments and their global impact.”

He said the political and economic uncertainty in the Middle East is pushing oil prices higher, while the growing burden of sovereign debt poses severe long-term economic challenges for Europe and Japan. 

“We’re watching these macro events and how they are driving the markets,” Carol said. “Focusing only on traditional economic indicators is no longer sufficient to inform investing decisions. This is the new normal.”

He said a select group of successful traders, business leaders and investors from around the world, including several from the Wilmington area, have provided “invaluable” counsel and support during the hedge fund’s launch.

“The entire frame of reference for us, all in our early 20s, has been a post-financial crisis world,” Varsano said in a news release. “Today, you must have sophisticated investment strategies and a willingness to embrace reasonable risk. Fast-paced change is a constant. There is no returning to the ‘good old days’ of investing in companies based solely on their balance sheets.”

Click here to read a March article in the Greater Wilmington Business Journal about Lumina Investments LLC.