Biography
The Founder
Christopher R. Peckyno, known as Chris Peckyno, is the Founder and President of the PSU Trading Society. An undergraduate at the Smeal College of Business, he organizes the Society through 2016 and launches it formally in 2017, building its curriculum, recruiting its executive board, and leading its educational sessions. He is also a member and leader of the Nittany Lion Fund, where he leads the Financials Sector, and of Leveraged Lion Capital, where he is its first Director of Equity Analysis.
He currently serves on the Executive Board as the CFO and Treasurer of the Lunar Lion Team, a key person for the Google Lunar X Prize competition. He also is currently on the Penn State Club Basketball team. He is the captain of an Intramural Football and an Intramural Basketball team at Penn State.
In his free time, Chris enjoys reading, writing, and hanging out with friends. He is a very talented chess player and when he is not zugzwanging his friends, he is probably playing poker with them. His love for spending time with friends and competitive spirit helped forge this very society.
The Society began from a simple observation: many undergraduates are interested in markets, but few have a structured place to learn how professionals actually analyze a business, value a security, or think about risk.
Chris has built that place. The Society teaches the fundamentals first, meaning financial statements, valuation, and discounted cash flow analysis, and then shows how those tools meet real markets through technical analysis, behavioral finance, and regular market commentary.
The aim has always been practical: members leave a session able to do something they could not do before, and the organization is built to outlast its founders.
Chris’s personal book recommendations and movie recommendations are on this site.
Contributions
What he built
Founded and organized the Society
Organized the Society through 2016 and launched it as an undergraduate organization in 2017, defining its mission, structure, and identity.
Built the educational curriculum
Designed and presented sessions spanning accounting, valuation, discounted cash flow analysis, technical analysis, behavioral finance, and market commentary.
Recruited and led the executive board
Assembled the founding executive board and delegated ownership of programming, operations, and member development.
Connected the Society to the Penn State community
Brought members together beyond the classroom, including Penn State football games and participation in THON, the student-run philanthropy benefiting Four Diamonds.