About Me: I have a finance degree from an average public university with a 3.1 cum. GPA (3.8 major). Now two years out of school, work for a REIT in the D.C. area and have quickly been promoted once already. Have not take the GMAT yet, and am active in the community and in trade organizations.

Question: I will describe the venture in question as honestly as I can for you to evaluate, but am aware I can 'fluff' it a bit for my application. My senior year in college, I raised $3,000 from 3 investors (friends/family) to invest in long securities, as a basic 'investment fund'. I did well in the first 6 months (gains of 10%+) and was able to raise an additional $5,000 from one of the investors. I was now managing about $8,000 and for a while was performing very well. At one point, performance since inception was $20%+. With the fall of the market, and starting of my full-time job, I had less time to focus on the investments. I took a big hit. One investor pulled out, and I am down about 60+% since inception 2 years ago. I view this as a failure, and have subsequently lost interest in this venture.

How would you recommend treating this on my application/resume? I have to admit that it is a very makeshift operation, and almost a hobby of sorts, even when I was doing well. Should I leave this off my application, or try my best to revive this venture? Should I close up shop and use it as a 'learning experience'? I realize it was not set up as a legitimate investment fund, and was really more of me working as more of a financial advisor. Would the adcom see this as a poor attempt at starting a fund?

I need advice on how to make the best out of this. Thanks for the input!