DAYTON, Ohio, March 27, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- Against the backdrop of a horrible bear market, finance students from business schools around the country are traveling to Dayton, April 6-8, to compete in the first nationwide student portfolio management competition and learn from some of the nation's top investment strategists.
The winning teams will open the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square on Monday, April 30. More importantly, they'll build their resumes and be able to boast to future employers that they are the best young talent in the nation.
Called RISE (Redefining Investment Strategy Education), the first-of-its-kind symposium is sponsored by the University of Dayton's School of Business Administration, with support from IBJ Whitehall, Nasdaq, The Wall Street Journal, Gem Capital Management, Bartlett, AIM Funds and AIMR.
"This is a tremendous time for learning, because the markets are so volatile," said David Sauer, associate professor of finance at the University of Dayton and symposium organizer. "From an educational perspective, this time is the best. Students learn the importance of managing risk and the need for adequate diversification. There's nothing better in terms of learning than when you have to make a decision and live with it."
This is learning the hard way, since a growing number of business schools allow students to manage portfolios of real money. Nine universities, including the University of Dayton, now give students at least $1 million to manage, according to Sauer.
"The University of Dayton operates the only facility in the country that's completely student managed by undergraduates. We manage the center as an investment firm, and the training opportunities are integrated right into the curriculum," said Sauer, founding director of the University of Dayton's Center for Portfolio Management and Security Analysis, where 15 students manage the portfolio and report to the University's investment committee of the board of trustees. "There's been a tremendous growth in the last year of schools starting funds. It's hot in the academic world."
Perhaps that's why 40 colleges and universities from 25 states and Canada will be represented at the RISE symposium, where the best practices in investment management education will be explored. Half of the schools have signed up to compete in a portfolio competition that will showcase success in growth and value, and blend styles of management.
"The competition will be based on risk-adjusted performance for 12 months, ending Jan. 31, 2001," Sauer said. "Performance will be evaluated on a risk-adjusted basis, not just on who has the highest returns. Whether students manage portfolios of $50,000 or $1 million, they'll be competing on the same playing field. The winning teams will be determined based upon their risk-adjusted performance and presentation before a panel of judges."
The competition is slated Friday, April 6, at the Dayton Convention Center. Nine portfolio managers from investment management firms from around the country will judge the teams' portfolio presentations. The national champions will be recognized at an awards dinner at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 7, in the Kennedy Union Ballroom at the University of Dayton.
Besides the competition, the symposium will feature presentations by five globally recognized investment strategists whose firms manage between them more than $1 trillion of assets and are often quoted in the financial press: Robert Froehlich, vice chairman of the Kemper Funds Group and a managing director of Scudder Kemper Investments Inc.; Joseph Battipaglia, chief investment strategist for Gruntal & Co.; Ned Riley Jr., chief investment strategist for the Global Fundamental Strategies team of State Street Global Advisors; Elizabeth Mackay, chief investment strategist and senior managing director at Bear Stearns; and Alfred Goldman, corporate vice president and chief market strategist for A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc.
Froehlich, who appears regularly on financial programs such as CNBC, CNNfn and FOX News, and is a guest co-host of CNBC's "Squawk Box," believes the real-world experience of handling real money gives college students "a jump start" in their careers.
"This is, without a doubt, the single most important thing college students can be doing today if indeed they want jobs in the investment community," he said. "There's no class, no series of classes, no internship, nothing that can give you the same leg up as actually having managed real money. Ten years from now, it's going to be as important a prerequisite as your first accounting class."
Jeff Rombach, student manager of the University of Dayton's Center for Portfolio Management and Security Analysis, agrees. "This helps us get our foot in the door. If you manage a simulated portfolio and it goes down, you blow it off. When you're managing real money and answering to the board of trustees, under that kind of pressure you take it 100 percent seriously," said Rombach, a junior finance major from St. Louis. "It goes from being a classroom exercise to a real-world exercise."
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CONTACT: University of Dayton
David Sauer, Associate Professor of Finance,
University of Dayton
Phone: (937) 239-8721
E-Mail: sauer@udayton.edu