22 December 2014 12:52PM
The Financial Education Partnership (FEP) wrapped up a successful fall competition season in early December, with 66 sophomores and 115 juniors participating in one or more of the four competitions offered. As in years past, the competitions came in a range of formats — from a quiz show to an online interactive game — and students had the opportunity to employ and expand their knowledge of the financial markets with guidance from the FEP team and feedback from Wall Street professionals.
A new addition to the FEP competition slate, the Goldman Sachs Trade Pitch Competition, was open for registration to all sophomores and juniors in September. More than 40 teams of three students submitted unique trade pitch ideas with the hope of being chosen among the top 10 to present to a panel of Goldman Sachs representatives on Oct. 21. Ultimately, juniors Suqi Huang, Mandy Jiang, and Jenny Ni took first place for their pitch of a merger among tobacco brands.
Duke alumnus and Goldman Sachs panelist Jonathan Shugar commented, “The breadth of the presentations spoke to the hard work and innovative investment thought process of Duke students. Our panelists were impressed that many of the teams’ investment ideas mirror discussions we have every day at Goldman Sachs, as well as the teams’ ability to support their investment theses.”
Running for the duration of the fall semester, the Morgan Stanley Trading Game gave 109 students the chance to get up close and personal with the markets and trade a pre-selected group of assets via an online simulated trading platform called Stockfuse. The game featured a leaderboard that displayed the dynamic rankings of the participants by returns yielded throughout the competition. Divided into three periods, the game was structured to give participants multiple opportunities to boost their returns and learn from past missteps. Each player started with $100,000 in simulated funds to invest; the top 10 players gained $12,000 on average.
The grand winner was junior Artur Shikhaleev, whose overall returns came in at 15.3 percent. Runner up Eamonn Vain-Callahan ’16 said of the game, “The focus on macroeconomic trading tools allowed me to dive into currency trading and learn something completely new. Overall, I had a great experience and strongly recommend the competition to anyone looking to further their knowledge in the markets.”
The BlackRock Asset Allocation Competition challenged students to form teams of two or three and act as portfolio managers for a particular class of funds, determining the allocation of different assets within their portfolios for a one-year horizon. Their goal was to meet or exceed a target rate of return goal with as low volatility as possible. On Oct. 28, the top 10 teams presented to BlackRock professionals, who included Managing Directors Kip Zahn and Andy Phillips. Prior to their presentations, the teams were assigned BlackRock “coaches,” Duke alumni at the firm who provided constructive criticism and advice.
A team of two sophomores, Diana Evans and Sam Morton, won the competition. They developed a prudent portfolio allocation for clients with a retirement date of 2045.
The fourth competition of the fall was the Deutsche Bank Game Show, which saw 12 teams of four students face off over quiz questions on finance- and business-related topics. To prepare, the teams read assigned articles and perused The Wall Street Journal on a daily basis to keep up with current global events. A team of sophomores, Derek Chait, Trey Coppinger, Lukas Neske, and Travis Wolf, clinched the win. Deutsche Bank Managing Director David Posen attended and hosted the final round of the game show.
The winners of each of the four competitions were awarded visits to New York for informational or first-round internship interviews with the sponsoring firms.
2014 marks the seventh year that the FEP has partnered with finance firms to bring students a variety of extracurricular competitions. “Each year our goal is to educate students from all disciplines about different roles in the financial markets, so that they have a better understanding of ‘real world’ finance, regardless of their academic path at Duke,” said FEP Director Emma Rasiel. “They gain invaluable experience speaking in front of professionals and engaging with them. Through the competitions and our other activities, the FEP is intent on bolstering students’ confidence and skill levels as they prepare for internship interviews in the spring semester.”
Learn more about the FEP and our undergraduate program.