Media Release - For Immediate Release
March 15 2010
Team Ready to Make IMPACT on New York
Sobey School of Business students Paul Kratz, Kyle Westhaver, Joel Snow, Andrew Walker and Sophie Cheong are off to New York on March 17 to demonstrate their investing savvy. Members of the school’s IMPACT program, they will be going spreadsheet-to-spreadsheet against other students from around the world in the CFA Institute Global Investment Research Challenge |
Andrew Walker rolls his eyes as he thinks about the missed opportunity.
Last April the fourth year finance student saw an opportunity to make some quick cash by investing in a little known steel company. Its shares were trading below the value of its assets and his careful reading of the company’s financials showed it had sizeable orders pending.
Walker worked up a pitch for the dozen other student investors that were part of the Sobeys IMPACT program, but he failed to convince the majority that the purchase was a good one.
“Its share price has more than doubled since then,” he says, his voice tinged with regret. “I don’t blame them. It was my error. If my pitch had been better and my presentation more complete, they would have come on board.”
Walker is going to learn from his failure to fully prepare March 17 when he and four other members of the team travel to New York to compete in the CFA Institute’s Global Investment Research Challenge. The CFA Institute is a global, not-for-profit association of investment professionals that offers a range of educational opportunities around the world.
“This competition is about research. It’s about preparing a professional quality corporate analysis and being ready to defend it against probing questions from judges’ that include research analysts, portfolio managers, and chief investment officers from the world’s top firms.”
The Saint Mary’s team qualified for the New York event by beating out four other university teams at the Atlantic Canada CFA Investment Research Challenge in November.
Joel Snow, a fund manager with the team, says the group invested hundreds of hours into the effort to become regional winners. Hundreds more are now being invested in preparation for New York.
“You have to be nuts to put in this much time over and above your classes,” he says with a laugh. “But I love it. We all love it or we wouldn’t be part of it.”
Involvement in the IMPACT program represents a two-year commitment by students with membership restricted to no more than 10 students in each year.
First year participants are designated Research Associates. Their duties include asset allocation, security selection and presentation of professional reports.
The second year participants are Fund Managers with each senior student assigned to one or more economic sectors for which they act as primary analyst.
The initial funding for investments came as a result of an anonymous donation made in 2004. In each subsequent year, the size of the investment fund has depended on the success or failure of the previous year’s investment team.
With the 2008 posting a 27 per cent loss in the face of the economic downturn that drained millions from the markets, this year’s cadre took over in September with $132,900. The group has made a dozen or so trades since then and posted a fourth quarter growth of 5.7 per cent, almost two and a half per cent better than established expectations. As of Feb. 4 the fund sat at $157,898.
All investment decisions are made as a team, with the guidance of industry mentors. They face the same constraints regarding asset allocation and security decisions as those faced by real world money managers
“It’s practical, real world experience in money management. It allows them to put theory into practice,” says Dr. Bill Bobey, an academic director of the program who guides the group along with Ross Hallett, an Investment Advisor and Portfolio Manager with BMO Nesbitt Burns.
“This is my calling,” says Paul Kratz, an energy sector fund manager who admits to spending up to eight hours a day in front of one of the schools Bloomberg terminals tweaking his research. “People may laugh, but this brings me a lot of joy.”
The New York trip isn’t only about winning, says Dr. Bobey. With industry professionals and senior representatives of publicly traded companies on hand, he says it can be an important networking event for students.
If the team does win, they could be headed for the world finals in Hong Kong in April.
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For More Information:
Steve Proctor
External Affairs
Saint Mary's University
(902) 420.5513
E-mail: steve.proctor@smu.ca
www.smu.ca
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