Next month, students will exercise their financial intuition and research skills in the Fortress Global Macro University Challenge, an investment competition that evaluates participants' simulated portfolio.
The talent scout firm Upgrade Capital will run the competition, and students from over 20 schools, including all Ivy League institutions, are slated to participate.
"We hope the competition will help give rise to the next generation of great macro investors," Fortress corporate communications vice president Bruce Corwin said.
Participants invest a virtual $10,000 in four investment classes: equities, commodities, fixed income and currencies. The students who generate the highest risk-adjusted alpha an investment measurement that prefers gradual increase in value over dramatic jumps in the ticker price will be awarded prize money and internship opportunities on Fortress's Macro Fund investing team.
The first half of the competition will begin Oct. 7, and the second on Jan. 13. A pool of $15,000 in prize money will be divided between the six winners from the first and second sections and the three overall winners.
Upgrade Capital founder Alexey Loganchuk estimates that between 1,000 and 2,000 students will compete. Last year, 90 Dartmouth students competed.
In the past, competitors have employed diverse investing strategies, but many have opted for value investing and technical analysis. Over the long run, Loganchuk recommends a mix of strategies.
"In terms of the students who have done best in our platform, I would say...that they have all shown a desire to invest based on fundamental analysis," Loganchuk said. "Technical considerations are sometimes factored into the decisions with regard to entry and exit points."
Fortress is sponsoring the competition to identify strong potential interns for the company and improve finance education on college campuses.
The competition hopes to of create equal opportunity for students entering finance, Loganchuk said. Upgrade Capital sets their sights on students, particularly women, who may have been overlooked by college campus investment groups.
Dartmouth Society of Investment and Economics co-president Kamran Ali '15, who will coordinate with Loganchuk, said the competition will allowfreshmen andsophomores to "get their feet wet" in investment.
Sam Ticker '13, the winner of last year's challenge, said it allows Fortress to "develop a pipeline to bring in promising young talent."
Ticker, a history major, said he did not boast the quantitative skills usually linked with minds geared for finance.
He attributed his success to recognizing his lack of knowledge about the markets.
"I know a lot more about what I don't know than what I do know," he said. "Nobody knows everything."
Ticker tended to invest in industries he had an interest in, allowing him to maintain focus, he said.
"I tend to hone in on trends that I think are interesting," he said. He said reinsurance, or "insurance for insurance companies," had potential.
Ticker had little investing experience prior to entering the competition. He now works as an investment banking analyst at Citigroup, and attributed his current position to his participation in the investment competition.
"You really don't know if you have a head for this, and frankly speaking, if you have an interest for it, because they're kind of the same thing," he said.
