For students in the Culverhouse Investment Management Group (CIMG), a student-run investment fund housed within the C.T. and Kelley Fitzpatrick Center for Value Investing, the work for competitions usually starts long before anyone steps up to a podium.
There are spreadsheets to build, company reports to read, assumptions to test, and arguments to sharpen. All the work culminates to that moment at the podium in front of professional investors and explaining why their idea makes sense.
Sometimes, it leads to a win. Or two.
Sophomores Jaxson Liening, Brian Pupecki, and Owen Schnakenberg won first place at the Balyasny Asset Management Winter Stock Competition in early March in New York City, along with $5,000 in prize money. Seniors Caleb Claiborne, Leo Denning, Ian McHugh, and junior Noah Moyer took first place the University of Georgia Stock Pitch Competition on Feb. 20 with $3,000 in prize money.
“Success in national competitions against top universities continues to strengthen CIMG’s reputation as one of the premier investing programs in the country,” Clairborne said. “All of the top universities have programs like CIMG, so the fact we can go out and win against those programs is a testament to the training and resources at Culverhouse.”
For John Heins, director of the Fitzpatrick Center and adviser for CIMG, the victories are exciting. But the real value comes from the experience.
“In the 10 years I’ve been here CIMG has always participated in competitions of some kind,” he said. “There are a lot of good reasons for that. The preparation for the competition – identifying a good idea, doing all the research and analysis to build the investment case, preparing a professional-looking presentation and then delivering it to professional investors – is an amazing learning experience.”
CIMG, which has $2.5 million in assets that have accrued since its founding in 2009, has focused on competing against the best schools in the country over the years. Balyasny Asset Management, a major hedge fund firm on Wall Street, was a big win for several reasons.
“Balyasny is one of the leading hedge fund firms on Wall Street,” Heins said. “They have decided that it’s very important for them to improve their recruiting and their outreach because they’re in a competition for talent.”
The firm uses competitions like this to identify future employees. The competition is also limited to younger students.
“They only open it to freshmen and sophomores because they’re really looking for young talent that they can hopefully get for an internship the following summer,” Heins said. “It’s a great opportunity for our sophomores who are maybe only in the group for one or two semesters to show their stuff and see what they can do.”
The second victory, at the University of Georgia competition, was open to students from all class levels. The Culverhouse team included upperclassmen who serve as leaders within CIMG.
“They had a good idea, for a stock CIMG owns in its portfolio,” Heins said. “I think it’s great that the upperclassmen wanted to show to the people coming up, ‘Hey, look, we can do this.’ You should always continue to test yourself. I think they set an excellent example.”
