Students at the Richard Ivey School of Business flexed their investing muscle during one of the worst stock market declines in history, edging out 15 MBA rivals to win the Financial Post MBA Portfolio Management Competition.
Ivey ended the competition, which began in October, with a 28 per cent return, at a time when most investors were lucky just to hold steady.
Heather Tobin, MBA student and spokesperson for “Team Ivey”, says her team was one of only three to made money during the competition. Each team was given $100,000 in pretend money to buy, sell or short any stock or exchange-traded fund listed on the TSX, NYSE, Nasdaq or AMEX during regular trading hours.
The Ivey team reaped the highest total return of 16 Canadian schools competing, having $128,372.72 at the end of the competition.
“In this market, any team was successful if it didn’t lose money,” says Tobin. “We’re very proud of our accomplishments, especially in such an unprecedented market environment, and we are very pleased to represent Ivey.”
Ricky (Mayank) Juneja, Zainab Abdallah, Sumar Sidhu, Nolan Hosking, Alykhan Ladha, Sebastian Kope, Vanessa D’Costa, Jason Billan, Neall Banner and Marc Turcotte joined Tobin on the team. All are members of the School’s Finance Club.
Tobin describes her team’s strategy as “disciplined and conservative”, investing in companies with strong fundamentals that had simply been hurt by the storm in the markets. There wasn’t one particular trade that vaulted the team to the top, rather the team made sure to lock in gains consistently.
“One of the biggest challenges was staying focused and staying consistent with our strategy. Although we did take risks, we were careful not to put the entire portfolio in jeopardy,” she says. “I think our team cohesiveness played a big role. We met frequently and were constantly tapped into what was happening in the markets.”
Rick Robertson, Director (MBA Program) at Ivey, says he’s proud of the students’ investing knowledge, discipline and teamwork.
“I think this achievement demonstrates both the team’s talent and hard work and the school’s strength in the area of finance,” he says.