This year SMIFC will be running two competitions. One will be a poster display and the other will be in two parts; the Voleo Portfolio Building Competition and then, after the conference, the Voleo Nasdaq Trading Competition.

Poster Session

This session is very generously supported by Kaplan

The 2019 SMIFC poster session will be held on Thursday October 31, 2019 at Embassy Suites, Lakeview Room 3:15 -4:15 p.m. The poster session provides the SMIFC teams a way to display information about their SMIF including performance during 2019 year. We encourage all SMIFC teams to participate in the poster session. As an incentive to participate, the SMIFC conference will recognize three “Posters of Excellence for outstanding performance and outstanding visual presentation”. Presenters will participate in engaging their colleagues at other SMIFC schools. All presenters are responsible for bringing or delivering the posters to the conference and removing it after the conference. Posters presenters are expected to arrive at least 15 minutes before the start of the poster session.

Submissions and Representation

Each SMIFC team should submit a copy of their statement to michelle.swick@indstate.edu using this form by 5 pm Eastern time on October 17, 2019. Each team is also required to to attach a  statement obtained from the brokerage house that host their SMIF that includes at a minimum, the period from October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019. SMIFC teams are expected to use 48 inches by 36 inches tri fold boards to display their posters.

Evaluation Rubric

• SMIF performance measured by total return (50%)
• Visual presentation (25%)
• Presentation to judges or visitors (25%)

To determine the performance score for each team, the teams will be ranked by their Sharp Ratio. The team that has the highest Sharp Ratio will be ranked first and receive a score of 50. The performance score for other teams will be relative to the score of the first team. For example, if the first team has a Sharp Ratio of 0.63 and the second team has a Sharp Ratio of 0.60, then the second team receives a score of 47.62 (.60/.63 * 50). The score on the visual display and presentations will be determined by the Judges who will visit with each participating team.

Evaluation Method

• The Sharpe Ratio will be used to measure SMIF team’s performance over the period October1, 2018 through September 30, 2019. The return used in the ratio is the time weighted return.

• Visual Presentation: SMIFC teams should be innovative in their presentations. Posters is expected to highlight among other things, the SMIF performance, history, investment policy, Investment strategies and student role in decision making.

• Each SMIFC team will engage with the Judges and give answers to a common set of questions. 

 Poster Session Prizes 

Pitch competition winners (2-4 students) would each receive one of the following Kaplan CFA packages:

• First place:  Kaplan Premium CFA Packages (4) valued at $1099 per recipient  
• Second place: Kaplan Essential CFA Packages valued at $649 per recipient  
• Third place Kaplan Schweser Notes Packages valued at $329.per recipient  

SMIFC Conference Pitch Competition

Part 1: Portfolio Building Competition – Presented by Voleo

This project is an exercise of fundamental analysis on building a long-term investing strategy. Each team of 3 to 5 students will be asked to create a paper trading portfolio with $1,000,000 that can be invested in stocks and ETFs on the Voleo app. Students will be asked to create a portfolio of up to 10 stocks and write a 4-6 pages (including exhibits) paper explaining their logic and rationale for their choices. Portfolios will be judged by members of the CFA society of Chicago.

To Enter in the Portfolio Building Competition:

• Download Voleo SimuTrader
• Create a profile with your .edu email
• Start your simulated investment club with 3-5 students (including yourself)
• Set “Buy” Orders for up to 10 stocks on the Voleo app

Evaluation Rubric:

• Analysis of economic, industrial, political, global and financial conditions (25%)
• Asset allocation and diversification (25%)
• Financial Analysis and selection of stocks and ETFS  (40%)
• Write up of the paper and exhibits (10%)

Portfolio Cash Prize Pool:

The prizes are provided by Voleo Inc. in the form of cash deposit in a brokerage account for each winner. 

• First Place — $1,000
• Second Place — $500
• Third Place — $250

Timeline:

• October 17, 2019 - Deadline for Paper submissions
• October 31, 2019 -  Conference prizes rewarded for Portfolio Building Competition

Submissions:

The portfolio management paper should be submitted no later than 5pm Eastern, October 17, 2019.  Two copies of the paper should be submitted.to michelle.swick@indstate.edu. One copy would have school affiliation and team member’s names. The second copy will be sent to reviewers for grading and therefore should not contain any identifying information. We encourage all SMIFC Schools to participate in the competition. Schools that submit to paper competition should plan to have at least one member of the team present at the conference. The winning team is expected to make 10 minutes’ presentation of their paper at the conference. However, winning teams who are not represented at the conference is required to prepare a 10 minutes’ video presentation and send to Michelle Swick. SMIFC member universities can have more than one team represented in the competition.

Part 2: Participate in the Voleo Student Competition

Once the conference is over, your portfolios created in Part 1 will automatically be entered into the Voleo Student Competition, where you will compete with student across the country over the course of 3 months. During these three months, you will actively manage and rebalance your portfolio for a chance at more prizes! Winners will be judged at the end of the competition based on total returns.

Portfolio Cash Prize Pool:

The prizes are provided by Voleo Inc. in the form of cash deposit in a brokerage account for each winner.  

• First Place Team - $3,000 + a trip for 3 to visit Nasdaq in NYC
• Second Place Team - $2,000
• Third Place Team - $1,000

Timeline:

• November 1st - Paper Trading Competition Begins
• February 29th -  Paper Trading Competition Complete
• March 2nd - Winners Announced
• Spring Break (TBC) - Winners Invited to Nasdaq Market Site for a guided tour and networking