These projects and competitions are very generously supported by the CMT Association

Note: Project 1 and Project 2, Part 1 are open to conference attendees only.

Project 1: 2021 SMIFC Poster Session (sponsored by CMT Association)

The 2021 SMIFC poster session will be held on Thursday, October 28, 2021 at the Embassy Suites, Lakeview Room 4:20 -5:30 p.m. The poster session provides the SMIFC teams a way to display information about their SMIF including performance during 2021 year. As an incentive to participate in the poster session competition, the CMT Association will recognize and present awards for the three teams that demonstrate 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. We encourage all SMIFC teams to participate in the poster session.

Submissions and Representation

Each SMIFC team should submit two copies of their posters, either as an image file or PDF, to michelle.swick@indstate.edu  by 5:00 pm eastern time on October 20, 2021. 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. The number of teams (1-3 students) that can participate in this competition is limited to four teams from each institution. Please let us know, as soon possible the number of teams that plan to join this competition.

Each team is also required to report their fund time weighted rate of return (TWRR) on a spread sheet and send it to us along with a letter from the brokerage house that host their SMIF for the period from January 1, 2021 to September 30, 2021. SMIFC teams are expected to use 48 inches by 36 inches tri-fold boards to display their posters. They sell them at Walmart around $3:00 a board.

Evaluation Rubric

• SMIF performance measured by Sharpe ratio (30%)
• Visual presentation (35%)
• Presentation to judges and visitors (35%)

To determine the performance score for each team, the teams will be ranked by their risk adjusted rate of return. The team that has the highest adjusted rate of return would receive a score of 40. The score for each team would be reduced by the difference in return between its adjusted rate of return and the first team adjusted rate of return. For example, if the first team has an adjusted return of 30% and second team has an adjusted return of 27% then the second team receives a score of 37. The score on the visual presentation and presentations to visitors will be determined at the conference by the two Judges who will stop by the table of each participating team and ask questions about the team work.

Evaluation Method

We will use the Sharpe ratio to measure SMIF team’s performance over the period January 1, 2021 through September 30, 2021. The return used in the ratio is the time weighted return. 

While we would like SMIF teams to be innovative in what to include on and how to set up their posters, we expect the posters to highlight among other things, the SMIF performance, history, investment policy, Investment strategies and student role in decision making process.

Poster Session Prizes (courtesy of CMT Association)

Two types of prizes will be awarded to the first three winners.

First, in kind prizes, courtesy of CMT Association and Wiley. The award package consists of:

• Copies of CMT Curriculum provided by Wiley ($225 value) per recipient or
• Course access to CMT Level I ($325 value) for all 3 winning schools.
• CMT Association will also provide free annual membership to all winning students ($325 value)

Second, cash prizes courtesy of Scott College of Business at Indiana State University

• First Place — $1000
• Second Place — $ 750
• Third Place — $500

Project 2: SMIFC Portfolio Building Competition –  sponsored by CMT Association

Part 1: Portfolio Building Competition

This project is an exercise of creating a long-term investment strategy and building an investment portfolio using fundamental analysis and technical analysis. The project consists of two parts. In the first part, teams of 1 to 3 students are asked to create a paper trading portfolio with $100,000 that can be invested in stocks.  Each team will create a portfolio of up to 10 stocks and write a 5-8 page (including exhibits) paper describing their investment plan and demonstrating their knowledge of analysis of economic, industrial, political, global and financial conditions, and their understanding and application of both fundamental analysis and technical analysis concepts and the criteria they used for selection, allocation, position sizing, and risk management of their portfolio.  The students will use the knowledge they accumulated in part 1 of the Portfolio Building project in the live investment challenge (part 2) in January 2022. Submitted papers will be judged by members of the CMT Association, CFA Society of Chicago and Faculty from SMIFC member institutions.

Evaluation Rubric

• Analysis of economic, industrial, political, global and financial conditions (20%)
• Asset allocation and diversification (15%)
• Financial Analysis and selection of stocks
• Using fundamental analysis (25%)
• Using technical analysis (25%)
• Write up of the paper and exhibits (15 %)

Portfolio Building Cash Prize Pool: Courtesy of Scott College of Business at Indiana State University

• First Place — $1500
• Second Place — $1000
• Third Place — $500

Timeline:

• October 15, 2021 - Deadline for Paper submissions
• October 28, 2021 -  Conference prizes awarded to Portfolio Building Competition Part 1 winners

Submissions and Representation

The portfolio building paper should be submitted no later than 5pm Eastern time, on October 15, 2021.  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.

Part 2: CMT Association Investment / SMIFC Investment Challenge, to be hosted in January 2022

The second part of the portfolio building competition is a CMT Association/SMIFC Investment Challenge. This is a technical analysis based simulated investment competition that will last for 8 weeks. CMT candidates and students from CMT Academic Partner Program institute and SMIF Consortium member institutions can join the competition.

Competition Parameters

Each competitor/team will begin competing with a synthetic account of $100,000/- to manage their portfolio

• Minimum Allocation 2% of your capital per trade – 1L
• Maximum Allocation 10% per trade – 5L
• You are allowed to invest in any security across the MSCI Global Index
• You are allowed to take long positions only
• The minimum holding period for any trade will be at least 3 days
• Entering a Stop Loss is compulsory for every trade. If it is not entered, the trade will be disqualified.
• Setting a profit target is not compulsory
• A minimum of 10 trades should be completed over the course of competition (entered and exited) to be eligible for final evaluation.
• All open trades will be deemed closed at the closing price of the last day of competition.
• Each trade decision (entry and exit) should be supported by your investment plan a rooted in a technical or fundamental rationale
• At the end of the competition, portfolios will be evaluated based upon the final risk adjusted return achieved across the entire period
• Competitors are required to use the designated platform at all times for managing portfolios. No ancillary entries and information, unless designated by the CMT Association will be taken into consideration
• At no point during the competition, should competitors abandon their portfolio. There should not elapse a period of 7 days without any open trades/investments
• Intraday trading will not be allowed. Positions must carry forward for at least 3 days, unless a stop-loss is triggered.
• The results of the challenge will be finalized by the CMT Association team in coordination with Optuma and cannot be disputed.

CMT Association will assist with communications and onboarding of SMIFC Schools including more complete documentation of the portfolio competition, access to their Discord Channels, and getting started on Optuma. They will create dedicated landing pages for students and faculty to access the trading tools, as well as the leaderboards throughout the competition. They will also start in September 2021 kickoff activities including introductory meetings/webinars for all SMIFC schools and student portfolio teams to provide educational material and answer questions about the live investment challenge.

Competition Prizes and Metrics of Success:

Five cash prizes will be awarded by the CMT Association to the five teams who fall in the following categories:

• Best Performing Portfolio – $1000 awarded to the portfolio which achieves the maximum risk adjusted return (highest Sharpe ratio) during the period
• Highest Absolute Return – $500 awarded to the portfolio which achieves the maximum percentage gain during the period.
• Lowest Max Drawdown – $500 awarded to the portfolio with the best risk management and smallest losses.
• Most Robust Strategy – $250 awarded to the portfolio with the highest number of valid investment ideas.
• Conviction – $250 awarded to the portfolio with the Single Most Profitable Trade.

The CMT Association will award a certificates of participation to all individuals who meet the eligibility criteria as set out in the competition rules. The association will also have a periodic recognition on social media and in Technically Speaking (the CMT Association’s Monthly Magazine) of teams with best performing ideas and best risk management.

Timeline:

• January 15, 2022 - Paper Trading Competition Begins
• January 31 - Paper Trading Competition Complete
• February 3 - Winners Announced