RIT places fourth in Adirondack Cup

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A. Sue Weisler

A team of nine students from Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology placed fourth in the 2014 Adirondack Cup Competition against teams from 18 participating colleges across New York and the Northeast. The competition is based on teams managing a mock portfolio of small cap stocks for six months—using skills in technical analysis, growth projections and other financial tools to estimate future returns.

The Saunders College team’s portfolio had a 7.79 percent return to beat the Russell 2000 Index, which measures the performance of small cap stocks in the United States. At the start of the competition last October, students invested their hypothetical $1 million in five small cap stocks from different industries and were allowed to make changes to their portfolio only twice during the contest period.

The Adirondack Cup competition is sponsored by Adirondack Research & Management Inc., advisor to the Adirondack Small Cap Mutual Fund (ADKSK). This is the second time RIT’s Financial Management Association—a club on campus that manages a “real money” investment portfolio with a market value of more than $100,000—has been involved.

The RIT “Tigers” was led by David Park, fourth-year multidisciplinary studies major from Los Angeles, who was assisted by Pablo Franco, fifth-year finance and economics major from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. “Even though the RIT team was relatively young and inexperienced this year, we managed to navigate the rough market conditions and pull out a fourth place finish,” said Park. “This is our second consecutive year with a strong showing and plan to come back next year for the top spot.”

Franco said when it comes to investing, consistency is key. “We executed our strategy without mixing our emotions,” he noted. “Last year we were able to beat the Russell 2000 index by 15 percent while placing fifth out of 18 schools in the competition. This year, thanks to our consistent strategy, we were able to beat the index by almost eight percent while placing fourth in the competition.”

The first place winner of the 2014 Adirondack Cup was St. Lawrence University, followed by Ithaca College, Bryn Mawr College, Saunders College of Business and State University of New York at Geneseo.

Participating colleges include Binghamton University, State University of New York at Buffalo, Clarkson University, The College at Brockport, The College of Saint Rose, Hofstra University, Macalester College, Siena College, St. John Fisher College, State University of New York at Plattsburgh, Union College, State University of New York at Albany and Wesleyan University.

For more information about the Adirondack Cup, go to the Adirondack Funds website.

Note: One of nine colleges at RIT, Saunders College of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB International) and enrolls more than 1,200 undergraduate and graduate students. Saunders College and its entrepreneurial Venture Creations Incubator work in partnership with RIT’s Albert J. Simone Center for Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship to integrate business education with RIT’s world leading technical and creative programs. Graduate programs include Master of Business Administration, MBA-Accounting, Executive MBA and master’s degrees in finance and administration.