RIT students take the lead in Adirondack Cup

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A. Sue Weisler

A team of students from the E. Philip Saunders College of Business is currently leading the race in the Adirondack Cup competition against 17 college teams from across New York and the Northeast. The competition is based on teams managing a mock portfolio of small cap stocks for six months.

A team of students from the E. Philip Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology is currently leading the race in the Adirondack Cup competition against 17 college teams from 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—to win the Adirondack Cup.

The team is performing well ahead of the Russell 2000 Index, which measures the performance of small cap stocks in the U.S.

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

The team members are Harpreet Singh (group leader), Rashedur Rehman (FMA President), Ujwal Reddy Gondesi (FMA secretary), Pablo Franco (FMA co-portfolio director) and David Park (engineering major). All members are active participants in the student-run FMA club, which provides a forum for business students as well as students from other RIT colleges to collaborate and to learn about financial management and investing.

“The students were given a hypothetical $1,000,000 and had a collection of stock restraints where they had to choose from five different sectors of small cap companies traded on one of the two major U.S. stock exchanges,” says Ashok Robin, professor of finance in the Saunders College and adviser to the FMA club. “They do get to change their portfolio after every two months, and right now RIT is leading the competition by 7.88 percent of its nearest rival. That’s a lot of money.”

According to Singh, a second year graduate student in the Saunders College MBA program, the number boils down to $78,800 more than the team in second position. And while he says it’s great to be leading at this point with a huge margin, the team won’t know the final results until April 12.

“It feels safe but the financial world is very unpredictable so all this analysis amounts to nothing if the market crashes,” Singh notes. “All the assumptions we make are made in a scenario where no unforeseen circumstances occur. RIT has been leading the pack for about a month now, but as they say, it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.”

William Prentice ’99 (finance) is a Saunders College alumnus who is rooting for his alma mater.

“Bill encouraged us to compete in the Adirondack Cup because he realized it was a great learning opportunity for our students and offers them a taste of real-world financial investment while building a strong network of connections among peers, alumni and the Adirondack Small Cap Fund managers,” says Robin.

A networking and celebration reception will be held in Albany for all team members and the Adirondack Cup will be awarded based on the highest return on the initial investment. For more information about the Adirondack Cup’s weekly results, go to the Adirondack Fund Website.