Saunders’s Financial Management Association gains ranking in week two of competition

The Financial Management Association (FMA) at Saunders College of Business has entered into its 9th annual Adirondack Cup Competition – the beginning of a six-month stock-picking challenge sponsored by Adirondack Research and Management Inc. From week one to week two the team has climbed the rankings six places, now resting at 15th.

“The second week of the competition we saw an upturn in markets and good prospective earnings reports which has turned our 2% loss on investment into a 21% return on investment as of October 29,” said FMA President Nick Renzoni. “Our stock picks were well thought-out and had in-depth research from each of our sector teams to try and ensure that this year our competition picks would be as successful as possible despite any market conditions.”

The competition is part of the experiential learning offered at Saunders, allowing students to manage a hypothetical small cap portfolio in real time. According to Professor Hao Zhang, the FMA advisor, “The goal of the Adirondack Cup competition is to give real-life investment experience to finance students interested in pursuing a career in finance industries.” The competition is ultimately won by the team with the best return. Winners are invited to join the Adirondack Funds co-managers for lunch and present their investment thesis, providing opportunities for future business relationships.

“FMA's goals for the competition this year, besides attempting to win the Adirondack Cup first prize, are to beat our last year’s standing in which we finished 10 out of 27 and to invest based off of lessons learned from previous years’ competitions,” said Renzoni. “In addition, we try to incorporate every member of the FMA club into the competition, so that each participant can learn something new and have the chance to pick up on tips and tricks so that we can apply those skills into our main task of managing a sliver of RIT's endowment portfolio.”