Ten students from the School of Business teamed up to manage a mock portfolio in The Adirondack Cup competition and won!Ten students from the School of Business teamed up to manage a mock portfolio in The Adirondack Cup competition and won!
The Adirondack Cup, sponsored by the Adirondack Research & Management, Inc., advisor to the Adirondack Small Cap Mutual Fund (ADKSX), is a new initiative through which college and graduate students from participating schools throughout New York and New England create their own hypothetical small cap portfolio for six months. At the end of this time, the portfolio with the best return won The Adirondack Cup.
The competition began in October and Ithaca College beat out 19 other schools. During The Adirondack Cup, teams created a hypothetical $1 million portfolio invested in five small cap stocks traded on one of the two major U.S. exchanges. Each stock selected must be from a different sector (technology, healthcare, consumer goods, conglomerates, industrial goods, basic materials, services, financial or utilities).
According to Steve Gonick ’85, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at ARMI, “ the goal of the Cup Competition is two-fold; to give the students experience in the stock market and also to network with some of our clients and contacts, who are alumni of IC and are following the contest closely.”
“Many of our clients need interns and have expressed an interest in reconnecting with their schools,” Gonick said. “So we offer our clients an opportunity to 'hook up' with their old school and their team, perhaps offering advice from their vantage point in the financial world and, hopefully, opening up their contact lists to the students as well.”
Students get practical experience and a significant head start interacting with Adirondack’s network of financial clients and college alumni.
"I'm delighted that our IC student team has won the Adirondack Cup Competition. It is a testament to the excellent education in financial theory and application that the students have received, including hands on experience in our world class Trading Room. This is a great example of the motivation and hard work of our business students." said Dean Mary Ellen Zuckerman.
The Adirondack Cup concluded after the market closed on April 5th. A networking and celebration reception was held in Albany, N.Y. for all team members and the Adirondack Cup was awarded to Ithaca College.
Steve Kane ’87, founding partner of Heritage Financial Services, LLC, has kept a close eye on The Adirondack Cup and adds, “what a terrific experience it is for the students to be able to get exposure to real life investing in a very hard investment environment. Any employer would be thrilled to know the student has been exposed to the dynamics, and has some real life experiences to back up their textbook studying. This can set them apart when interviewing for internships in that they will be able to speak the lingo, and the training involved in the student being able to add value that much quicker is huge to any employer looking to add help to his/her staff!”
“The Adirondack Small Cap Fund (Symbol:ADKSX) was recently awarded the prestigious Lipper Award as the best mutual fund in the United States for what we do, invest in small undervalued companies.” Gonick said. “The Adirondack Cup Competition is set up with various rules to simulate the experience of running a real mutual fund, just like our managers at our firm.”
School of Business Adirondack Cup team members; Michael Severo (Student Leader), Aaron Heltsley, Alex Gifford, Alex Pelzar, Alyssa Ross, Jared Finke, Jesse Held, Quingqing Jiang, Spencer Grossman, and Will Shuttleworth.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20120424094919888