Michigan Tech
Michigan Tech Students Open Nasdaq, Appear on Squawk Box

HOUGHTON, MI--Six Michigan Tech undergraduates were in New York city recently to appear on national television.

A team from the School of Business and Economics beat out dozens of student investors from business schools across the US and Canada to win the second annual RISE Symposium. As their reward, they opened the Nasdaq exchange in Times Square on April 15th. The next morning, they appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box news program.

"As the judges read off the names of the top finishers, they started with fifth place and worked their way up," said Dr. Dean Johnson, the student's professor and advisor. "We kept waiting to hear 'Michigan Tech,' and when we finally realized that they'd won, the students were in shock."

The annual Redefining Investment Strategy Education (RISE) Symposium brought together 61 universities to compete Feb. 21-22 at the University of Dayton, in Ohio. Each team manages their own real-life investment portfolio, and they are judged both on their investment returns and on their presentations to a panel of judges. A National Champion is declared in the Value, Growth and Blend style of investing. Michigan Tech was declared the National Champion in the Blend category. In the growth category, a MBA team from Purdue University received the top honor, while Stetson University took first in the value category.

"They act like they've been in the business for 10 years when they haven't been in the business for 10 days," said Robert Froehlich, chief organizer for the Symposium and Vice Chairman and Chief Investment Strategist of Scudder Investments.

Keynote speakers from Scudder Investments, Prudential Securities, Salomon Smith Barney, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch spoke on the economy and a variety of investment strategies at the Symposium as well. "To have in one place the breadth of experts we had is unprecedented," Froehlich said. "Our keynote presentations covered an incredible span, from the economy to the technical market, the fundamental market (and) risk of return. It was incredible. And it was unbelievable the level of professionalism and maturity the students have in making their presentations."

RISE presentationStudents in Michigan Tech's Applied Portfolio Management Program manage an investment portfolio that has grown to $300,000, largely from alumni donations but also from the careful management of the student investors. This year, they earned a return of 7.27 percent despite a rocky year for stocks. With teams from 30 states and 3 Canadian provinces competing, the students also needed to make a strong presentation to the judges.

"We knew we could contend with them, but we weren't sure we could beat them," said team member Holly Lehto, a finance major from L'Anse.

Added team member Joanne Johnson from Calumet, "It was a little bit intimidating," noting that some teams had portfolios running into the millions of dollars.

The other team members include Jeff Call (Michigan), Chukwuma Nwachukwa (Nigeria), Piyush Rathi (India), and Tony Yates (Illinois).

This is the second time that Michigan Tech has been a top competitor at RISE. "We're very proud of our consistency," Johnson said. "We were among only four universities to make the top 15 this year and last year at RISE. Winning the competition provides the validation that Michigan Tech is providing a cutting edge financial education."

"Now, we have one fund, and one group of students managing it," Johnson said. "We'd like to expand that, have a second fund so more students could have this kind of experience."

For more information, contact Dr. Dean Johnson at dean@mtu.edu.

 

2/26/02--MTN