2014-2015 All-America Student Analyst Competition Dominated By UT Austin

By Megan Weyrauch on May 19, 2015

Math was never my best subject in school, and I was always impressed with my peers who could ace a calculus test without opening the textbook. The way their minds could quickly and easily figure out the problems was so intriguing to me, and I used to wish I was wired the same way.

Speaking of numbers and figures, college student competitors recently took part in the 2014-2015 All-America Student Analyst Competition and the results are in, announced by Mark My Media and published in the May 2015 print issue of Institutional Investor Magazine, according to a recent press release.

Student competitors could buy and sell stocks and index funds, use leverage and take short positions in mock portfolios between September 2, 2014 and January 30, 2015, using the ALPHASEAL software platform developed by Mark My Media. College and grad students from 74 schools managed over 2,300 portfolios across North America.

Based in Stamford, Connecticut, Mark My Media has a sophisticated software platform called ALPHASEAL that helps business students bridge the gap between what is taught in the classroom and what is expected on the trading floor by giving them a tool to track stock performance along similar metrics as those used by investment professionals.

Competitors participated in an Overall Competition, judged by a six-factor algorithm that rewards money-making ability as well as risk management; other categories for competition included Long Alpha, Short Alpha and Net Benchmark Outperformance (vs. the Rusell3000).

In addition, a Sectors Competition category was included which covered the following seven industry categories: Basic Materials; Capital Goods/Industrials; Consumer Products; Energy; Financials; Healthcare and Technology/Telecommunications/Media.

The president of Mark My Media, Roy Ophir, said in the press release that every industry has its ‘chicken and egg’ paradigms.

“ALPHASEAL gives new entrants an opportunity to prove their abilities before entrusting them with fiduciary responsibilities,” Ophir said. “It’s a total immersion experience that has been quite popular with our system users and very effective at verifying specific skill-sets for employers.”

The University of Texas at Austin was the #1 school in 2015, which had 20 students in the top 100. UT Austin dominated the Short Alpha Competition with seven of the top 20 spots and demonstrated a strong showing in the Sectors Competitions, with 11 students placing.

This had nothing to do with luck, according to the winning team’s faculty adviser, Professor Kelly Kamm.

“Luck alone will never do it, you have to have skill, and you have to put effort into it,” Kamm said.

Suzanne Felfelli was the top UT Austin student in the Overall Competition, who placed third; she made eight trades during the Competition and had a 100 percent batting average. You can view her portfolio here.

A second notable UT Austin student, Katherine Cramer, tied for the most individual awards of any student in the 2014-15 school year with a #1 finish in the Basic Materials Sector Competition, #4 in the Energy Sector Competition, #6 in the Short Alpha Competition and #29 in the Overall Competition.

So who took #1 overall? Matthew K. Feldman, an undergraduate student at the City University of New York’s Baruch College, took the #1 spot in the Overall Competition. In addition, he was #2 in the Net Benchmark Outperformance Competition and #11 in the Long Alpha Competition.

Baruch finished #2 as a school with 16 students in the top 100, with Professor Bruce Kamich as the adviser.

Jason Ayat, an MBA student at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business, was the #1 graduate student in the Overall Competition. He finished #5 in the Overall Competition; #3 in the Energy Sector Competition; #13 in the Short Alpha Competition, and #15 in the Net Benchmark Outperformance Competition.

Fordham was the #3 school in this school year with 14 students in the top 100 and with Professor Robert Fuest as the adviser.

Both Mr. Feldman and Mr. Ayat received an award for their performance at Institutional Investor’s 6th Annual U.S. Investment Management Awards on May 14, 2015, in New York City.

Find complete results online. Here are the top 10 schools in the 2014/2015 competition.

Since 2011, over 5,000 students have participated in ALPHASEAL competitions, and many top performers from previous years are currently working at prestigious firms in the financial services industry.

Mark My Media gives recruiters and employers access to precious data about highly qualified and engaged entry-level prospects and invites employers and recruiters to use their proprietary talent database to match the skill-sets they require against what’s available in this year’s graduating class.

Visit AlphaSeal.com for more information.

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