Vestcor and UNB’s Student Investment Fund Program finds international success | June 2019

June 2019

Since 1998, Vestcor has partnered with the University of New Brunswick to provide students the opportunity to gain real world quantitative investment experience. This partnership is known as the Student Investment Fund. It began with a $1 million portfolio, using investment policies and guidelines similar to those followed by Vestcor (known as the New Brunswick Investment Management Corporation at the time). Using the same basic investment policies and guidelines that Vestcor follows, students have the chance to invest real funds based on their own research and analysis of the markets. The program has proven to be fruitful for the students, and for the Fund.

Most recently, the students had a chance to shine in the global Chicago Quantitative Alliance (CQA) Investment Challenge. The CQA Challenge is an equity portfolio management competition. Its purpose is to give participants experience as portfolio managers. Along with raw investment performance, teams must also explain their process and choices.  This was UNB’s first time participating in the CQA Challenge.  The team consisted of 5 UNB students.

Mentored by Vestcor staff and a group of UNB instructors, the team started the CQA Challenge in October 2018. Results of the Challenge were revealed around six months later, at the end of the school year. UNB students placed 6th out of 48 schools from around the world. They were also the highest ranked team from any participating Canadian school.

Jon Spinney, Chief Investment Officer with Vestcor and UNB instructor/mentor said, “It’s exciting to see our team place in the top 10 out of the 48 schools around the world who competed. I’m already looking forward to seeing how students do next year.”

 For more information, visit the summary provided by the UNB Faculty of Management “Ideas with Impact” newsletter, at blogs.unb.ca/ideas-with-impact/2019/07/cqa-challenge.php.