Competition overview

Each school will send a team of three to four first‑year graduate or 1st–3rd year PhD students to present their investment case and portfolio recommendations to judges.

Students will have 10 days to research the case, will make a 10-minute presentation, respond to 10 minutes of questions and are required to provide a two-page summary to judges.

Participating students’ resumes will be distributed to past sponsoring firms.

Organized by: Cornell’s Parker Center for Investment Research, Johnson Investment Management Club and Cornell Financial Engineering Manhattan (CFEM)

Who should participate

• First-year MBA students, first-year finance master’s students or first-, second-, and third-year PhD students interested in pursuing careers in investment management.
• This competition is ideal for students interested in portfolio construction and management.

Why students should participate

• Compete in a unique investment challenge that is different than popular stock picking and pitching competitions.
• Experience the intensity, depth and breadth of questions posed by top investment professionals — the kinds of questions asked daily in the investment business.
• Network with investment industry professionals — IPCC judges, sponsors and competitors who will soon enter the investment field.
• Practice creative analyses and prepare concise, compelling presentations by competing against peers from the country’s top master’s programs. Competition is limited to a set number of teams which will be chosen based on the application content from all applications received.

Recommended selection process

We encourage schools to distribute information about this event broadly on campus, particularly to the investment clubs, and hold internal competitions to determine their teams. Two teams from one university may apply and may be selected to attend as long as members of the teams attend different programs and there is sufficient space.