Greetings from the gorgeous hills of Ithaca, NY! We are excited to be participating in the CNBC challenge this year! Our group consists of student portfolio managers in the Johnson School’s $10 million Cayuga MBA Fund (www.cayugafund.com), a long short market neutral hedge fund with real investors. We are fortunate to have a great trading room at our school and a number of analytical resources at our disposal. Our school is known to have a strong investment management program and holds a number of great events such as the annual MBA Stock Pitch Competition and the annual Women in Investing conference.
What an interesting week for the markets! Volatility continues to be the name of the game. Our portfolio is a mix of equities, ETFs, currencies, and cash. On the equity side, our strategy is to focus on event driven names, given the short time horizon. We are intrigued by the movement in gold prices and are evaluating its potential as a hedge, albeit a volatile one!
Our experiences in the fund have taught us to be confident yet humble …. and patient. So as this first week of trading in the competition draws to a close and we are clearly not where we want to be, there are still several weeks to go and we look forward to rising to the challenge!