June 7, 2007
Contact: Rita Mitchell , University Relations
UT Martin students claim top performance managing ‘real’ money in TVA Investment Challenge
MARTIN, Tenn. – University of Tennessee at Martin Tennessee Valley Authority stock portfolio, managed by finance students, is out-performing the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index ranking UT Martin in the top one-fifth among the 25 competing universities for the past three years of the TVA Investment Challenge. Having won the award for highest returns in 2005, UT Martin students have enjoyed continued success as the portfolio is among top performers to date in 2007.
TVA's Investment Challenge is an innovative and unique partnership between TVA and 25 universities in its service territory that provides a real-world learning experience in portfolio management. The challenge gives teams of students hands-on experience managing TVA stock portfolios.
Students actively manage TVA funds by designing long-term investment strategies, placing trades and providing performance reports to TVA. UT Martin students are guided by Drs. Mahmoud Haddad and Arnold Redman, both professors of finance. The students learn how to manage real money and meet all the requirements. They are held to similar guidelines as TVA's professional money managers.
“Our students have greatly benefited from this unique program which allows them to put into practice the financial knowledge they have gained in the finance program," said Redman.
Dr. Haddad added, “The hands-on investment experience this course offers our students helps them to become tomorrow’s entrepreneurs and business leaders. It has been an excellent recruiting tool for good positions at leading financial corporations.”
The TVA Board created the Investment Challenge Program in 1998 to diversify the management of its Nuclear Decommissioning Trust Fund and give Tennessee Valley students experience in managing a stock portfolio. Originally, 19 universities received investment funds of $100,000 a piece, for a total of $1.9 million. The program has expanded to include 25 universities, and the funds total approximately $9 million.
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