The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga SMILE Fund (Student Managed Investment Learning Experience) team, housed in the Gary W. Rollins College of Business, took home top honors in the Greater Tennessee Research Challenge for a seventh consecutive year.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual equity research global competition that provides hands-on mentoring and training in financial analysis and professional ethics.
University teams typically comprised of graduate students – as opposed to UTC’s all undergraduate squad – analyze a company’s financial health, document it in a professional research report and submit findings to a panel of judges.
This year’s SMILE Fund team of Jacob Barber, Grant Fetters, Claire Hoeke and Nick Morris will now compete in the upcoming sub-regionals round in late March. Winning groups from the local competitions across the Southeast will produce recorded videos for a different set of judges.
Teams advancing from the sub-regionals move on to the regional semifinals in New York.
“This is first and foremost a victory for these four students,” says Dr. Hunter Holzhauer, an associate professor of finance and director of the SMILE Fund. “These students did not win on pure talent. They won this competition by working hard. There were a lot of long nights in the (College of Business) Bloomberg Lab that turned into long mornings.
“The last two months have been very time-intensive. The competition spans two semesters and they have each invested hundreds of hours at this point. Not one of them has complained. I was very impressed with their dedication.”
The four SMILE Fund members analyzed HCA Healthcare, a Nashville-based for-profit operator of health care facilities.
Barber, who’s on pace to graduate in December with a bachelor’s degree in finance, is the SMILE Fund’s chief health care analyst. The Chattanooga native is a graduate of Hixson High School.
Fetters is pursuing majors in both accounting and finance. The junior is a native of Mt. Juliet.
Hoeke, a junior majoring in finance, hails from Greeneville. She is vice president of operations for the SMILE Fund and one of the organization’s chief analysts.
Morris, a junior accounting major from Alpharetta, Georgia, said College of Business faculty members told the group that winning wasn’t the most important thing – even though the team had won six years in a row.
“They told us, ‘The most important thing is that we work hard and deliver a great product. But we felt pressure to keep the streak alive. When they announced we had won, there was definitely a feeling of relief. We’re didn’t break the streak; we got it done.”
Source: UTC