Former McKendree Students’ Virtual Portfolio Wins Investment Contest

(LEBANON, Ill., August 27, 2019) — A hypothetical stock portfolio chosen by a McKendree University investment class in 2016 outperformed those of four other local institutions to take the $10,000 top prize in the St. Louis Area Stock Contest.

The students were members of an upper level investment class during the fall 2016 semester. Guided by Dr. M. Faisal Safa, associate professor of finance, “each student selected two competing stocks from the same industry and conducted a detail financial and market risk-return analysis over two months,” he explained. “At the end of the project, they suggested one stock of the two for investment. In November 2016, we submitted a list of 20 stocks to the St. Louis Area Stock Contest. The contest manager put a virtual $1 million on the portfolio and observed it for 28 months.”

At the contest’s conclusion in March 2019, the McKendree University portfolio had grown to $1,434,088. The participating students were Carson Bruenderman, Matthew Caraway, Ryan Cates, Marquis Cherry, Sean Dowling, Hayley Heimann, Brandon McPherson, Morgan Phillips, Dylan Salsman, Austin Schwarm, Nathan Shank, Sierra Shields, Alexander Smith, Ryan Strope, Maalik Walker, Dustin Walls, Matthew Wasche and Dylan Weaver.

The 20 stocks they selected in November 2016 were Wal-Mart Stores, Procter & Gamble, Exxon Mobil, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer Inc., Alphabet Inc., Facebook, Twitter, Tesla Motors, Alibaba Group, Netflix, Amazon, NIKE, Walt Disney, Home Depot, Macy's, Molson Coors, FedEx, AT&T and American Airlines.

Students from Greenville University, Principia College, the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Lindenwood University also competed. McKendree business students won the collegiate investment contest in 2010 and 2012 as well.

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