Student From Blue Island Shares The First-Place Team’s $10,000 Prize

While they may have used digital “play” money to make their trades, student teams participating in DePaul University’s Driehaus Virtual Stock Market Portfolio Competition invested with the real-world economy in mind and shared more than $10,000 in cold, hard cash when the competition concluded this spring.

Created through the generosity of Chicago financier and DePaul alumnus Richard Driehaus, founder and chief executive officer of Chicago-based Driehaus Capital Management, the annual stock market competition is designed to give students a real-world taste of investing. Teams of three to four finance students decided whether to pursue a value or growth strategy (or combination strategy) and then chose portfolios of small cap stocks to “invest” in via a simulated stock trading computer program tied to actual market data.

Over the course of the academic year, the teams made decisions about stock trades and gave regular management reports on their investment choices, strategies and results. The seven teams, each a mix of juniors and seniors, vied for the top prize of $10,000, with smaller cash awards for second- and third-place finishes. The prizes were based on the team’s ability to stick to an investment style and follow investing guidelines, as well as investment returns.

The team christened Pinnacle Investments, comprising Scott Morganegg, Ian Morris and Andrew Parchem, was selected as the winner with a value investment portfolio returning 4.4 percent.

“The biggest lesson learned throughout the competition was to trust our research,” said Parchem, a Blue Island, Ill., resident. “We believe our stocks were, and still are, undervalued. During the declining market, we fought off all urges to sell and stayed with our investments. Our results beat all of the other Russell stock market indexes for the same seven-month period.”

Like real portfolio managers, Parchem and his team had to weather the rollercoaster ride of investing. “At the peak we had earned a 17 percent return on our investments. Within the last six weeks of the competition, our portfolio had followed the market downward, though at a slower pace, to generate a final total return of 4.4 percent,” he explained.

Ann Marie Klingenhagen, the DePaul finance department instructor who serves as the advisor to the competition, praised it as “an excellent way to give our students direct experience in stock market analysis and trading.

“However, unlike the real market, the simulated portfolio has no risk involved,” she said.

The team KJKZ Associates won second place using a value-investing style. Team members Karolina Borowka, Katia Ribarova, Jeannette Ruvalcaba and Zorica Sekanic each received $1,875.

Two teams tied for third place: Flagship Capital Management, with a growth investment style managed by students Lukasz Cyboran, Chris Czupryna, Katarina Jeremic and Michael Maselbas; and Stellar Capital Management, which used a value investment style shepherded by teammates Justin Datta, Vladislav Elkis, Yuri Kaplanskiy and Steve Rodriguez. Each student on these two teams received $1,250.

The checks were presented May 27 by Cheryl Cannistra, director of Client Services for Driehaus Capital Management, on behalf of Richard Driehaus, during a ceremony at DePaul’s College of Commerce, 1 E. Jackson Blvd. in Chicago.