By |Published On: April 10th, 2013|Categories: Uncategorized|

The investment management business is a major Catch-22: On one hand you need a track record; but to get a track record you need assets.

So if you don’t have assets you can’t get a track record and if you don’t have a track records you can’t get assets.

Huh?

Luckily, entrepreneurs have found a way to identify up and coming traders who don’t have a track record–tournament competitions!
The idea is simple.

  1. Identify a pool of capital looking to invest in emerging managers.
  2. Set up a tournament that attracts a very large talent pool.
  3. Utilize a 100% transparent competition structure to identify the top talent in the talent pool.
  4. Allocate to the top talent.
  5. Rinse and repeat.

Who’s in the Tournament game thus far?

The biggest entrant is Battle Fin. We actually entered this tournament out of curiosity and to our surprise–Won!
http://www.battle-fin-usa.com/

But Battle Fin isn’t the only tournament on the block. I’ve run into a couple more very recently:
http://upgradecapital.com/ourstudents/ and http://www.rapacapintro.com/account/leaderboard

If you’re interested in testing your skills out against other traders in a competition for investment dollars, check them out!

Have any readers had experience in these tournaments? How was it? Feel free to share.

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About the Author: Wesley Gray, PhD

Wesley Gray, PhD
After serving as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps, Dr. Gray earned an MBA and a PhD in finance from the University of Chicago where he studied under Nobel Prize Winner Eugene Fama. Next, Wes took an academic job in his wife’s hometown of Philadelphia and worked as a finance professor at Drexel University. Dr. Gray’s interest in bridging the research gap between academia and industry led him to found Alpha Architect, an asset management firm dedicated to an impact mission of empowering investors through education. He is a contributor to multiple industry publications and regularly speaks to professional investor groups across the country. Wes has published multiple academic papers and four books, including Embedded (Naval Institute Press, 2009), Quantitative Value (Wiley, 2012), DIY Financial Advisor (Wiley, 2015), and Quantitative Momentum (Wiley, 2016). Dr. Gray currently resides in Palmas Del Mar Puerto Rico with his wife and three children. He recently finished the Leadville 100 ultramarathon race and promises to make better life decisions in the future.

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Important Disclosures

For informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as specific investment, accounting, legal, or tax advice. Certain information is deemed to be reliable, but its accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. Third party information may become outdated or otherwise superseded without notice.  Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) nor any other federal or state agency has approved, determined the accuracy, or confirmed the adequacy of this article.

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Alpha Architect, its affiliates or its employees. Our full disclosures are available here. Definitions of common statistics used in our analysis are available here (towards the bottom).

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