A top official of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas headlines a list of industry experts that will speak at an investment symposium Saturday at the Naveen Jindal School of Management.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Director of Research Harvey Rosenblum

Harvey Rosenblum

The daylong event, the annual Texas Investment Portfolio Symposium, is expected to draw investment professionals and business students from universities in Texas and surrounding states.

The keynote luncheon speaker will be Harvey Rosenblum, PhD, executive vice president and director of research at the Dallas Fed. He will offer an economic outlook for 2012.

Rosenblum is an economic policy advisor to the Dallas Fed’s president and an associate economist for the Federal Open Market Committee, which formulates the nation’s monetary policy.

He is a expert on both the national and Texas economies and has written articles for such publications as The Journal of Finance, New York Times, Southwest Economy and The Handbook of Banking Strategy.

Conference Details

TIPS will be held Saturday, Feb. 18, from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the TI Auditorium (ECSS 2.102), in the Engineering and Computer Science Building South.

Registration, which is $25 per person for students and faculty and $50 for professionals and the general public, includes admission to a luncheon to be held in the Faculty Dining Hall of the Student Union. To register, contact David Cordell, david.cordell@utdallas.edu, 972-883-2718.

Rosenblum is a member of the Advisory Council of the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences at UT Dallas.

He has also been a visiting professor of finance at Southern Methodist University, teaching courses in contemporary issues on monetary policy and financial institutions and markets. His current research interests focus on monetary policy, inflation and the growing impact of globalization on the U.S. economy and businesses.

Another session addressing private-wealth management will feature Leah Bennett, Certified Financial Analyst (CFA), of King Investment Advisers of Houston and John Kvale, CFA and Certified Financial Planner, of J.K. Financial of Dallas.

In addition, Arthur Hollingsworth of Lone Star Investment Advisors of Dallas will discuss private-equity concepts, and a panel discussion about hedge funds is also scheduled.

Now in its ninth year, TIPS is geared toward students and faculty from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana universities that teach investment management. However, the symposium also draws investment advisors, financial analysts, portfolio managers and other equity specialists, “who come to connect with peers, meet new talent and stay abreast of university developments in their fields,” JSOM Finance Professor David Cordell said.

Cordell, the associate director of the Jindal School’s finance and managerial economics programs, is the organizing host this year of the symposium.


Stock Valuation, Portfolio Contests to Test Students’ Financial Skills

Student-centered events of the Texas Investment Portfolio Symposium include two contests.

One is a research challenge testing competitors’ skills in analyzing a publicly traded company. The other is a portfolio rivalry scrutinizing not only results but also teams’ investment philosophies, styles and  decision-making processes.

David Cordell

David Cordell

Teams competing in the first contest, the Global Investment Research Challenge, have been studying GameStop Corp., a video game and entertainment software retailer based in Grapevine, Texas.  The goal is to determine the corporation’s intrinsic value as an investment, said JSOM Finance Professor David Cordell.

“Students calculate the value of the stock according to various models and compare it to the market price to decide whether the stock is a buy, hold or sell,” said Cordell.

Research culminates in written reports that judges will score to determine the four finalist teams that will make presentations before experts at TIPS. The winning team will advance to finals for the Americas in New York.

The Chartered Financial Analyst Institute, an association of investment professionals, sponsors the Investment Research Challenges. Local and regional heats culminate in an international final, set for April, also in New York. This year, CFAI expects the challenge to draw 3,000 students from 600 universities in almost 50 countries.

In the second TIPS contest, the Portfolio Managers Competition, teams from universities that have student-run investment portfolios will deliver a sales pitch to judges about their portfolio objectives, stock-selection processes and results.

To win, “you have to be true to your portfolio objective,” Cordell said. “You might think of it as: ‘For what you do, how well did you do?’ For example, it’s possible that one fund may have a lower return than another but actually performed better because, on a risk-adjusted basis, it earned a better return.”

“Competing in either contest is an excellent learning experience because it puts students in the hot seat in front of peers and potential employers,” Cordell added.