Two University of New Orleans finance students won third place in the poster competition of the Student Managed Investment Fund Consortium- South held this month in Orlando, FL. Ethan Evans is a master’s in finance student and Craig Delaune is a finance major in the accelerated master’s program, which means he’s an undergraduate student taking some graduate classes who will graduate this spring and begin the master’s program this summer.

In the poster competition, teams displayed information about their student managed investment fund, including the history, performance, holdings, asset allocation and investment strategy for their student managed fund. The teams were graded on performance of their fund, the visual presentation of their poster and the answers to the judges’ questions.

“Our student managed investment fund had an outstanding performance in 2024, which helped us gain an advantage,” said Mosab Hammoudeh, assistant professor of finance, who served as the team's faculty adviser. “Both Craig and Ethan did a great job with the visual presentation of the poster, as well as a great job answering the judges' questions. These factors together led to UNO winning third place.”

Both Evans and Delaune were enrolled in the course FIN4332: Student Managed Management Fund, taught by Donald Hensel. The class invests in stocks and bonds aiming to outperform the S&P 500 index. The fund is a legacy of former finance professor Tarun Mukherjee, who donated $100,000 before his death in 2024. His donation helped establish the Kali and Sushila Mukherjee Trading Lab and provided the initial capital to begin investing.

“In the class, students work in groups to analyze the market and present recommendations for new investments and potential portfolio rebalancing,” Delaune said. “To maintain a focus on high-quality assets, our investment policy limits the amount we can allocate to alternative investments, such as bitcoin and precious metals. We strive to identify reasonably priced stocks with strong upside potential and manageable risk, while also diversifying the portfolio. Additionally, we allocate funds to Treasury bond ETFs to help offset our equity exposure. I’m proud to share that in 2024, UNO outperformed the S&P 500 benchmark by 98 basis points—achieving a return of 26% compared to the index’s 25.02%.”