Students

2025 Alpha Challenge Resume Books

1. Alpha Challenge Resumes and Investment Ideas book is available here. Once downloaded enter the password to open the book.
2. Alpha Challenge Finalist Resumes and Investment Ideas book. Available here in December of 2025. Once downloaded enter the password to open the book.

The PDF is not fully accessible. To view an accessible version, please contact Christina Hardin.

Alpha Challenge Competition Rules

• Each team must consist of three full-time MBA students, of which at least two must be first-year students and a maximum of one second-year student. Master of Finance and Master of Accounting students are also allowed. Weekend, Evening, and Executive MBA students are not permitted to compete in the Alpha Challenge. One member of your team must be female.
• Equity: Student teams will be making two (2) recommendations: a long from a pre-defined universe of stocks, and also a “wildcard” (long only) with parameters on the wildcard stock selection, which cannot be the same stock that a team member submitted as a one-pager.
• For the defined universe, each team will receive an email approximately one month in advance of the competition, informing them of the universe of stocks available for recommendation. The available stocks will be selected from specific industries and exclude companies in which trading is not considered sufficiently liquid. From the list of available stocks, students must make one, and only one, buy recommendation. (Note(1): if the stock submitted with your resume is in the universe, it cannot be used as any of your pitches (“long” or“wildcard”); Note(2): the additional “wildcard” selection can come from the universe, but it does not have to; Note(3): the “wildcard” selection must be a U.S. *traded* name, but does not need to be a U.S. domiciled company). The investment horizon is twelve months and the students should assume they represent a $1 billion fund that will fully invest in these two (2) positions.
• Credit: Student teams will be making two (2) recommendations: a long from a pre-defined universe of high-yield bonds.
• For Defined Universe: Each team will receive an email approximately one month in advance of the competition, informing them of the universe of bonds available for recommendation. The available bonds will be selected from Bloomberg using the following criteria: Credit rating BB+ to CCC, Issue Size >300M, not callable in next two years, Maturity > 3 years in future, U.S.- listed, must be a publicly traded company. For the wildcard you may go to a lower liquidity bond, lower maturity, but cannot be investment grade.
• Students will be permitted to use any research tools that are available through their respective school, including Bloomberg, FactSet, StockVal, professionally prepared equity research and industry contacts. FactSet will be made available to each participating student.
• Resume and one-pager are due no later than 5:00 p.m. (EST), October 24, 2025.
• A presentation template will be provided when the universe is distributed, no later than October 27. No teams will be permitted to pitch the same stock.  Teams are to submit their stock selection and ticker as soon as possible, and no later than November 3, 2025. First come first served in selection process.
• Pitch presentations must be submitted electronically as two (2) individual PDF files File names must include the name of the team’s school, type of pitch, and the stock ticker (example: UNC Equity-MSFT.pdf.). Presentations should not contain any video or other excessively large data objects. Presentations must be emailed to Vincent Galioto at vincent_galioto@kenan-flagler.unc.ed no later than 5:00 p.m. EST, Sunday, November 23, 2025.