Students

Alpha Challenge Competition Rules

• Each team must consist of three full-time MBA students, of which at least two must be first-year students. Masters of Finance students are also allowed. 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 to be outlined closer to the competition.
• 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” nor “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 US *traded* name, but does not need to be a US 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 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, US 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.
• Presentations must be submitted electronically as two (2) individual PDF files. A template will be provided when the universe is distributed, no later than Nov 1. File names must include the name of the team’s school, type of pitch, and the stock ticker (example: UNC-MSFT.pdf.). Presentations should not contain any video or other excessively large data objects. Presentations must be emailed to (Kasturi Bramhane kasturi_bramhane@kenan-flagler.unc.edu) no later than 5:00 p.m. EST, Sunday, November 19, 2023.