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AIM Course and Fund

The Applied Investment Management (AIM) course has long been a cornerstone of the Capital Markets and Investment Management curriculum and a key to student success. Founded by Professor Mustafa Gültekin in 1999, the course is one of the more popular offerings in the School and enrolls both graduate and undergraduate students through an application process. Participants consistently rate the course as the most important educational experience of their time at UNC Kenan-Flagler.

The AIM course allows students to develop their skills in all areas of investment management and provides a unique experience for students entering related fields. The two-semester program combines classroom coverage of MBA-level material in finance with hands-on applications, skill development and an opportunity to learn from, and interact with, program alumni and other successful financial analysts. Students learn advanced concepts in finance, gain exposure to new analytical tools, acquire knowledge about the workings of financial markets, and develop intuition about value-creation through stimulating and challenging coursework. Students hear from a number of high-profile guest speakers to enhance their understanding of the real world application of financial analysis and portfolio management.

In the AIM course, students actively manage a portfolio called the Global Perspectives Fund, which currently has assets of over $2.5 million under management. Students are responsible for all management for the fund, under the supervision of a team of faculty members. Students perform real-world roles to manage the portfolio, including economic and market analysis, security analysis, asset and industry allocation, risk management and modeling, factor analysis and screening, performance attribution, trade management, reporting and knowledge management. Twice a year, the students in the AIM course present to a board of industry experts, providing an update on the fund’s performance and defending decisions they have made in managing the fund.

Students have the opportunity to not only manage live portfolios in public securities through the Global Perspectives hedge fund, but also the private equity fund, and a real estate fund, developing tangible skills in global macroeconomic asset allocation, portfolio management, and investment communication.

 

Capital Markets Lab

The UNC Kenan-Flagler Capital Markets Lab is the central financial resource at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. The lab provides students with hands-on experience using the most sophisticated and ubiquitous tools in the investment management industry. The lab includes 20 Bloomberg terminals as well as research tools like FactSet, CapIQ, Morningstar, among others, and representatives of Bloomberg and FactSet visit the School to provide instruction on using their tools.

Each year more than 500 undergraduate and MBA students achieve Bloomberg certification, an important credential in the financial services industry. The Capital Markets Lab provides a real-world setting for students to manage portfolios with exposure to equities, fixed income assets, and derivatives. The lab enables world-class research for the Global Perspectives Fund, a student-run portfolio managed from the lab.

The lab was founded in 2008 and was designed to provide an applied learning experience for students concentrating in Capital Markets and Investments. The skill developed help UNC Kenan-Flagler students launch successful careers in risk management, asset management and trading positions in banks, commodity firms and hedge funds.

 

AIM Program leadership team

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Quincy Field

Co-Portfolio Manager

Quincy Field

Quincy Field is President of the Investment Management Club and a Co-Portfolio Manager for the Global Perspectives Fund at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. Before graduate school, Quincy served as an Intelligence Officer in the United States Army. In the spring of 2022, Quincy interned with CJS Securities in preparation for spending his summer at William Blair in Chicago, IL, where he worked as an Equity Research Associate on the US Small Cap Industrials team. He attained his BS from Eastern Michigan University and is originally from Ypsilanti, MI.

Joseph Alp

Co-Portfolio Manager

Joseph Alp

Joseph Alp is the Executive Vice President of the Kenan-Flagler Investment Management Club and Co-Portfolio Manager for the Global Perspectives Fund. He is also the Vice President of Allyship at the Kenan-Flagler Pride Club and was an equities finalist at the 2021 Alpha Challenge.

Most recently, Joseph worked as a Summer Equity Research Associate with William Blair’s U.S. SMID Cap Consumer Growth team. In the Spring of 2022, he was an Equity Researcher for JulzCo, a Chapel Hill healthcare investment firm. Prior to business school, Joseph was a Research Specialist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, where he focused on healthcare finance and regulations. A first-generation American and college graduate, Joseph attained his B.S. in Chemistry and Mathematics from Bates College.

London Stewart

Chief Strategist

London Stewart

London Stewart is a second year MBA candidate within the Kenan-Flagler Business School. Her concentration is Capital Markets and Investments with an enrichment in Entrepreneurship. During her second semester of business school, she interned at Virgo Investment Group, conducting market research on e-commerce and media companies. She also partnered with the healthcare portfolio companies to improve their operations and find cost-savings opportunities.  During the Summer of 2022, she interned at Progressive, focusing on commercial mortgage-backed securities and aggregate bonds.

Prior to business school, London spent over four years as a senior financial analyst at UnitedHealth Group and CVS Health. She has a bachelors degree in finance from Minnesota State University – Mankato.

Davis Morrison

Asset Allocation & Risk Management

Davis Morrison

Davis Morrison is the Chair of the Alpha Challenge and Head of Risk Management for the Applied Investment Management class. His interests include fixed income and quantitative/factor investing. In Davis’s first year of his MBA, his team finished in 2nd place in the 2021 Alpha Challenge, pitching Domino’s Pizza.  As part of the Investment Management Practicum, Davis interned with Alpha Theory, a technology company that specializes in helping funds size their portfolios based on their best ideas. In Summer 2022 he interned with Unum, with a focus on investment grade and high yield credit research. Prior to returning to graduate school, Davis was a consultant at Accenture for 4 years and received a BBA in Finance from William and Mary, with a minor in Mathematics.

Haoyang Lyu

Asset Allocation & Risk Management

Haoyang Lyu

Haoyang Lyu is a senior at UNC and Kenan-Flagler Business School, studying Business Administration (Investment Management Concentration) and Quantitative Economics and Econometrics. Currently, Haoyang works in the AIM fund management team as one of the risk managers. In the summer 2022, Haoyang interned at Strategic Investment Group in Washington, D.C. as an investment operations analyst.