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Indiana University Kokomo students have placed first in the nation in a major business investments competition involving 465 college and university teams from throughout the country. Among IUK's competition in the 1998 National Collegiate Investment Challenge were 2,000 students from such prestigious universities as Georgetown and Marshall.
IUK teams were comprised of students in an investment class taught by
Dianne Roden, assistant professor of finance. Two of IUK's six investment
teams had portfolios place in the top 10 nationwide.
The competition is a highly realistic investment simulation which gives hands-on stock market experience. Each team starts with a $500,000 financial account and makes trades in stocks and options with a broker on the phone or by using the Web. Competition began in February and ended in April with IUK's portfolio closing at an average value of $579,291.
Participation in the Investment Challenge was a requirement in the class taught by Roden. This was the fifth year Roden had a class compete in the challenge and IUK's first top-10 finish.
"This is very exciting for our students, who worked and researched so very hard," said Roden. "From the very beginning of the competition, they showed a lot of enthusiasm. And that is what it took to win. This is a real achievement for them."
Enthusiasm and excitement are why the competition was created,
according to Investment Challenge Corp's Jeff Libis. "Investments
learning can be dry at times," he said. "Add a competition to the learning,
and that really creates an interest."
More importantly, he added, the competition is so realistic it gives students a very good understanding of what would be expected of them upon graduation and when they begin investing in the real world with investor's dollars.
Finishing in the top ten behind IUK were:
(2) Truman State University; (3) Northwestern College (Minn.); (4) Liberty University; (5) University of Vermont; (6) Mississippi College; (7) Loras College; (8) University of Redlands; (9) Marshall University; and (10) Georgetown University.
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