Schedule
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. – Check in.
Hyatt Regency McCormick, Regency Ballroom Foyer 2nd Floor
12:30 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. – Opening Remarks
Hyatt Regency McCormick, Regency Ballroom Foyer 2nd Floor
Dr. Tarek Zaher, Professor of Finance/Co-Founder and Managing Director of SMIFC, Scott College of Business, Indiana State University
Dr. Terry Daugherty, Dean, Scott College of Business, Indiana State University
Session 1: 12:50 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. – Panel Discussion
Hyatt Regency McCormick, Regency Ballroom Foyer 2nd Floor
CFA Chicago
Session 2: 1:50 p.m. - 2:40 p.m. –
Hyatt Regency McCormick, Regency Ballroom Foyer 2nd Floor
Buff Dormeir, CMT Chief Technical Analyst | Kingsview Partners
2:40 p.m. - 2:50 p.m. – Break
Session 3: 2:50 p.m. - 3:40 p.m. –
Hyatt Regency McCormick, Regency Ballroom Foyer 2nd Floor
Rob Langrick, CFA, CIPM, General Manager of the CFA program at CFAI.
3:40 p.m. - 3:50 p.m. – Break
Session 4: 3:50 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. – Corporate Connection & SMIFC Teams Poster Session Competition
Hyatt Regency McCormick, Regency Ballroom Foyer 2nd Floor
3:40 p.m. – 4:10 p.m. – Poster Session Judges Evaluation Visit
4:10 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. – Poster Session Students Visit
4:20 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. – Poster Session Judges Meeting
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. – Faculty and Partner Appreciation Reception presented by The Garrett Companies
Hyatt Regency McCormick, Lake Shore Drive Boardroom 2nd Floor
6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. – Dinner - Distinguished Speaker Frederick J. Crawford, President and Chief Operating Officer of Aflac Incorporated
Hyatt Regency McCormick, Regency Ballroom Foyer 2nd Floor
Session 5: 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. –
Hyatt Regency McCormick, Regency Ballroom Foyer 2nd Floor
Lauren Henderson, Senior Economist and Director at Stifel
Session 6: 10:00 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. -
Hyatt Regency McCormick, Regency Ballroom Foyer 2nd Floor
Charlie Bobrinskoy, Vice Chairman, Ariel Investments
10:50 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. – Break
Session 7: 11:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m. – Panel Discussion
Hyatt Regency McCormick, Regency Ballroom Foyer 2nd Floor
The Garret Companies
Session 8: 11:50 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. – Lunch, and Announcement of Competition’s Awards
Hyatt Regency McCormick, Regency Ballroom Foyer 2nd Floor
Poster Session Competition Awards: Sponsored by The Garret Companies
Financial Analysis Competition Awards: Sponsored by The Garret Companies
The competition winners will be announced, and awards distributed. Following this, the winning teams will give brief presentations about their projects.
Session 9: 1:00 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. –
Hyatt Regency McCormick, Regency Ballroom Foyer 2nd Floor
Session 10: 1:45 p.m. -2:30 p.m.
Hyatt Regency McCormick, Regency Ballroom Foyer 2nd Floor
Session 11: 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. – Visit to FRB Chicago and CBOE
Competition Projects
The poster session provides the SMIFC teams with a way to display information about their SMIF including performance during 2024. As an incentive to participate in the poster session competition, SMIFC – We will recognize and present awards for the top three teams that demonstrate excellence for outstanding performance and outstanding visual presentation. Presenters will participate in engaging their colleagues at other SMIFC schools. All presenters are responsible for bringing or delivering the posters to the conference and removing them after the conference. Posters presenters must arrive at least 15 minutes before the start of the poster session. To participate in the poster competition, please do the following.
- Send an email to tarek.zaher@indstate.edu by 5:00 p.m. September 10, 2025. Indicating your intention to participate in the competition.
- Report your fund(s) time-weighed rate of return (TWRR) on the attached template and send it to us along with the twelve-monthly statements from the brokerage house that host your SMIF for the period: January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2024. If your school hosts more than one fund, two different teams from your school can participate in the competition.
Evaluation Rubric
- SMIF performance measured by Sharpe ratio (00%)
- Visual presentation (35%)
- Presentation to judges (35%)
Poster Session Cash Prize Pool
Courtesy of Scott College of Business at Indiana State University
- First Place — $1000
- Second Place — $800
- Third Place — $700
This project is an exercise in creating a long-term investment strategy and building an investment portfolio using fundamental analysis. The Investment horizon is five years. Teams of 1 to 3 students will create a paper trading portfolio of $100,000 that can be invested in stocks. Each team is also required to write a 6–10-page (including exhibits) paper describing their investment plan and demonstrating their knowledge of analysis of economic, industrial, political, global and financial conditions, and their understanding and application of fundamental analysis concepts and the criteria they used in stock selection, allocation, and risk management of their portfolio. Up to two teams from each school can participate in the competition.
Evaluation Rubric
- Analysis of economic, industrial, political, global, and financial conditions (25%)
- Asset allocation and diversification (25%)
- Financial Analysis and selection of stocks (25%)
- Write up of the paper and exhibits (25%)
Portfolio Building Cash Prize Pool
Courtesy of Scott College of Business at Indiana State University
- First Place — $1000
- Second Place — $800
- Third Place — $700
Timeline
September 19, 2025 - Deadline for Paper submissions
October 10, 2025 - Conference prizes awarded to Portfolio Building Competition
Submissions and Representation
Please submit two copies of the portfolio building paper to tarek.zaher@indstate.edu . no later than 5:00 p.m. Eastern time, on September 19, 2025. One copy of the paper would have school affiliation and team member’s names. A second copy of the paper will be evaluated by the judges and therefore should not contain any identifying information. We encourage all SMIFC Schools to participate in the competition. Schools that will participate in Project 2 competition should have at least one member of their team(s) present at the conference. The winning teams will make a 5-10 minutes’ presentation of their paper at the conference.