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.

  1. Send an email to tarek.zaher@indstate.edu  by 5:00 p.m. September 10, 2025. Indicating your intention to participate in the competition.
  2. 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.