Ella and Maggie
LSE undergraduate students Maggie Powers and Ella Rowell have won an investment competition designed to give female students an opportunity to test their investment skills and learn about asset management.
The competition, run by investment firm Majedie Asset Management, saw the participating teams receive a notional £25,000 to invest in listed global equities to trade as they wished between January and June 2020.
The two second year students were provided with in-depth training on stock selection, portfolio construction and financial modelling. Together, they managed to comfortably outperform the MSCI All Country World Index, a common benchmark for global stock funds.
All profits are being donated to charities chosen by the participating teams, along with an additional £5,000 donation to the Young Women’s Trust, Maggie and Ella’s chosen charity, and £2,500 to Help for Heroes on behalf of the team who came highly commended.
The competition was devised by Majedie to address the industry-wide challenge of encouraging female undergraduates to consider asset management as a future career choice.
Commenting on the win, BSc Finance student Margaret Powers, said: "Learning about portfolio construction was extremely valuable. I also had really interesting conversations with Cindy, our mentor, about not only how to pick assets but how to monitor them when they are in our portfolio.”
BSc Accounting and Finance student, Ella Rowell added: “The competition was a great initiative to allow more women to get hands on experience in the industry in a more casual setting. The experience was invaluable and I look forward to learning more about the industry in the years to come.”
Rhiannon Collis, Board Director and Head of Clients at Majedie, said: “We are incredibly proud of the young women who took part in the Next Generation Investor 2020 competition. They have more than proven their ability to thrive as investors, despite some of the most challenging investment conditions we have experienced in many years. It has been a real pleasure for our team to mentor them and we are confident they all have bright futures ahead.”