CUHK Undergraduate Students Win Top Proposal Award at McGill International Portfolio Challenge 2022

Organised by McGill University from Canada, MIPC is the world’s largest university challenge where hundreds of students from all over the world meet with industry leaders and design financial solutions to solve complex social issues. This year, it was hosted virtually and attracted 96 teams from 51 world-renowned universities in 21 countries to participate.

Achieving net-zero is critical to ensuring a sustainable future. The 6th edition of the MIPC challenged participants to design innovative portfolio strategies which aim to achieve high returns on one hand and net zero pledge on the other.

This year, two outstanding proposals were selected for the Top Proposal Awards, including the champion team from The CUHK Business School. The team, composed of Angus Cheung (QFRM Year 2), Christy Yuen (QFIN Year 3), Vincent Cheung (QFRM Year 2) and Alex Tam (QFIN Year 3), is the first team from Hong Kong to have won this award.

“It was truly an eye-opening learning experience to apply finance and sustainable investment concepts to a hypothetical pension fund. We gained so much insight about how institutional investors may make a positive impact on the environment while balancing the trade-offs in decarbonisation and financial returns. Special thanks to our advisor, Dr. Edwin Mok, who gave us valuable advice and support.”

Dr. Edwin Mok, Co-director of Quantitative Finance Programme and Co-director of Interdisciplinary Major Programme in Quantitative Finance and Risk Management Science, added, “The result is a testament to their ability to apply their knowledge to real-world portfolio management. Judges were impressed by their innovative solution to use derivatives to help a pension fund to achieve net zero target without sacrificing the interest of investors and the local economy. “