UNM team secures first overall in Global CQA Investment Challenge

UNM Anderson School of Management team placed first overall in the 2025-2026 Chicago Quantitative Alliance (CQA) Investment Challenge. Students - David Dávila and Samuel Landis - competed in the six-month equity portfolio management challenge among international institutions, displaying well-executed strategies and earning $3,000 in prize money.

Dávila and Landis entered the competition as the team, Alpha Strategies. Dávila and Landis are president and vice president of the Lobo Investment Club, respectively, and have had prior experience competing in similar competitions.

The CQA Investment Challenge aims to provide university studies with hands-on experience of being portfolio managers. Students experience the many elements involved in the investment management industry including stock selection, portfolio construction, and risk management.

Utilizing a simulation investment platform, the competition required participants to create a market neutral long/short equity portfolio of 100 stocks and had several rules to follow around maintaining the portfolio. Additionally, the teams had to submit a video presentation explaining their investment philosophy and process.

Dávila built code within Python to help execute their strategy which was based on prior academic investment research.

"I ran the model, which was a momentum-based strategy. We calculated returns over the prior 12 months, excluding the most recent month, then ranked the stocks. We went long the top 50 names and short the bottom 50," said Dávila. "We also applied liquidity and tradability filters, such as minimum average volume and shortability, to ensure the portfolio could actually be implemented."

"It was a lot of fun, but it was also very active. We were trading almost every week. Over the past six months, I probably checked the portfolio 300 or 400 times," said Landis. "We constantly monitored for mergers, corporate actions and anything else that could affect our positions. Overall, it was a great experience and a lot of fun to work on together."

At the end of the competition, Alpha Strategies generated approximately 29.06% return with zero compliance violations. Their compounded annual growth rate for strategy was 84.4% per year and had a 2.35 Sharpe ratio.

The team was mentored by Professor Subramanian Iyer of the Anderson Department of Finance and Innovation, who also serves as an advisor to the Lobo Investment Club.

Dávila is double majoring in finance and applied mathematics and Landis is a computer science major. Both anticipate graduating in May 2027.

Watch Alpha Strategies' video presentation explaining their investment philosophy and process.