To have seen them in action in New York, you might have thought these three students from the Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon did this all the time.

And you would have been partly right.

For sure, the environment was different than back home in Eugene. But as they presented their equity analysis to four judges at the New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business in Manhattan, they were going through the same steps, albeit in less time, as they'd been doing every Friday morning with some two dozen of their fellow students back in Room 132 at the Lillis Business Complex.

 The students are part of the 28-member University of Oregon Investment Group (UOIG). Formed in 1998, the student-run UOIG manages two stock portfolios with combined assets of more than $600,000.

Against competition from some of the country's top finance schools, the Oregon trio's presentation merited a third-place finish at the NYU Stern Summit on Global Business, April 7. One week earlier, the UOIG's Tall Firs portfolio placed first in its class at the Global Student Investment Strategy Symposium at the University of Dayton.

Bolstering the UOIG's strong performance are support and financial resources made available by alumni and private investors. Former Verizon CFO Howard Svigals, a 1975 UO finance alumnus, is in the process of having the UOIG invest $100,000 of his money. Svigals and others have also provided funding that allows UOIG students to participate in portfolio competitions, visit financial institutions, and attend investment seminars across the nation.

Complementing academics with experience is a formula that pays dividends, according to John Chalmers, associate professor of finance and one of three UOIG faculty advisers.

"This is a great way to learn because it's not just an academic exercise," Chalmers said. "It's real work, making real decisions with real money."