The student-run University of Oregon Investment Group bests nineteen other schools to win a prestigious portfolio management competition.

Every Friday, University of Oregon Investment Group (UOIG) team members meet in the Lundquist College of Business to ask difficult questions about the financial valuation of a company that a fellow student spent forty hours preparing. It's an informed and high-level debate, and as the conversation continues, the enthusiasm of all students grows more evident in their speech, their faces, and flashes of insight in their eyes. By the time they vote on whether to invest in the company, you know their decision is sound. And you have a clear understanding of why the UOIG recently won the annual portfolio competition sponsored by D.A. Davidson & Co. (DADCO).

In winning the competition, the UOIG posted a remarkable 29.35 percent return on the $50,000 that DADCO provided as seed money. That compares to a 17.37 percent performance by the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the same period (September 2006?August 2007) and a 10.04 percent gain by the comparable Russell 2000 Index. DADCO donated half of the earnings from the returns in excess of 5 percent to UOIG, or just over $6,000. The student club put the money toward renewing the lease for the Bloomberg Terminal in its office in the Lillis Business Complex. The terminal allows students to monitor and analyze real-time financial market data.

But the real prize wasn't the money or even winning. It was the experience.

"Membership in the UOIG accelerates our learning and shows us what it is really like to be a financial analyst. The UOIG challenges us to think beyond what we thought possible. It shows us what we are capable of when we apply classroom knowledge to actual industry practice," said Matt Ross, the group's director of operations.

Though it is the first time the UOIG has won the DADCO competition, the group has finished in the top tier several times. In fact, since being invited to compete in 1999-2000, UOIG has the highest compounded return--an astounding 106.77 percent--among all competitors.