Titan Capital Management Delivers Notable Returns on Investment
When a California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) team wins the annual Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute Research Challenge, no one is surprised. In the 2024 local event for the Los Angeles area, the team members representing the Titan Capital Management (TCM) program at CSUF increased their school’s wins to five in a row. The Business Titans finished in first place over five other distinguished teams on February 16.
The previous year, the Business Titans advanced through the competition’s ranks and became one of the six highest-scoring teams at the international level, with more than 1,000 schools participating. This almost entirely undergraduate team has also faced off and won against multiple graduate student competitors.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is a global program/competition offering university business students intensive mentoring and training in the tools and techniques of financial analysis and the ethics of their profession.
Judged by local CFA professionals who host the event, students take on the role of research analysts working to research, analyze, and value a specific publicly traded company. They are graded on the quality of their valuations, analysis, report-writing, and presentation. It’s a significant opportunity to gain real-world experience while building knowledge and networks.
Priceless real-world experience
That the Titan Capital Management program is able to field a winning team every year is directly attributable to its focus on providing real-world understanding and experience. TCM’s year-long, coaching-intense, experience-based investment course emphasizes communication, insight, leadership, and collaboration.
TCM students learn to build real portfolios of stocks and bonds, do real securities analysis, and manage real investment funds. The funds are supplied by the CSUF Philanthropic Foundation, augmented by donor contributions. Returns from the student-led portfolios help support student services focused on career development.
The goal is to equip emerging financial professionals with the skills and values that will help them produce significant risk-adjusted returns for their future clients while making contributions to their field.
As a professor in an early iteration of TCM described it, the program is “part portfolio management, part stock analysis, part entrepreneurship.” The students and their teachers volley sharp analytical questions back and forth, challenging each other on their analysis and valuations, always looking for how to make the best investment management decisions backed up by data.
Upgrading for success
Since its inception, CSUF and TCM have expanded to include more ways to serve their students. In April 2024, the Business Titans celebrated the opening of the College of Business and Economics’ new Titan Capital Management Investment Research Center.
With this 2,000-square-foot facility as their new home base, they have access to sophisticated Bloomberg terminals identical to those used by practicing professionals in Wall Street firms. The new center also offers additional research databases, all accessible on Zoom-compatible, 75-inch screens in a central location, along with a stock ticker display and live news and exchange feeds. The whole design and atmosphere intentionally recreate the look and feel of the day-to-day Wall Street experience.
TCM’s origins go back to 2012. Now-retired Jackson Square Partners CIO and philanthropist Jeff Van Harte (CSUF ’80) funded the Applied Security Analysis Program, an investment finance track for students. Mr. Van Harte’s continued efforts as one of its key supporters and funders has helped TCM move forward to its current position as a recognized leader in undergraduate business programs nationwide. His $1.5 million gift served as a cornerstone of the funding that built the new Investment Research Center, and he continues to chair the TCM executive committee, assisting in the mentoring of students alongside their professors.
Proof of concept
In an industry in which few newly minted bachelor’s degree recipients from state schools find jobs at major investment firms, Business Titans are a notable exception. The high caliber of TCM students’ work is now a known quantity among corporate recruiters nationwide, often earning them high-potential positions shortly after graduation.
One example of the quality of the education the students carry with them: A Southern California investment management firm that had not previously hired many CSUF four-year graduates hired a Business Titan in the early days of TCM. An official at the firm then asked a group of new hires at orientation to explain bond duration. The CSUF grad knew exactly how to describe this complex concept, based on lessons learned through the rigors of TCM.
Another example: In 2023, two 2020 TCM graduates and current working professionals earned their Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter. The CFA is the highest — and widely considered the most difficult to achieve — postgraduate professional certification available to financial professionals. Not coincidentally, these alumni were members of the 2020 Business Titans team that won the school its first local CFA Investment Research Challenge championship.
Also notably, CSUF is an increasingly diverse campus. For example, in 2021, almost 60 percent of the students were female, close to half identified as Hispanic or Latino, and around one-third of the students were the first in their families to attend college. The Business Titans well represent the hard work, discipline, and goal-setting that distinguishes their student body overall.
