Kellogg MBA Students Learn Defense With ETFs and Blue Chips

Increasingly, college campuses are offering students practical trading opportunities, ahead of entering the fast-paced, competitive world of hedge funds and asset management.

Last spring, Robert Korajczyk, the Harry G. Guthmann Distinguished Professor of Finance at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University launched a year-long course entitled Asset Management Practicum. Currently, enrolled students manage $2.7 million of Kellogg's endowment and rotate roles -- from analysts to hedge fund managers to traders to portfolio managers.

"It's really meant to give students an experience in investing that's difficult to get just through a textbook style class. So not only do they have to worry about which assets to hold and the risk of the portfolio but how do you trade the portfolio," says Korajczyk. Students are given 100% freedom, he says, in choosing what stocks and funds to trade in the class, which comprises four portfolios of different categories.

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