West Point: teaching leadership and risk management through investing
ISSN: 0307-4358
Article publication date: 13 March 2019
Issue publication date: 22 June 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to look at how the faculty at West Point uses a student-managed investment fund (SMIF) to contribute to the development of Army officers.
Design/methodology/approach
The United States Military Academy at West Point started a student-managed investment fund in 1983. The Economics program, which has four finance classes within its curriculum, hosts the student-run SMIF. The students (cadets) in charge of the SMIF have recently started pursuing a risk parity strategy. This paper discusses the challenges that arise from taking on this strategy.
Findings
It argues that investment management, especially with a risk-aware strategy, helps the cadets learn to manage the risk/reward tradeoff as well as help them work on leadership skills, both of which will help them as future Army officers.
Originality/value
The authors suggest that the recent student-initiated changes to the SMIF at West Point highlight some of the leadership opportunities inherent to approaching a SMIF from a risk-aware, portfolio-based perspective. This can teach students important experiential lessons about how to manage prudent risk both in finance and as a leader.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
These are solely the views of the authors and should not be construed to be considered as the official views of the United States Military Academy, US Army or Department of Defense. Neither this publication nor its content is endorsed by the United States Military Academy, US Army or Department of Defense.
Citation
Stark, A.W. and Wisniewski, I. (2020), "West Point: teaching leadership and risk management through investing", Managerial Finance, Vol. 46 No. 5, pp. 703-708. https://doi.org/10.1108/MF-07-2018-0335
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited