TY  - JOUR
AB  - 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.
VL  - 46
IS  - 5
SN  - 0307-4358
DO  - 10.1108/MF-07-2018-0335
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/MF-07-2018-0335
AU  - Stark Aaron W.
AU  - Wisniewski Isaac
PY  - 2019
Y1  - 2019/01/01
TI  - West Point: teaching leadership and risk management through investing
T2  - Managerial Finance
PB  - Emerald Publishing Limited
SP  - 703
EP  - 708
Y2  - 2024/05/13
ER  -