FINS5568 Individual Communication & Strategic Reasoning
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Assessment Description: Individual Communication & Strategic Reasoning
Overview
This assessment develops your ability to articulate and defend strategic decisions in hedge fund investing. It combines individual and group presentation tasks designed to simulate the real-world demands of investment communication and decision-making.
All content should draw from the frameworks, strategies, and practitioner insights covered in Efficiently Inefficient: How Smart Money Invests and Market Prices Are De- termined (Pedersen, 2015). Each component is linked to key stages in the development of your final trading strategy.
Assessment Structure (30%)
● Individual Elevator Pitch (12%) — 3-minute pitch in Week 2
● Group Presentations (18%) — 4 modules across Weeks 3—9, with each student presenting once individually
1. Individual Elevator Pitch (12%)
Week: 2 and 3
Length: 3 minutes (individual)
Format: In-class live pitch
Length: 1 - page report on the pitch (individual)
You will deliver a concise elevator pitch of a preliminary trading strategy idea. This simulates the kind of high-impact communication expected in investment meetings. Your pitch should include:
● A clear statement of the investment idea
● The inefficiency it seeks to exploit
● A sketch of the data signal or mechanism
● Key risks or limitations
This early pitch helps sharpen your thinking and prepares you for deeper analysis in the group strategy development.
2. Group Strategy Development Presentations (20%)
Weeks: 3–9
Length: 5 minutes per presentation
Format: Group presentations, but each student must lead/present one module individ- ually
Your group will deliver four short presentations during the course. Each presentation covers one critical strategic decision point in developing your final trading strategy. You will rotate presenters so that each student delivers one of the modules.
The Four Decision Modules
Module 1. Market Selection & Ine ciency Hypothesis
What market are you targeting, and what inefficiency are you aiming to exploit? Suggested Week: 3; Linked Chapters: 1{3 (Equity L/S, Value strategies)
Module 2. Signal Design & Data Selection
What indicators or signals support your trading logic? What data is needed? Suggested Week: 4{5; Linked Chapters: 4{6 (Momentum, Arbitrage)
Module 3. Execution, Positioning & Risk Management
How do you size and execute trades? How do you control risk?
Suggested Week: 6{7; Linked Chapters: 7{9 (Liquidity, Costs, Risk premia)
Module 4. Performance Evaluation & Refinement
How do you measure success? What improvements can be made?
Suggested Week: 8{9; Linked Chapters: 10{12 (Scaling, Backtesting)
Each presentation should:
● Clearly state your group’s decision
● Justify it using data, economic reasoning, and course readings
● Acknowledge trade-offs and assumptions
● Be delivered confidently and clearly by the presenting member
3. Strategy Report and Replication Code (Required Submission)
In addition to the presentations, each group must submit:
● A short written report (max 1,000 words) summarizing the final strategy, key decisions, performance metrics, and limitations.
● Replicable code (in Python, R, or Stata) that implements your trading strategy using sample data. The code must reproduce the key results shown in your final presentation.
This ensures that your strategy is not only well-motivated but also empirically imple- mentable and reproducible — an essential skill in data-driven finance roles.
Assessment Criteria
● Clarity and persuasiveness of delivery
● Strength of economic and strategic reasoning
● Integration of insights from Efficiently Inefficient
● Code reproducibility and quality of documentation
● Professionalism, teamwork, and communication
Learning Objectives Addressed
● Communicate financial strategies efectively
● Justify decisions under uncertainty using economic logic
● Apply hedge fund frameworks to real-world trading strategy design
● Develop teamwork, programming, and applied data analysis skills
2025-09-24