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Student managed Investment Program (SMIP)

With generous support from the University of Arizona Foundation, the Student Managed Investment Program (SMIP) provides students of all grade levels with hands-on portfolio management experience, moving beyond theoretical classroom learning into real-world financial application. 

The program is strategically organized into three tiers: Undergraduate Fund, Senior Fund, and Master’s Fund. Each tier is overseen by a dedicated faculty member who provides mentorship and professional oversight. Participation is defined by specific student groups or enrollment in designated finance courses, ensuring that each fund is managed by students with the appropriate level of training and academic focus. All finance undergraduate and master’s students will contribute to the SMIP by the time they graduate. With the Foundation as the fund’s client, the management fees earned by each fund directly support finance student programs, student attendance at industry events, scholarships, field trips, and more. Fund values below are as of May 2026. 

For more information about the program, please contact the SMIP Director, Professor Daniel Kinnear at dkinnear@arizona.edu. 

Fund Types

SMIP UGrad Fund Icon

Initial seed money was $110,000 in Fall 2024 and with an additional input of $250,000 in May 2026. Undergraduate students of all grade levels (mostly sourced from the Investments Club) actively manage an equity portfolio of individual stocks in an extracurricular format (not through an academic course).

Faculty member: Dr. Anne Anderson, Senior Lecturer in Finance

Enrollment: All students are interviewed, with 40 students accepted on a competitive basis.

SMIP Senior Fund Icon

This is the original student fund, valued at $8.8 million (as of May 2026). Finance seniors and select master’s students actively manage a $3.8 million equity portfolio of individual stocks in the FIN 423/523 Applied Investment Management course. Students also manage a $5 million semi-active “enhanced indexing” strategy, with individual company analysis provided by all finance seniors in the FIN 498 Senior Capstone course.

Faculty member: Daniel Kinnear, CFA, CFP, Senior Lecturer in Finance

Enrollment: FIN 423/523 is open to undergraduate finance seniors and select finance master’s students. All students are interviewed, with 40 students accepted on a competitive basis. Additionally, all finance seniors contribute to the $5 million enhanced index portfolio through their senior capstone project in the FIN 498 Senior Capstone course, also taught by Daniel Kinnear.

SMIP Masters Fund Icon

The Master's Equity Fund is valued at $825,000 (as of May 2026). Master’s students in the FIN 526 Portfolio Management Theory course actively manage an equity portfolio with more of a quantitative focus on factor returns (no individual stocks, only ETFs).

Faculty members: David Zynda, Lecturer in Finance

Enrollment: master’s students enrolled in the FIN 526 Portfolio Management Theory course, an elective in the Master in Finance (MSF) program.

The Master's Fixed Income Fund will start in Fall 2026 with $250,000. This fund will actively manage a fixed income ETF portfolio in the FIN 542 Fixed Income course.

Faculty member: Sheila Hanley, CFA, Adjunct Lecturer in Finance

Enrollment: all master’s students are automatically enrolled in the FIN 542 Fixed Income course, a required course in the Master in Finance (MSF) program.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Enhanced indexing is a quantitative, semi-active investment strategy, falling between traditional index funds and actively managed funds. To better understand this, recall the portfolio metric of tracking error, a statistical measure of the standard deviation of a portfolio’s return minus the benchmark return. Put simply, tracking error shows how much the portfolio return deviates from the benchmark return on average over time. An index fund ETF tracking the S&P 500, for example, is likely to have tracking error less than 0.10%. Our actively managed student funds have tracking error of 4-6% against their benchmark, which is comparable to industry actively managed funds. By contrast, the enhanced index strategy has a target tracking error of 1-2%. In short, the strategy should deliver index-like returns with a small margin of deviation from the benchmark permitted to achieve a small amount of “alpha” or excess return.

To achieve most of the benchmark index return, the fund will hold market weight positions in the largest 100-150 stocks in the Russell 3000, equal to the weight in the benchmark. An additional 50-80 mid cap and small cap stocks must be sampled to appropriately match the benchmark’s risk and return characteristics. This is where the “enhanced” part comes into play: students will identify underpriced mid cap and small cap stocks to selectively overweight attractive stocks. Unlike an actively managed fund, the overweight positions will be quite small to ensure the overall fund does not deviate far from the benchmark.

Students in the SMIP Senior Fund, the FIN 423/523 Applied Investment Management course, will construct the portfolio but will receive assistance on sourcing mid cap and small cap stock ideas from other finance students as follows. Every finance senior must complete a senior capstone course, FIN 498, requiring students to complete an in-depth stock valuation project. The collective efforts of these 230+ graduating finance seniors who take this course will complete their stock valuation project from a pre-selected list of mid cap and small cap stocks eligible for inclusion in the enhanced index portfolio. Excellent student projects are identified by faculty and delivered them to the students in the FIN 423/523 course, who will further filter and refine the ideas to produce a list of 20-50 mid cap and small cap stocks to overweight in the enhanced index. As a result, every single finance senior will contribute to the SMIP in some way.