The Peter J. Tobin College of Business-Accounting Undergrad Student Finishes 4th in Barron’s Challenge

May 9, 2006--For the third year in a row Barron’s has run an online six-month Challenge, which, as stated in a May 1^st article about the Challenge, “invites students and teachers from accredited two- and four-year undergrad and graduate schools to use a hypothetical $100,000 to trade stocks listed on any of the three major exchanges and priced at $5 or more at the start of the competition. Participants could short shares and buy on margin, but couldn’t make more than 75 trades.” An online-portfolio-simulations firm, Stock-Trak, based in Duluth, Ga., administered the contest. 

This year’s fourth place student winner, out of 2,361 participating students and professors, was Maurizio Sorbara--a junior at The Peter J. Tobin College of Business. With an account valued at $175,645.86, Sorbara’s portfolio generated a 75.6% return from October 17, 2005 through April 15, 2006. Although he placed 4^th among the students who participated, the percentage change Sorbara achieved would have placed him third among the participating professor’s of the Challenge.

"My objective was to hold stocks and not to flip them, says Sorbara." Using both technical and fundamental analysis' Sorbara purchased mostly gold and oil stocks and ended up holding 29 gold and oil stocks at the commencement of the competition. "I started out researching 15 different stocks in solid companies and then kept purchasing from there," he says. "I wanted something more long term because gold is so strong right now and I know I could have been in the top three had I had even just one more week."

Sorbara entered the competition after his brother Gabriele, an equity analyst in the oil sector, encouraged him to enter the contest.

Always a winner, Maurizio Sorbara was given a $5000 Academic Achievement Award from St. John’s University in 2003 for both his fine academic record and for his potential success. The selection process for these scholarship awards is highly competitive and is considered a high honor.

For more information about this year’s Barron’s Challenge, check out the May 1^st issue of Barron’s magazine.