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The Brandes Institute, a division of Brandes Investment Partners^®, investigates diverse topics related to investing and portfolio management.  We share our findings through presentations and published reports at our website.  We also develop and run interactive simulations designed to illustrate concepts through “hands-on” participation. The latest is . . . the Manager Challenge^®.

What is the Manager Challenge?

The Manager Challenge is a team competition: a web-based, investment strategy simulation.  It was created to provide an interactive way for investment professionals to test and sharpen their manager selection and monitoring skills in a competitive, yet fun environment.  The Manager Challenge reflects the Brandes Institute’s goal of delivering “education through engagement.” It provides a competitive environment in which participants can sharpen their skills in manager selection and monitoring – while learning valuable “real world” lessons.

Why compete in the Manager Challenge?

In a business noted for its competitive personalities, you can test your skills against your peers (anonymously, if you prefer) to see how you stack up. The Manager Challenge offers competitions divided by peer groups, such as institutional investors, institutional consultants, financial advisors, etc.

Invest an hour or two of your time in the Manager Challenge, and you can gain experience over the Challenge’s 15-year time span. You can use the Manager Challenge for training or for its competitive aspects.

Who is eligible to play?

The Manager Challenge is designed for players at all levels of investment sophistication, from experts down to those just starting in the business. 

The Manager Challenge offers competitions divided by peer groups, such as institutional investors, institutional consultants, financial advisors, students, and others.  

The Manager Challenge also may be offered for “intramural” competition – for teams drawn from a single organization that could match colleagues in one office, or in various offices, against each other.

How does the Manager Challenge work?

Conducted online, the Manager Challenge is an investment strategy simulation.  Teams allocate assets among a range of equity and fixed income products offered by fictitious investment managers.  There are multiple objectives:  maximize the portfolio value, manage career risks (by retaining “Career Points”), and exceed liability and policy targets. 

The Manager Challenge is played over a simulated 15-year timeframe, divided into five periods of three years each.  It takes about an hour to play.  Each period can bring new developments – performance fluctuations, product closures, personnel turnover among select managers, and mergers or acquisitions.  Teams can fire existing managers, hire new ones, adjust asset allocations – or do nothing.  A “Leaderboard” shows the running totals for each team participating in the Manager Challenge, including portfolio values relative to the index and current “Career Point” totals.

The winning team in a single Manager Challenge event is the one achieving the highest portfolio value at the close of the final period, after adjusting by the value of career points retained.  (Career points are assigned a value at the start of each event.)

How do I get started?

You’ll need the password for the event you’re entering.  We will email eligible participants ahead of time, with invitations providing the website address, date, and time of the Manager Challenge. 

For details of upcoming and past events, please see the Events page.

If you believe you are eligible for a Manager Challenge, and want to participate, but didn’t get an email invitation, please contact us at challengeinfo@brandes.com.

The Manager Challenge® has been created by the Brandes Institute, a division of Brandes Investment Partners®.