Fall 2025 Recap

Dear SIF Community,

The fall semester has been very productive and impactful for the SIF Quant Team. We have many exciting updates to share with you regarding recruitment, education, and ongoing projects.

Recruitment and Alpha Competition

Throughout September and October, we carried through a successful recruitment campaign. We received almost 100 competitive applications from UMD students, many of whom we interviewed to get a better understanding of their background and commitment. Based on their past experiences and interests, the strength of their application and data analysis, and their successful interviews, we accepted 15 new members to our club this year. These members bring a variety of unique skills and novel perspectives to our club, which will greatly benefit our infrastructure and research initiatives.

All new members participated in our annual Quantitative Finance curriculum, where they refined their mathematical, computational, and financial skills through engaging lectures and data analysis projects. At the close of the semester, these members competed in the annual Alpha Competition to create the best strategy using the material they learned and their research skills.

Below is a sample alpha from new members Rishi Rajadhyaksha and Samuel Boccara that looked at Mean Reversion with inverse volatility weighting for an alpha strategy.

Conclusion

The Quant Team is extremely proud of another productive semester, with the integration of a strong class of new members and the progress made on several exciting projects.

We would like to congratulate Eckert Schneider for graduating this semester. Eckert made significant contributions to SIF’s infrastructure and research during their time on the team, and we are so grateful for their mentorship, expertise, and friendship. We wish them all the best in their bright future endeavors.

Next semester, we have an exciting schedule planned with lectures led by reputable UMD professors, senior members, and first-year members. Rajat Baldawa and Ankit Nakhawa will continue as President, with Raghav Sriram and Ananya Chopra as Vice Presidents.

Thank you once again to our members, alumni, and readers for your continued support of the Smith Investment Club. We look forward to the many exciting opportunities that await us in the coming semesters.

Best,

SIF Quant Executive Team