"The Centre for Asset Management Research & Investments (CAMRI) is a world-class centre in the research, education, and practice of asset management by using state-of-the-art facilities, resources, data, and software applications, specifically those involving best practice in the field of Asian institutional, sovereign wealth, and retail fund management and regulation."
CAMRI’s goal is to prepare our students to become well-trained and well-intentioned money managers and research analysts via hands-on, team-based and experiential learning at both the academic and professional levels. We achieve this by equipping our facilities with the best research, teaching and learning tools available in the asset management industry, and to serve as an incubator and generator of new investment research, strategies, and ideas. In the process, we also hope to be recognized as Asia’s leading centre for asset management research & investments, which is part of our aim in being Asia’s premier Global Business School.
So as to achieve CAMRI’s stated goals and aims, our research, teaching, student consulting, and outreach programs and activities include:
I. Student Consulting Practicum (CP) projects that see student teams, under the supervision of CAMRI and finance faculty, conduct research projects defined, sponsored and overseen by participants from the financial industry. Through Student Consulting Practicum projects, our students are expected to have a meaningful learning experience. More specifically, CPs aim to achieve the following objectives (at a minimum):
a. Increase the practical relevance of the NUS Business School learning experience;
b. Provide opportunities for students to apply the concepts and theories to business situations;
c. Strengthen linkages with the industry by offering the expertise available in the NUS Business School on specific projects;
d. Broaden the menu of course offerings in terms of pedagogical approaches.
For a sample of a student consulting practicum project proposal conducted for a sovereign wealth fund, please click here. Since this inaugural student CP project effort conducted in Semester 2, 2008/09 offered under the auspices of CAMRI, we have or are conducting the following student CP projects at CAMRI:
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Lion Global Investors, Semester 1, 2010/11 - The Lion Global CP project analyzed several methodologies that can be applied in the portfolio asset allocation context. The various problems associated with the traditional but highly popular Markowitz mean-variance optimization were analyzed, and alternative methods such as the Black-Litterman model, Stambaugh methodology, and multi-factor models were proposed and analyzed by the students. The students also addressed several facets of the asset allocation problem, such as data gaps and the sensitivity of optimization to returns predictions. This project was completed and presented to the sponsor during the first week of December 2010.
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Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Semester 1, 2010/11 - The Morgan Stanley CP project investigated the role of key macroeconomic indicators, such as industrial production, money supply, inflation, interest rates, and valuation ratios (eg price-to-book ratio, dividend yield), in predicting future returns on MSCI Emerging Market country indices. The student team used various sophisticated econometric techniques, such as the pooled least squares panel data regression and panel autoregressive models, to predict the EM index returns. This project was completed and presented to the sponsor during the first week of December 2010.
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Acorn Capital (Melbourne), Semester 2, 2010/11 - The Acorn Capital CP project involves performance attribution analysis with regards to investments in the Small cap and Micro cap primary and secondary markets, analyzing transaction and liquidity costs and its impact on alpha generation, as well as developing a systematic data screening process for the Australian Micro cap sector, which can potentially be extended to the Small cap / Micro cap sector across Asia (ex-Japan). The project includes the students making a weeklong work-study trip to Acorn Capital’s Melbourne office.
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IMC Investments, Summer 2011 and Semester 1, 2011/12 - This IMC Investments student consulting practicum study attempts to develop a dynamic optimal investment, hedging, and expenditure policy for a fairly large family office. It takes into account the uncertainties, variability, and co-dependence of the family office’s (i.e., the investment arm’s) and the overall Group’s cost, expenditure, and revenue structures. This approach fundamentally involves not treating the investment account as the sole asset of the family office, but rather, treating it as part of the various assets of the Group, both tangible and intangible, and then deriving an optimal allocation & spending program that is determined using both quantitative as well as (prudent) qualitative and market-based insights. The CP project is preceded by the students doing an internship with the Group during Summer 2011 as part of their familiarization process of the firm’s operations.
II. The new Investment Management and Trading Lab that is the focal point of CAMRI’s teaching, training, and educational activities.
III. The NUS Asian MBA Stock Pitch Competition which provides a forum for the top MBA students in Asia to compete and showcase their equity research and stock-picking skills in front of a panel of distinguished judges from the investment management industry.
IV. Public talks, industry-related conferences, roundtables and applied research forums in the area of asset management by NUS faculty, practitioners, and well-recognised global scholars who visit CAMRI and the NUS Business School.
V. A Student Managed Fund (SMF) at NUS Business School, which is a CAMRI-led effort to create a platform that will expose and train NUS Business School students in fiduciary fund management by providing them with hands-on experience in the execution, management & monitoring of a real portfolio using state-of-the-art investment research, tools and facilities at the CAMRI Lab. Students will be involved in all aspects of investment management, ranging from investment research, investment thesis generation and pitching, trade execution, portfolio & risk management & monitoring, dealing with counterparties, to day-to-day operational duties. Through such exposure and training, we wish to develop well-trained & high-performing asset managers who have a strong sense of integrity & fiduciary responsibility, and who are well-equipped to become highly-skilled stewards of both institutions’ & individuals’ financial assets. We also wish to give our students a competitive career edge in the asset management industry. Finally, we hope to further raise the global and international profile of NUS Business School by being the first business school in Asia to provide a university-approved opportunity to its students in the most well-equipped and professional environment (CAMRI Lab). Please click here to see the projected fund management learning module track leading to NUS Business School students being certified to be a part of the Student Management Fund team.
CAMRI is a research, education, and learning center for NUS Business School students and faculty. While many investment management and financial modeling courses are taught in the CAMRI Investment Management and Trading Lab, CAMRI itself does not offer any degree programmes.