D.A. Davidson Invests in Students' Financial Education

D.A. Davidson’s Student Investment Program is designed to provide hands-on experience in finance, stock research, portfolio management and investment topics, and represents a total commitment of $1.05 million annually.

The program allows student teams at 21 colleges and universities that are in senior-level investment courses to compete, and provides them with $50,000 to invest in the stock market. Each team makes investment decisions with the guidance of a local D.A. Davidson financial advisor and manages the portfolio for one year.

The top-performing teams receive a check for their college, earning half of any portfolio gains above 5 percent. D.A. Davidson absorbs any losses.

The Student Investment Program was launched in 1985 at Montana State University, and colleges throughout the West and the Midwest have been gradually added since that time. Currently there are 21 educational institutions participating.

For the 2022-2023 program, D.A. Davidson’s donation totaled $60,111. The winner of the Fred Dickson Memorial Award for 2023 was Portland State University’s team for the second year in a row, with a team from Washington State University having the top-performing portfolio.

The Fred Dickson Memorial Award honors one team annually that is considered the most outstanding participant in D.A. Davidson’s Student Investment Program.

In selecting the winning program, roughly two-thirds of the award criteria is investment performance based on 1-year total returns and 3-year and 5-year risk adjusted returns while one-third of the criteria is based on qualitative factors including how well programs stick to their stated investment processes and the overall level of student engagement.

In the 29 years since D.A. Davidson began sharing program profits, the company has donated $894,235 in profits to participating institutions.

Ed Turnquist, Vice President, Financial Advisor in D.A. Davidson’s Lake Oswego branch, serves as the D.A. Davidson advisor to the Portland State University team along with Portland State University Associate Professor of Finance Dr. Piman Limpaphayom.