A national finance competition has named fourth-year Goodman School of Business student Ishan Patel among its top one per cent of best performing finance portfolios.

The portfolio management challenge run by Capitalize for Kids, a non-profit organization supporting children’s brain and mental health programs, saw 1,500 students from across Canada participate in a virtual trading competition from Oct. 2 to Dec. 29, 2017.

In results released earlier this month, Patel’s stock portfolio was listed as 15th out of 1,500.

Starting with $1-million in virtual currency, students bought and sold stock through the simulation with a goal to grow their portfolio as much as possible over 12 weeks.

The top 200 performers were invited to submit a written report detailing the strategies and analysis they used.

While Patel originally ranked 20th, he rose to the 15th spot after his report was evaluated.

Fifty of the highest-ranking students will also benefit from industry-specific mentorship after they are paired with leaders in asset management and investment banking industry.

Patel has been managing an investment portfolio on his own for the past two years and is the President of the Brock Finance and Investment Group, a Goodman School of Business student club that focuses on finance and investment education and manages a student-run portfolio.

The Brampton native, who also works part time at Scotiabank and Brooks Brothers, hopes to pursue a career in wealth management where he can combine his love of investment banking and connecting with customers.

Patel spends the rest of his waking hours at Goodman’s Bloomberg research lab, which is equipped with Bloomberg software to research and analyze financial information.

“I’m in the Bloomberg lab every time I’m free,” he said. “It’s great to be able to rely on the financial database available to us as students and we can use that information as a reference point when making investment decisions.”

Goodman School of Business Dean Andrew Gaudes said Patel’s success in the investment challenge shows students are prepared to handle the world of investment banking.

“We’re very proud of Ishan’s accomplishment,” he said. “Goodman prepares students to understand environmental context and make decisions and I am confident that the experience Ishan has had at Goodman, not only in the classroom, but also with student clubs, has prepared him well for a competitive environment like this.”