FINC6600 Written Assessment – Semester 1 2023
Deadline: Friday 19 May (11.59pm Sydney time)
Weight: 30% (Group assignment)
Introduction
Continuing the work developed in the previous 8 weeks, your group is now tasked to develop a pitch
deck supporting a final international portfolio recommendation. The final portfolio should be a
rebalanced version of the one previously submitted as a video presentation and subject to the same
constraints we have been working with since the start of the project:
• 10% - 30% of the total funds available (AUD$20 million) in each country
• Goal of each local portfolio is to outperform the corresponding benchmark:
, , FTSE100 in Europe, HSCEI in Hong Kong, Nasdaq 100 in US
• 10-15 stocks should be selected for each local portfolio and taken from the
corresponding benchmark
• No short-selling allowed
• Investment horizon of one year.
For the pitch deck, consider that your team will be representing one of the following asset
management firms (the allocation will be provided by your facilitator):
1. BlackRock
2. Vanguard Group
3. Fidelity Investments
4. UBS Asset Management
5. State Street Global Advisors
Hence, your group will be pitching for the above investment product (that is, the international
portfolio) on behalf of one of the largest asset management firms in the globe – that provides you
some context in relation to what is expected in the pitch deck.
Pitch deck vs pitch presentation: the difference
Your team has already worked on a slide deck that was presented as part of the video presentation.
The pitch deck that will be submitted as part of the written assessment can build on that however will
need to be substantially different, though. Why? The reason is that the final pitch deck should be
considered as a standalone document that will guide the decision of your client even without a proper
stand-up presentation (in the same vein that a business report would). Hence, your final pitch deck
must contain much more information as one would expect in a typical slide deck. Check the links below
for a few examples of the type of the pitch deck that your group should aspire for:
- BlackRock 2023 global outlook Q2 update:
https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/literature/whitepaper/bii-global-outlook-in-charts.pdf
- Fidelity quarterly market update:
https://institutional.fidelity.com/app/popup/item/RD_13569_30073.html#slide0
- Invesco midyear investment outlook:
https://www.invesco.com/content/dam/invesco/apac/en/pdf/insights/2022/june/invesco-2022-
mid-year-investment-outlook-june-2022.pdf
- HSBC 2022 midyear investment outlook
mid-year-outlook-brochure-2022-retail.pdf
- Guggenheim macro themes for 2023:
https://www.guggenheiminvestments.com/GuggenheimInvestments/media/PDF/10-
Macroeconomic-Themes-for-2023.pdf
As you can notice, the slide decks in the links above are more detailed and contain information
allowing to a level that somehow dispense with the need for a presentation per se. We will provide
general guidelines and instructions to help you creating the slides.
What goes into your slide deck: contents
Your pitch deck must have the following covered:
1. Executive Summary and Portfolio Recommendation Overview: An overall summary of
the presentation and an overview of the final portfolio recommendation.
2. Team and Firm Introduction: A justification / marketing of your allocated Asset
Management Firm. Information relating to the performance of the appropriate business
segment of your allocated Asset Management Firm and the skills / expertise of the team
members.
3. Market Insights Overview: A top-down analysis of the current macroeconomic
environment, from a global perspective down to individual countries, using primary data,
with forecasts derived from those same data.
4. Investment Objective & Portfolio Construction: The aim of the fund and the methodology
that describes the construction of the portfolio, and the sources of risk the fund seeks to
be exposed to and the character of the returns the fund seeks to achieve, along with a
time horizon for those aims to be realised.
5. Capital Markets Assumptions: The expected returns and the uncertainty around them for
asset classes in and across currency areas, as well as the methodology used to generate
them is a key aspect in portfolio construction for live risk situations. Communicating a
rigorous process to investors is an essential component of a fund deck.
6. Country Sectoral Portfolio Allocation: Methodology and frameworks adopted for capital
allocation across countries such as Black-Litterman, Markowitz efficient frontier, and
Treynor-Black, to cite a few. The sectoral exposure for each country should be outlined
and justified based on the model and parameters used. Comparison to relevant
benchmarks should be explored whenever possible.
7. Security Selection: Drivers / methodology used for stock picking for example bottom up
fundamental analysis, relative value, management analysis, factor exposures, thematic
exposures, and stock selection screens, among others. An outline of the methodology and
a justification should be provided. Appropriate justifications may include, where deemed
appropriate: industry whitepapers, academic papers, backtests run by the group.
8. Performance and Risks: Performance of the portfolios indexed from the start of the
semester to the most recent date should be shown. Appropriate performance metrics
should be used, and commentary offered. A performance attribution decomposition
should also be offered and commented on. Factor exposure / style regression can also be
used where appropriate. An appraisal of the alignment between fund objective and
realised risk/returns should be made. The group should consider the impact of the above
on the decision to rebalance.
Pitch deck: structure
Your asset management firm requires all Board presentations to follow a common format. Your
slide deck must adhere to the following structure (with slight variations being allowed and a
maximum of 2,000 words across the slides with 10% tolerance permitted; pitch deck should be
submitted as a pdf file; all the slides should be numbered):
1. Title page
o Includes logos, date, and title. 1
2. Table of Contents
o Includes all sections in the presentation. 2
3. Executive Summary and Situation Overview
o Summary of the presentation and key macro views; overview of the
investment process and key investment recommendations.
3
4. Team and Firm Introduction
o Firm’s track record in this space, AUM, league tables, team introduction.
o The team introduction should contain a photo of each team member and a
role/title that is associated with the work done throughout the semester.
4-5
5. Market Insights
o Charts and team commentary systematically describing recent global and
country macro performance, and outlook over the investment horizon.
o Views should be situated relative to I/B/E/S quartiles & consensus.
6-10
6. Investment Objective & Portfolio Construction
o Fund objective and portfolio construction process.
o Asset universe targeted including index specification.
11
7. Capital Markets Assumptions
o Expected Returns for currency area indices arising from market views and
methodology.
12-16
8. Country Sectoral Portfolio Allocation
o Target allocation given adjusted CMA’s, adjustments to optimisation
frameworks (e.g., Black-Litterman, Treynor-Black, Markowitz efficient
frontier) should be outlined and justified.
17- 21
9. Country Security Selection
o Describe a security selection methodology using one or a combination of
the methods including style, thematic investment, or stock selection
screen. Potential use of backtests in justifying the selection proposed.
o Sectoral exposure relative to benchmark should be outlined.
22-26
10. Performance & Risk
o Analysis the recent performance of the portfolios using, where
appropriate, performance ratios, performance attribution, and factor
exposure (among others).
o Analysis of the alignment between the risk realised and the objective
should be conducted.
o Rebalancing decision and justification should also appear here.
27-28
11. Appendix
o Use appendix slides to address further details that are surplus to the
requirements of the main slide deck but may be helpful in addressing
investor questions.